The Chums Consulting present the following recommendations to the board of directors of HTC for your review.
Challenge
HTC, while maintaining its current ODM business, will develop a strategy that leverages its core competence as a mobile phone manufacturer to create a premium HTC branded smart phone to achieve a 12% global market share of all end-user smart phones within 3 years.
HTC will form strategic partnerships with one or more operating system providers to ensure the design of the smart phone is tailored and optimised to the selected operating system(s).
HTC will reach customers and create a sustainable sales channel by developing a dynamic sales model that factors in the unique nature of different national and regional markets.
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The middle and low end models will be distributed internationally via a range of carriers to provide consumers seeking a lower priced smartphone with the ability to buy a quality HTC smartphone without changing their current carriers or contract options.
Solution
Based on the analysis of the market and given the potential alternatives, we recommend that the third alternative will be the best solution for HTC. A Porters analysis was undertaken for an assessment of the smartphone market which shows that there are two main forces to take into consideration: competing sellers and buyers. Considering these characteristics of the market we believe that HTC will be able to feasibly and profitably enter the smartphone market under its own branded phone.
In addition to the Porters analysis a SWOT analysis (Appendix 1) was conducted that highlighted an opportunity to form a strategic partnership with Google to customize the UI using their Android operating system (a free open-resource OS), significantly reducing licensing costs.
For a sustainable manufacturing future, HTC with use the revenue gained from the cost savings by using of the Android OS to further develop its R&D department to ensure it remains competitive and successful in hardware design. Moreover, as an established ODM company,
Besides, there are always many new entrants enter the market with the flow of labor and capital (Laudon, 2014, pp. 124). Although the requirements for the entry to the mobile market is relative higher than others, the number of new entrants are considerable while customers are more selective. As a result, those companies like the T-Mobile in this case that are lack of competitive advantages will be omitted by customers. As for the substitute, the development of entertainment tools decrease the desire of the mobile phone although there is little instrument can replace the mobile phone
HTC’s competitive position is not sustainable. In fact, the disappointing financial performance in Q1 2012 and the increasingly decreasing operating margin all points to a slower growth. Besides the statistics, HTC also face several imminent threats, such as the popularity of Samsung and Apple’s smartphone offering, the increase in competitors in the smartphone market, the shift in market, from operator push to brand pull, and the ongoing patent war with Apple. However there are also opportunities HTC can take advantage of to keep its competitive position. The opportunities are presented in the high growth rate of Smartphone Market, 61% in 2011, and the lack of well made Android Tablet.
* HTC has a diverse customer base (no one client held more than 10% of HTC’s business), which means that HTC is more risk resistant.
- The smartphone industry is very capital intensive due to high research and development (R&D) costs and expensive manufacturing facilities. This raises the barrier of entry and makes it difficult for small companies to enter. Many of the firms that compete in this industry have existing long-term contractual relationships with mobile carriers and benefit from their significant brand equity. These companies also have a great deal of knowledge and experience through economies of learning, which gives them a major cost advantage over smaller entrants. New entrants will have difficulty getting carriers to adopt their phones because many carriers are already in profitable deals with the large mobile phone manufacturers.
There are many competing brands of smart phones and Samsung has reported a decline of profits in 2014. Information from GSM arena shows than Samsung released 54 new phone models in 2014 , compared with 24 by HTC , 11 Motorola and 2 by Apple, leading to increased production costs and lack focus on a specific customer segments thereby losing some of its competitive advantage (GSM Arena , 2015).The lack of popularity of its own OS (Tizen ) and dependence on Google’s Android platform makes it vulnerable on google to develop an “ecosystem”. There are component integration issues as well as loss revenue from potential App sales (Strategic Mangement insight , 2015). Negative publicity from litigation due to patents are likely to continue as technology patents are vague and Samsung with is large portfolio is likely to infringe on some of the patents (Tibken, 2014).
Virgin Mobile is looking to launch a new cell phone service in the US marketplace, which is already a highly saturated industry. This analysis will help select a pricing strategy that attracts and retains subscribers, while still maintaining a competitive edge within the industry. The cell phone industry has many sources of customer dissatisfaction. For instance, customers’ distrust in pricing plans due to confusing usage rates; companies’ inconvenient and inconsistent off-peak hours; service provider’s hidden fees that include taxes and higher rates after minutes are used up, universal service charges, and one-time costs; and binding contracts by the service
Apple and Samsung are the major competitors in the smartphone field. We would, like to discuss why they’re leading and conclude which one is better. In the electronic industry these two companies fight are considered as the highest massive ever. They mainly clash for brand image and brand reputation but any consequences regarding this fight, the impact should be faced by both these companies in terms of brand reputation loss and also the loss of huge amount of money over the litigations We would like to discuss the following,
2000-2006: HTC made first time profits when it engineered and developed PDA for Compaq computer. HTC made an alliance with top hardware companies and became best hardware maker which led to release of the XDA, the first Windows based smartphone by collaborating with Microsoft. HTC operated in ODM business and Mobile operator business. HTC designed customized phones for Mobile operators based on their specifications which led them to gain attractive contracts from different Mobile operators. HTC contracts with mobile operators was reason for HTC’s early success. HTC relationship with Handspring to develop Treo smartphone facilitated the opportunity to learn about software and User-Interface design. By 2006, HTC was shipping more than 70% of the world Windows Mobile smartphones.
