Global Trade and Competition in Smartphones

Over the years, the mobile phone industry is progressing at a very high rate. Mobile phones are devices that help the modern society to stay in touch with their loved ones and to stay connected to the world. Since mobile phones enrich our everyday’s life, smart phone manufacturers are growing in terms of production as new phones emerge in the market. Apple is the leading smart phone manufacturer because of their products design and ease to use them. Apple has set standards in the smart phone market by introducing the iPhone, which is the most desirable communication device in the market today. The launch of the iPhone has revolutionized the mobile industry as well as creating competition to other phone manufacturing companies. An iPhone is a smart phone that enables the users to use the internet as well as facilitating the multimedia needs such as movies, photos, and music. It runs on the Mac operating system and this system makes it a computer thus meeting the customers’ expectations. IPhone is one of apple’s well celebrated smart phones that have taken the mobile phone industry

Worldwide demand for Smartphones was robust as a result of the availability of high-speed wireless networks, mobile access to corporate intranets, and the broad acceptance of e-mail and text messaging for both business and personal communications.  The Smartphone industry was projected to grow from 10 percent of the global mobile market to 30 percent over five years. The growth is clear when considering in 2007 that the US enjoyed a 100% increase in user numbers with a 53% increase worldwide. Sales of units are predicted to be 500 million for 2008 and 2009 globally.

The telecommunication industry that AT&T essentially created has undergone radical advancements, particularly within the last decade. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, approximately 15% of the world’s population had access to a telephone in 1999 but by 2009, 70% of the world’s population had mobile phone subscriptions (Nelson & van den Dam, 2010). Given the extraordinary explosion of mobile computing and wireless communications, continued advancements within the global telecommunication industry are certain. A number of trends drive this evolution including the advancement of devices and network access technology, changes

In today’s society the cell phone market is a huge competitive industry for cell phone companies. There have been studies that show that half the world has cell phone accounts. One attribute that defines the cell phone market is the idea of consumers is giving up their land line phones. This has caused a large influx of customers into the market for cell phones. As technology continues to advance, a variety of cell phones are developed and marketed to different areas across the nation. Cell phones are available for business and

Throughout this essay I will explain why I believe that over time the smartphone market will become much more focused on the platform of which the devices are built around and less focused on the actual hardware of the phones. I will be explaining these points based on my understanding of economics thus far in my studies as well as researching to find points to support my arguments I put forward throughout the essay. The smartphone market is currently being dominated by many firms making this a monopolistic competitive market. The market became very popular in 2007 when Apple who, in August 2015, was recorded with a market share of 13.9% (IDC: Smartphone vendor market share) brought out the iPhone. Apples biggest rival is Samsung and Samsung was recorded with a market share of 21.4% at the same time who currently is the leader of the worldwide market. Google created the Android operating system (OS) in which Samsung currently uses. However, Samsung is not the only firm that uses Android OS as the platform for their smartphones, Google provides the operating system to other firms such as LG, HTC and Motorola.

With the iPhone, unlike the iPod, Apple is not creating a new market it is “muscling the mobile market” (BBC). In fact in the UK, more than 80% of the households have already a mobile phone; however the mobile market is changing so the customers are not only buying a mobile phone for its functionality but also for the other features that it can provide such as the design for example. Since, there is an established market; there will be two main types of competition: one against the distributor and another one against the product.

This report investigates the smartphone industry in the United Kingdom and Germany between 2007 to 2015. I will identify which country is performing the best for the industry and will make a recommendation on which country the business start-up in. I will consider the industry by comparing the companies with the country’s market and state which one had done better. I will explain which PESTL factors influenced the industry for both countries and will explain why the economic recession impacted the industry.

