Developing and Managing Products

Apple is known for coming out with "new" products very frequently, but what exactly is a "new product"? Well "new" is relative to the market.
New-to-the-world products such as the iPad and iPad 2 create an entirely new market (the now booming tablet market).
New product lines produce a product that was not previously offered by that company. Apple rarely does this, as they usually create new markets with new technology, but you could consider their inital iPod release a new product into an existing market, as mp3 playing devices had existed by other companies but ultimately were popularized by Apple.
Additions to existing product lines are products that supplement an existing line. An example for this would be the iPod Shuffle, which was an iPod that was more affordable and took up less space than a traditional iPod to reach new target markets.
Apple more commonly improves and revises existing products. Every few months they come out with a new "generation" of iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macbook or iMac. Each new "generation" of a product typically has advanced technologically, has become sleeker or lighter, and faster.
Repositioned products include already existing products aimed at a new market. One example of this is the new iPod Nano which is small and touchscreen and often worn on an attachable watch strap. This is no longer just targeting teenage music lovers, but also young professionals by offering many useful tools including music, and the time at easy access in a sleek and stylish watch format.
The last category, Lower-priced products generally does not apply to Apple, as they create new and expensive products which are often imitated by competitors who produce lower priced products.

Then there is the New Product Development Process which has 7 steps:
New Product Strategy links the goals of the marketing department, the business unit, and the corporation. The Idea Generation includes many sources for new ideas such as consumers, employees, competitors, vendors, research and development and more. They often brainstorm and use focus groups to gather ideas. Then there is Idea Screening which filters out ideas which will not be successful for one reason or another and then issue concept tests for the remaining ideas. Business Analysis is then applied to those ideas which pass the concept tests to estimate financial aspects of the product. If the analysis proves profitable, the idea will move to the Development stage where a prototype will be created and its marketing strategy outlined. Most aspects of development are done simultaneously by different departments to save time and money. After development is finished the product is now Test Marketed. Test marketing involved introducing the product to a limited audience for a year or more. Sometimes simulated market testing is used to avoid leaking a product to the public or competitors before the product is officially ready to be released. Last but not least, the product is Commercialized and introduced into the market.

All products face challenges, but one growing problem for companies is producing products that will succeed globally. Apple has been very successful with this, and their products are in high demand all over the world. Without a doubt, Apple must have experts from around the globe to ensure this. Especially with touchy issues such as the internet and social networking, modified versions of products have to be introduced in certain parts of the world where restrictions on such things are very strong.