Ipod And Itunes

Quality, as seen from the consumers’ point of view, has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, which is a key factor in customer retention. Thus, more and more companies are focusing their efforts on providing their customers with superior quality goods and services to best satisfy their customers’ needs.

Up until the 1980s, product quality, in terms of manufacturing, has been the focus for many companies. However, with technological improvements, software has become a vital component in products, as an increasing number of products require embedded software systems in order to function (Abran, Khelifi, Suryn and Seffah, 2003). Thus, greater attention has been given to the development of software product quality. Subsequently, with increasing advancements in technology, companies found it harder to differentiate their products based on product quality. As a result, the focus shifted towards service quality, which has become the new competitive advantage needed in business strategies (Gummesson, 1998; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Brady and Cronin, 2001).

Although there is much literature which explores the two concepts, product quality and service quality, in depth, there is considerably less research on the combined effects of product and service quality. Examples of research investigating the integrated affects of product and service quality include the studies done by Archer and Wesolowsky (1996), Hansen and Bush (1999) and Wang, Lo and Hui (2003).

While the extant literature has provided some insights, more research is needed to investigate the combined effects of product and service quality on customer satisfaction, especially for products and services which are highly interrelated. Apple’s iPod and iTunes is chosen for this study because a customer, or owner of an iPod, can experience the integration of tangible and software products, as well as services in the form of after-sales