Research Paper on "Cell Phone Market Wars"

Research Paper 4 pages (1536 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Cell Phone Market Wars

History of the Cell Phone Industry

The cell phone industry has been growing fast over the years as the mobile phone devices are becoming popular among the people. The industry has over 6 billion subscription with China and India taking the highest subscription of over 30%. People are now finding it hard to live without this gadget, and this has made the industry grow incredibly. With the current trends, the industry is predicted to further register growth in the upcoming years. This industry is highly competitive, and the various companies keep introducing fresh innovations in the market which keeps the players on their feet Gregory ()

This has also made the mobile phones become obsolete after a shockingly short period, and there are always fresh markets for new products. The major companies in the market are Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG, apple and RIM. Each company has had its time in the market while some companies have been faced out as they could not keep up with the competition.

The use of mobile phones has increased steadily increased in the world with its users rising to 5.7 billion which is more than 80% of the world's population. In addition to that more mobile uses come up every day thus making mobile phones an important asset in the communication industries Maisto ()

. The industry has grown from simple handsets that could just send simple messages and make calls to very sophisticate smart phones that can run various applications which include sending emails, internet surfing among others.

Which Phone Started With the Largest Market Share?

<br />

Motorola was the pioneer company in the cellular phones industry as it introduced the first portable cellular gadgets in 1983. Its success was from the fact that its production was research based and that it was the first of its kind. It continued dominating the industry until in 1998, when Nokia took over the industry by being able access markets that Motorola had not been able to access. Motorola lost its dominance because it was incapable of developing better novelties that could meet the customer's needs in communication.

Nokia, a mobile company based in Finland, has been the leading enterprise in the mobile phone industry for over 14 years. The company earned this status by producing high quality handsets with long warranties. Nokia products have a high durability, are easy to handle and good resolution. In 1999, Nokia had a market share of 27% ahead of Motorola which ranked second with a market share of 17%. Nokia got 70% of the total profit made by the mobile industry during that time. The success of this company at this time could be attributed to its ability to meet the clients' requirements at that moment. It was able to come up with better technology than its competitors at each stage and this gave it a competitive advantage Gregory ()

. During its prime time, Nokia was under the leadership of Olila, who was a very influential and was a good team leader in the company. Under his leadership, the company was able to focus its operation on providing the best products for the markets. In the year 1992, when other companies in the industry were focusing in making smaller handsets and opening up business in other areas, Nokia focused its effort on rebranding and makes its products user friendly. This strength made the company to be able to penetrate markets that other companies could not reach. The company was therefore, able to dominate the low end and middle market sector. The company was still leading in 2008 with 36.3% market share followed by Samsung with a 16.7% and LG was third with 8.3%.

In the recent times Apple has also come up as a competitive company to Nokia and Samsung. Thus it has made the sale of smartphones increase greatly in the market, despite the growth in popularity of smartphones Nokia still remains the leading company in the cell phone market Maisto ()

Why Nokia is losing Its Market Share?

Nokia Company has steadily lost its position as the leading mobile phone company to Samsung and Apple who have come up with better smart phones. However, it is still leading in the shipment of mobile devices. Currently, the company has a market share 22.5% while Samsung market share has increased to 40%. This has been as an outcome of the company being complacent in its gains and position in the market. It had not planned for the radical innovations, tough competition and the high end technology it is now faces. The company has also failed to adapt the android OS which has left a market space in the market occupied by other mobile phone. The company has also failed in producing smart mobile designs to compete with those from the other companies. Furthermore, the company has lagged behind when it comes to innovativenessMaisto ( ADDIN EN.CITE 2012<

ecNum>38<

ecord><

ec-number>3838<

ef-type name="Web Page">12< itles>< itle>Global mobile statistics 2012: all quality mobile marketing research, mobile Web stats, subscribers, ad revenue, usage, trends.20122012February<

elated-urls>http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats

. The features that it is now introducing in its products have already been featured in other products from other companies. The company has also relied on its strong brand longer than it should have. The company has had a stronghold from the simplicity of its product. However, consumer tastes are now changing and they are now not attracted to simple product. The buying power of people is increasing. This has made the company lose its dominance in the urban market. Maisto explains, "Nokia Company is coming up with smartphone-like Asha feature phone last year alongside its Lumia smartphone line" in order to keep up in the competition and stay in business like its competitors )

Companies That Have Gained Market Share and Why

According to research phones running on android as their operating system are most popular among the customers. Samsung has gained fame especially in the Smartphone segment with android being the principal Smartphone operator system. China mobile is the leading Mobile phone operator. In the research it showed that 84% of clients preferred android phones while the least popular was Symbian operating system used by Nokia. As a result Samsung has steadily increased its market share. It is currently the leading manufacturer of mobile phones in high end market while Nokia leads in new markets. The reason why Samsung is ahead of Nokia is because of its android product; which has better features than the Nokia Symbian which is old-fashioned. Samsung has focused on providing its customers with innovative smart phones at a range of prices cutting across different operation system. This is what the mobile customers now need. The company saturated competing with Nokia directly in a segment where it had dominance such as the low end segment by introducing novel positioned mobile phones. The company also developed effective marketing strategies in these upcoming economies which made it possible for the corporation to launch it there. Samsung was also fast to form cooperation with Google in developing the android thereby coming up with low price smart phones. This relationship with Google has been a big plus for the company.

In the Smartphone industry, Apple's iPhone was leading at the last quarter of 2011. But currently Samsung has given a lead with 23.25% of the world market, Nokia with 20.8% while apple is third with 8.3% for the first quarter of 2012. This success was as a product of the business being competent in using its established market relationships and having a market of people of diverse economic status (1)

Conclusion

In conclusion we can say that, the mobile phone market is a highly changing one where technology keeps on improving. Furthermore, the industry has seen an increase… READ MORE

How to Reference "Cell Phone Market Wars" Research Paper in a Bibliography

Related Research Papers:

Cellphone Industry Analysis in Canada Research Proposal

Canadian Cell Phone Industry

The cellphone market in Canada is estimated to be worth $16 billion per year. For much of its existence, it has been dominated by three firms,… read more

Research Proposal 2 pages (670 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Computers / IT / Internet

---

Market Research and Strategy the World Term Paper

Market Research & Strategy

The world of marketing has changed. Today, we live in a much more global and technologically advanced social and business environment. Marketing executives can no longer… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1588 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

I'm Against the New Cellphone Technology Which Allows Anxious Parents to Monitor Children's Locations Term Paper

Cell Phones and Privacy

Is Big Brother Really Needed to Keep Track of our Kids?

This paper is taking the position that the use of Global Positioning System technology -… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1403 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

Computer What Is Going to Be Next Term Paper

Computer: What is going to be next?

The development of computers is a process that has been going on for the last 70 years or so. The nature of development… read more

Term Paper 10 pages (4223 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Computers / IT / Internet

---

Sirius Xm Competitive Landscape Research Proposal

Sirius XM

Shift from Dynamic Oligopoly to Monopoly

Sirius XM was formed through the merger of Sirius and XM Satellite Radio in the summer of 2008. The merger process was… read more

Research Proposal 8 pages (2650 words) Sources: 8 Style: MLA Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>