PRODUCT PROFILING -
PORTABILITY
A portable speaker is a loudspekaer that is housed in a big enough unit where it is able to be transported and moved with comfort and without difficulty. There are a range of portable speakers that come in a range of sizes, starting from little balls all the way up to boxes. Portable speakers are becoming increasingly popular due to their high quality sound and ability to be taken to places such as coaches, garden's, parks and used in home aswel.
Due to modern technology portable speakers are able to become smaller while maintaing a loud high quality sound. Technology has allowed drivers to be comined such as a midrange driver and subwoofer in one. This combination allows the drivers to take up less room which allows the speaker to be smaller and in some cases lighter.
Portable speakers are becoming increasingly popular with a younger audience and also people aged between 25 - 30 years old. Customers who are slightly older tend to but more expensive and better quality speakers than those bought buy teenagers. The older audience buy more expensive speakers as they have the money but also appreciate loud high quality music, where a younger audience prefers the loudness over quality.
Portable speakers are able to be made out of any materials, however the designers want the speakers to be light enough to carry so specific materials are used to keep the speaker light while still stong. Materials that are not used in portable speakers are: Natural woods, metals, some plastics. materials that are used in portable speakers are plastic; this is the most common material as it is easy to manufacture the product and is very light. Aluminum is used as it is light while it adds a touch of high quality to the speaker. Carbon fibre is another material that is being used in high end products as it has an amazing strength to weight ratio.
As the user of a portable speaker wants the speaker to move freely it is a nesesity that he speaker includes a rechargeable battery pack which has enough power to last a long period of time and give the drivers the correct power for them to work at the highest capacity. Connectivity of the speaker is a huge factor for a portable speaker. Firstly the speaker needs to be compatible with all modern day devices i.e. Apple devices, Samsung, Android and MP3 players. The speaker needs to cater for all of these devices as they are the most common found and all most everyone will own one of these.
Having a dock will not work as it wont have the correct connector for the device as each device has a different connection. To combat this the best way to connect a device will be via Bluetooth, This will allow alll the devices to work with the speaker and also makes it more portable as there are no wires trailing anywhere. Bluetooth does have its problems as it only covers a certain area such as 10 meter's. This could play a problem when the user is walking around with the device that is playing the music. This is still the way to go as it offers more freedom than a cable would.