With more and more of our target demographic shifting to mobile device

Question

E-mail from Director of R&D to Staff

With more and more of our target demographic shifting to mobile devices, I think it may be time for a change in our product development process. It’s been a scramble to keep up with the changes in the technology, and most of our efforts have been aimed at modifying what we already own. We’ve made online gaming accessible to the mobile operating systems, and we’ve modified our PC games to create mobile apps. What have we done—or what should we be doing—to design new products that capitalize on the features of smartphones and tablets?E-mail from Marketing Manager to Director of R&D

People think of their smartphones primarily as keep-in-touch devices. They are phones, but more and more, they’re used for texting and social networking. The easy Internet access is key for this. Tasks that require the player to locate information on the Internet and use it to complete an in-game task are much more practical than they were in the past. With built-in cameras and increasing video capability, sharing images is a common part of that instant communication. Perhaps we should be thinking about multiplayer games in which players share images of objects in their environment. The issue then becomes the game milieu. If we’re asking players to interact with their environment, fantasy settings are probably out.E-mail from Applications Designer to Director of R&D

The touch screen aspect of smartphones and, more and more, tablets is one we shouldn’t ignore. We can’t keep designing for a keyboard and mouse and then try to adapt that to a touch screen. We have to take advantage of this modality. While some clients will use a stylus, if we design an interface that requires one, we handicap ourselves. Every extra accessory dilutes the perception of mobility. Our goal should be to use the touch screen technology in creative ways. Data Insights (DI) Butler 2023-24       Click here for Details ]

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

1. Consider each of the following statements. Does the information in the three sources support the inference as stated?

Difficulty Level:   Hard

Explanation

Statement 1:  The marketing manager discusses the mobile web access and the built-in camera of most smartphones, while the applications designer speaks of touch screen capability.

Answer: No

Statement 2:  In his email, the director of R&D says the company has been modifying what it already owns to fit the mobile devices.

Answer: Yes

Statement 3:  No one in the email exchange speaks of game controllers specifically, and the applications designer expresses a belief that any accessory beyond the phone or tablet itself will, if required for game play, decrease sales.

Answer: No

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

2. Consider each of the following statements. Does the information in the three sources support the inference as stated?

Difficulty Level:   Easy

Explanation

Statement 1:  The marketing manager makes an allusion to fantasy games but does not give any indication what share of the company’s production would fit in that category. The marketing manager only notes that fantasy themes might be incompatible with the features of the device that he thinks ought to be the focus.

Answer: No

Statement 2:  None of the participants in the conversation mention security at any time. The applications designer sees a different focus for their development efforts, specifically touch screen, but does not object to multiplayer games.

Answer: No

dazzler97 · Answer

Q1 , statement 2 .... 
The question asks about not creating 'original' products. However the passage says they are not creating 'new' products. 
We may as well infer that the products were their 'original' products but just not new. Pls explain why this train of though is wrong. In this case, the answer should be 'False'.

Yeetyeti38 · Answer

The director is concerned with what the "company's...efforts...for the mobile device market" (which we can call the mobile team) generated, not the company as a whole. So the products that the mobile team worked on are original to the company, but because the mobile team only modified those products, the mobile team are not generating original products themselves.

mkeshri185 · Answer

But it doesn't say all the efforts are only diverted towards modifying the existing ones. It only says 'most of the efforts'. So how can we infer that they were not generating new products? May be they putting 90% effort and workforce in modifying old ones and only 10 in generating new ones and they indeed generated some new products which was very insignificant in number. that's why Director is saying most of our efforts go to modifying the old ones

PurvaG · Answer

I still cannot wrap my head around why the answer to statement 2 is yes, because again, seeing that "original products" does not mean "new products". If it goes in that line, the management wanted to develop new products, not original products, so why is the answer not layered around that? I think it makes more sense for it to be no .

Bunuel · Answer

Ignore this question. It's not good. Archiving it.

Yes	No
		The marketing manager and the applications designer share the belief that the key feature of mobile devices is their high-quality graphics displays.
		The director of R&D believes that the company’s previous efforts to produce games for the mobile-device market were not generating original products.
		The absence of a physical game control device on mobile technology is a major handicap to game developers.

With more and more of our target demographic shifting to mobile device

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

Yes	No
		The marketing manager believes that too much of the company’s efforts have been devoted to fantasy games.
		The applications designer is opposed to the introduction of multiplayer games that might compromise network security.