Mobile market is blowing so the competition. All major companies are struggling to rule the market anonymously. Undoubtedly Apple has left others behind, if not beaten, with its flagship product iPhone. Dethroning Apple’s iPhone may be too big to chew for few old market leaders like LG & Nokia, who are struggling to find the pace in the market now.
Together, Nokia, Samsung & LG controls 70%, a majority stack, in the mobile handset market, but their failure to stop iPhone who is marching with big boots has clearly indicated their future presence ratio in the market. Surely Apple has reduced the number of pages in their profit books which management used to see every year. However the gap between Apple and other mobile handset makers, specially LG and Nokia, has become so big which may force companies to re-engineer their mobile market strategy.
Just three years old iPhone from Apple get sold after every 13 Nokia mobiles. However the profit from each sale Apple makes is much larger than other mobile manufacturer. Besides trouble from Apple, LG & Nokia are also penalized from other local vendors who are stamping their presence gradually. Also, the value of Nokia’s brand — one of its key assets — dropped 58 percent last year, according to a global study by market research firm Millward Brown.
“None of them will emerge quickly from the trouble and it could get only worse before getting any better maybe in another year or so,” said Greg Noh, an analyst at HMC Securities.
“As long as they fail to differentiate themselves, it’ll continue to be Apple versus others and they have more difficult times ahead as competition will get only tougher with more producers joining the fray.”
Smartphones account for around 20 percent of the broader handset market but the sector’s 56 percent growth rate well outpaces a 10 percent expansion of overall handset market, according to Goldman Sachs, a key reason why the industry is attracting major vendors and companies across industries. Last month, Hewlett-Packard Co sealed its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm Inc, while many other PC makers, such as Acer, are trying to win a share of smartphone market on their own.
LG Mobile – A Forgotten Handset Champ ?
In current scenario LG, world’s third largest mobile manufacturer, looks very uncompetitive and may pull the chairs to have new thinking toads on it as company reported it may attract another loss making quarter.
LG, which has not launched any hit smartphones so far, is pinning hopes on its Optimus One, due this quarter. But it may be coming too late to the party with a mid-priced phone that likely catches up to rivals but won’t leave them in the dust.
While Samsung, LG’s local competitor is picking up mobile market quickly with its Android based Samsung GalaxyS phone, its time for LG to have an open door policy for its members across the world to pick up thinking caps. While Samsung is giving good fight to iPhone (among Nokia, LG & Samsung ), it will mainly depend on its service which can retain customers for long time with the company.
“Still, Samsung and LG need to develop killer mobile services featured only for Samsung or LG which have competitive and similar points with RIM’s email and Apple’s App store,” said William Lee, an analyst at Ovum.
A recent review on Samsung GalaxyS clearly indicates that company has a vision and movement towards direction where Apple wants iPhone to reach as early as possible. ( Read Samsung GalaxyS- much more iPhone wanna be ).
Helped by new Android-based top model Galaxy S, Samsung rose to the No. 5 position in the smartphone market in April-June — following Nokia, RIM, Apple and HTC — and is looking to win further share in coming months.
Nokia, who is also hunting for its Top brass replacement, is trying to retain its brand and market value by the launch of Nokia N8 which stands out among rivals with its 12 megapixel camera, but it has a slower processor than Galaxy S or the latest iPhone. It comes with a 3.5 inch touch screen.
In next coming few weeks, battle for berth in mobile industry will heat up when few new handsets would be launched by various local manufacturers which can catch an eye of people across the market.
