Eco 112

19 September 2012

ECO-112 Final Project

The firms this project will concentrate on will be Chevrolet and Apple since these are two firms that I use their products in my daily life. I drive a Chevy Silverado pickup truck to work every day and I use several Apple products every day, including a Mac notebook computer, and Iphone and an IPOD.

Chevrolet produces several types and models of automobiles. They include passenger cars and vans, sedans, sports cars and pickup trucks. The company’s car line includes the compact model Cruze and fuel efficient models for today’s environmentally concerned consumer including the Malibu ECCO and the Chevy Volt. The company also offers SUVs including the Equinox, Tahoe and the largest of the bunch, the Suburban. On the pickup front it offers Colorado, Avalanche and the aforementioned Silverado. The company also offers a full line of commercial trucks. In 2011 the company sold over 1.77 million vehicles making it the number two manufacturer in sales behind only Ford. (http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2012/01/us-auto-sales-by-brand-2011-year-end.html)

Apple is company that offers a full line of laptop computers, tablets, phones and music players. It is presently the highest valued company in the world with a value of over $655 billion. Recently released data shows that in the third quarter of 2012 the company had sales of $35.0 billion with a net profit of $8.8 billion.( http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/07/24Apple-Reports-Third-Quarter-Results.html) The company sells the most popular smart-phone in the world, the IPHONE. The laptops sales of over 5 million worldwide annually.( http://maccrazy.com/macbook-air-sales-jump-3x) The IPAD has revolutionized the tablet and the IPOD has changed the way people listen to music. Everyone either owns an Apple product or knows several people that do.

Factors Influencing Demand

In the market for cars and trucks there are several factors that help determining the demand for the...