The smartphone industry today is a highly competitive market in which major smartphone manufacturers utilize patents to increase their sphere of influence within the tech wing. Company growth and the bottom line may be the primary focus, but a secondary goal of stagnating competitors through tech control is vital to staying king of the hill. Intellectual property is defined as an invention or work that is the result of creativity. A company may apply for a patent, copyright, or trademark to protect intellectual property. A patent is essentially a limited monopoly in which the patent holder is allotted the exclusive right to make, use, and sell the patented innovation for a limited period of time. Infringement of a patent is the unlawful making, using, or selling of the patented device within the territories of the United States, during the term of the patent. The five primary requirements for patentability are: patentable subject matter, utility, novelty, non-obviousness, and enablement. If a patent is infringed, the patent holder may sue for relief in the appropriate Federal court. The patent holder may ask the court for an injunction to preclude the persistent breach and may also ask the court for an award of damages. In such an infringement suit, the defendant may question the validity of the patent, which is then decided by the court. The defendant may also claim that its actions do not constitute infringement. Patents are exclusively governed by federal law; the

Smartphone market is fast-moving and very high competitive due to intense competition between two big smartphone producers, Apple and Samsung. At the beginning, Apple dominated this market solely by introducing a new innovative type of smartphone by Steve Jobs that has revolutionized people lifestyle and mobile industry. A few years after launching iPhone, a new fast following competitor, Samsung came into this market, and their sales have outperformed Apple from the year 2011 (According to Chart A1 in Appendix). In term of developing their product, Samsung has created its products by following Apple’s technology since the beginning of producing its smartphone, therefore there are many patent lawsuits between them. Since Steve Job passed away, Apple has continued to develop its core competence, which is an innovation of new type of smartphone that could help them to take back their market share from its rival, Samsung. Nonetheless, the competition between Apple and Samsung will still continue intensively in the future.

Its expansion in China is allowing Lenovo to push its products into more emerging markets, slowly increasing the global profile for its Smartphones. This is ultimately the strategy Chinese firms should pursue, as it allows them to increase brand awareness of their Smartphones. Western Firms have seen their market share fall, because Chinese firms have been able to launch more products which are similar but have a few exclusive features for the Chinese market. The other big factor is price. Although Chinese mobile operators such as China Unicom subsidise the cost of products such as the Apple IPhone, the cost is still beyond the vast majority of Chinese mobile phone users whose average salary is around £5,000 a year. In 2011 smartphones costing less than $200 made up 40% of Smartphones, whereas for devices costing in excess of $700 accounted for only 11% of the market. This shows that the low-margin cheaper products made by Lenovo and other Chinese manufacturers are clear winners, over the higher quality products made by Apple and Samsung. It is also apparent that there is also a clear preference for the Google produced Android Operating System over rival ones such as IOS by Apple. The Android System between 2011 and 2012 has built a dominant market share making up 86.1% of the total Smartphone operating systems in China.

The global market of smart phone is increasing according to the need of the consumer

According to analysts China is now the biggest consumer of smartphones with 640 million customers up to date and growing. Such strict regulations can prove to be an obstacle in the short-term; however the market is too big to be ignored by all producers and is likely to see strict compliance with the government regulatory bodies.

Smartphones are part of daily life for most people. The technology underlying the smartphone is increasingly gaining sophistication and this has culminated in smartphone devices with more advanced features being released into the market every year. Some of the most dominant manufacturers of smartphones include Samsung, Apple, Huawei, HTC and LG. Market trends indicate that smartphone market is presently the most rapidly growing segment of the mobile devices market. This paper will investigate the factors influencing the supply and demand of smartphones, their effect on the equilibrium price, and the expected changes in demand and supply of the product soon.

This paper covers an overview of what mobile computing is, and its working principle. It also includes about the devices using mobile computing and the software’s related to mobiles. It touches some of the topics on mobile computing standards, protocols, generations and the costs associated with mobile devices. It gives some information about the limitations, benefits and associated technologies.

There are constant new developments in the mobile industry. As a result, cell phones are much more than tools for making phone calls. For example, we are using our mobile devices to surf the Internet, send emails or texts, play games, take pictures or videos, do on-line banking, comment on social media, listen to music, watch videos, download apps and much more. As they are getting smaller, they are becoming smarter. The mobile industry is not just cell phones, it also includes the iPod, IPad or any other device we take with us. This has lead to a huge competition between the mobile companies to have the latest technology. As can be seen by the way Apple is constantly updating the iPhone, and new Apps are being developed and the hardware is getting faster.