Preparation

Research external environmental trends of 2009–2010.

Discussion

External environment trends are typically identified within major categories, such as political, regulatory, social-demographic-lifestyle, technology, and so on. When these individual trends collide or converge, they can emerge as mega-trends, or trends that have a major disrupting impact on established product and service offerings to defined or targeted markets.

Discuss the following:

What combination of trends did Apple see and take advantage of in the creation and launch of the iPad in April 2010? What did Apple leadership see in 2009 that led to the iPad’s success in 2010? This is not about describing features of the iPad; rather explore what external trends caused the development of these features. Be specific and support your comments with APA-referenced data.

Your discussion post should be a minimum of 250 words and incorporate at least one scholarly reference along with citations from one of the required readings.