Required:
1. Use the links in the Web Links for this case, your favorite search engine, and resources in
your library to learn more about Android and Apple as program delivery systems for smart
phones. Prepare a 300-word executive summary for Yash that describes each delivery
system you identify and outlines the current or likely near-term availability of each system
for content providers such as PFI.
2. Prepare a report for Yash and the PFI executive team in which you outline and analyze
the strengths and weaknesses of each content delivery system you have identified. Your
report should conclude with a specific recommendation regarding the suitability of each
content delivery system for PFI’s games. This report should be about 300 words in length
Chapter 2
.
C2. Portable Fun Instruments
Yash Gupta is the founder and president of Portable Fun Instruments (PFI), a company that has
had great success in the handheld game market. Its first products were dedicated handheld
devices that each offered a specific game, such as backgammon, checkers, or chess. As the
power of microprocessors for handheld devices grew, and the size and cost of those microprocessors shrank, PFI was able to build better and more complex games into its devices.
Today, PFI offers a wide variety of dedicated handheld devices on which users can play
card games, adventure games, and sports simulations, and solve various kinds of puzzles. Most
of the elements in the game displays are graphics, not words. This helps PFI sell the devices in
many different markets around the world without having to build separate interfaces for each
language. PFI’s game devices have retail prices that range between $20 and $40, but the
retailers and distributors buy them from PFI for prices that range between $4 and $18.
PFI is profitable because Yash has worked hard to keep development and production costs
low. Most of the programming is done in Bangalore, India, and the devices are built in production facilities located in Xixiang, China, and Penang, Malaysia. Although Yash has been
successful in controlling production costs, he worries about continuing to operate the company
with a long-term strategy that requires PFI to build a new physical device for each sale. The
large retail chains that have become PFI’s main customers are always asking for discounts and
reduced prices on new orders, and production costs are creeping upward even though the facilities are located in some of the lowest-cost areas in the world.
Yash wants to explore the potential PFI has for moving its games to other platforms. PFI
has translated some of its games to run on smart phones, but the results have been disappointing. Until recently, most smart phone users have been businesspeople who use their smart
phones for e-mail, appointments, address books, travel expenses, and other data-management
functions. These users are not avid game players, and sales of PFI’s games for these platforms
have not been strong.
Some of PFI’s marketing team members have been telling Yash about the success of
Apple’s iPhone and the online store for software that runs on that phone (called Applications for
iPhone). Apple shares the revenue earned from software sales on its site with the developers of
that software. Other team members have mentioned Google’s Android operating system for
smart phones built by a variety of manufacturers. Software for those phones sells in the Android
Marketplace, which operates in much the same way as Apple’s software store, sharing revenue
with software providers.
Yash has hired you as a consultant to investigate the Apple iPhone and Android Marketplace as options for selling versions of PFI’s games that will work on smart phones.