“We always keep on pace with the demand of our end customers, delight them through continuing maintain a close relationship between manufacturing, ongoing Research and Development as well as working closely with supply chain and outsourcing partners, to provide cost-effective, high-quality Smart phone, wireless devices and software to our customers, internationally. Constant Training and Development program and strong culture practices are held to motivate the employees, also, to ensure infinite innovation and creation come out from them. Most importantly, offer attractive
In this following report I will discuss the phone industry and analysed it in great detail. I will analysis the market structure and try and understand why the mobile industry falls to heavily oligopoly structure. I will highlight all the structures, however I will discuss in detail how, for example Vodafone can be incorporated in the porter’s five forces method to show how the mobile industry has devolved over the years and to understand if consumers are driven by the actual technology of the phone but if it driven more by style.
Motorola, famous amongst mobile phones, and one of the top cellular phone companies in the world till late 1990, later it was captured by the company Nokia. While writing this case we have thrown light on the challenges and problems faced by Motorola around 2006-2007. One of the ideas incorporated in order to recapture the market in the year 2006 was to slash the prices of almost all the cell phones which impacted the returns of the company. Motorola did announce in the year 2007 that they will revive shortly and would have the market share back.
With Apple being so far ahead of their competition, the only problem one can foresee in Apple’s future is how long they can sustain such innovation before they plateau. Apple does a phenomenal job at releasing their innovative products before their competition, but if their innovation cannot hold steady, this may lead to changes in demand for their products considerably. This can be seen with their release of the iPhone, the first successful touch screen cellular phone. Although people swarmed to the iPhone when it was first released because of its advanced technology, as the years have passed, other similar designs, including those with android and windows based operating systems, have drawn a considerable portion of the market. A clear representation of Apple’s attempt to regain some of this market can be seen when the iPhone was released to Verizon Wireless’ customers in
HTC Corporation (HTC) is a Taiwanese operation founded in May 1997 in Taiwan, which is one of the most influential, creative and leading players in global telecommunications with an n increasing influence in the industry’s future (HTC quietly billion, 2012). HTC’s portfolio includes smartphones and tablets powered by the Android and HTC Sense™ operating systems (HTC Annual Report, 2010). Focusing on smartphone market; devoting to innovation and design in the mobile phone industry; and committing to develop exceptional technology and products to cater for the diverse and exceed needs of users are HTC’s current brand strategies. In addition, HTC response to market changes fast and provides
smartphones, first dual-mode GSM/ WiMAX phone, first 3G Android phone, and first 4G LTE Android phone. Also, HTC Sense, launched in 2009, was a momentous breakthrough that revolutionized the mobile phone experience. Consistent innovative product launches also enhance the visibility of the company 's brand. The company 's significant R&D capabilities gives it’s a competitive edge to reach the market first with many industry leading innovations and features. Strong relationships with industry leaders The company has strong relationships with many technology companies and telecom service providers. It maintains strong long-term partnerships with technology industry leaders, including Microsoft, Google and Qualcomm, which serve as active labs of research and development and product evolution. For instance, HTC 's launch of the world 's first Windows Mobile smartphone and first Android smartphone is an example. These partnerships ensure that the hardware, software, and content management and delivery systems are united in seamless and intuitive ways. HTC 's products are currently sold through major carriers and local retail channels in major markets in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
India was lucrative since the Indian handheld market is booming and slowly becoming one of the world’s biggest and fasted growing markets. There being a lack of certain technology, gives HTC the opportunities to fill new market gaps. The company’s products are standardized for the global market, while strategies are adapted to respected countries. HTC seems to be efficiency seeking when looking especially at the Indian market. HTC is selling phones globally and in India they are trying to succeed through International Specialization. The company was benefiting at first, from the lack of top of the line mobile phones in the Indian market. Its future strategy is to keep this trend going. The company is trying to take over the top and middle class mobile phone market in India by being the first to offer the latest and greatest technology available and ignoring the lower class mobile market. It managed to do so already by introducing the first fully touch phone and fully Android powered phone.