Audible: Analysis

Audible Case Study The objective of this study is to analyze Audible's industry and competitive environment and the resources, capabilities, strategy and strategic alliance of the company. Donald Katz founded Audible in 1995. The company was formulated on the idea of Katz that there was a market for the provision of digital content via the Web that could be utilized for personal computer and mobile device playback.

Katz also had the vision of providing audiobooks in addition to the market and production of AudiblePlayer which was a device that enabled audio to be downloaded from the Internet. The device was a hand-held device. Industry Audible utilized the trends in technology to maximize the company's level of profitability. The company's business strategy was focused on selling monthly subscriptions that were fee-based with the AudibleListener also being a monthly fee-based subscription.

Audible subscriptions covered such as fiction, non-fiction, and even educational materials as well as audio editions of such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journals as well as many others. Competitive Environment, Strategy, Resources and Capabilities Audible became highly competitive in the online Web environment for the provision of audio content. Part of the strategy of Audible is that it did not have to spend high in the area of inventory.

The cost categories for Audible included: (1) content cost; (2) hardware cost; (3) costs of production; (4) costs of development; and (5) costs related to sales & marketing as well as costs related to general expenses and administration. Strategic Alliance The company aligned itself strategically with Microsoft, one of the largest investors in the company and holding the most shares of Audible.

The company Audible additionally entered into an agreement with Microsoft who wanted to lease the AudibleManager and AudiblePlayer from Audible for a sum of $2.0 million per year and the agreement included Audible ensuring that their technologies would play well with the Media Technology of Microsoft Windows. In addition, should Audible decide to sell the AudiblePlayer and AudibleManager, Microsoft had the first rights to either purchase or refuse to purchase these products. In 2000.