Tisch
Analysis on the current competition of smart phone market in China.
Based on the current situation of smart phone market in China and the competitive advantage theory of multinational companies, this paper expounds the competitive advantages of three camps in smart phone market in China at present, and predicts the development trend of smart phones in the future.
Keywords: smart phone competitive advantage, intellectual property rights
I. Overview of the smartphone market in China
In recent years, the development of mobile communication in China has attracted much attention, and mobile communication is playing an increasingly important role in people's communication mode. With the continuous growth of mobile users and services in China, the market demand for mobile terminals in China has a huge growth space. With the accelerated penetration of the mobile Internet, smart phones and 3G mobile phones have become the fastest growing areas in China's mobile phone market, which is a new driving force for the growth of the mobile phone market. The outbreak of smart phone and 3G mobile phone market has changed the competitive pattern of domestic mobile phone market. On the other hand, the 3G mobile phone market is also developing rapidly, and the market share of 20 1 year is about 1 billion. At the end of 20 12, it is generally expected that the 3G mobile phone market will surpass the 2G mobile phone market and reach10.50 billion. Although the share of smart phones in China is only about 10% at present, the popularity of smart phones will prompt them to occupy the mobile phone market rapidly, and it is foreseeable that the future mobile phone market will be dominated by smart phones.
After China surpassed the United States to become the world's largest PC market, according to the shipment statistics, China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest smartphone market in the third quarter of 201/kloc-0. Data show that in the third quarter of 20 1 1, smartphone shipments in China increased by 58% month-on-month to 23.9 million units, while smartphone shipments in the United States decreased by 7% month-on-month to 23.3 million units. At present, the penetration rate of smart phones in China is about 10%, but it is mainly dominated by international multinational companies such as Apple, Nokia, HTC and Samsung. Except for a few companies such as ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo and Yulong Coolpad, the smartphone shipments of other mobile phone manufacturers, especially non-brand mobile phone manufacturers, in Chinese mainland are almost negligible.
With the rapid growth of smart phone market, the competition of smart operating system platform in the future smart phone market is becoming increasingly fierce. In the era of mobile Internet, the value of smart phones began to shift from hardware to software. Terminal manufacturers and operators can only take the initiative in the competition by effectively combining powerful hardware platforms with rich software services. At present, the operating systems of smart phones include Symbian, Windows phone, Android, ios and BlackBerry, and the most common ones are Android and ios.
Second, the competition of smart phones.
Price, operating system, 3G network, brand, distribution channels and popularity of mobile applications are the six factors that determine the future growth of the smart phone market in China. At present, when choosing a smart phone, users first consider the brand of the phone, followed by the operating system. So in the final analysis, the market competition of smart phones at this stage is the alliance competition after the cooperation between mobile phone manufacturers and background operating systems. After 20 1 1 for a whole year, smartphones at this stage can be divided into three camps: Apple +iPhone, Android+Motorola, LG, HTC, and Windows+ Nokia.
price competition
Price behavior is still an important market behavior in the mobile phone market. In order to win users, price is one of the attractions. However, although price is still the most important means of competition in the current market, major manufacturers are also launching fierce price wars for market share. However, at present, the competition in China mobile phone market has been obviously reflected in the competition of manufacturers' comprehensive strength. Competition through price reduction can not improve the competitiveness of manufacturers, but will reduce the profit margin to a certain extent. Price reduction is Nokia's second move. Olli-pekka kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia, decided to cut the price of smartphones, saying that we have noticed the fierce competition in the high-end market and saw the growth opportunities in the low-end smartphone market. But the problem is not just about adjusting product strategy. If you are not as fast as your competitors, it is also a kind of backwardness. Price reduction can only increase temporary sales, which is very unfavorable to long-term brand management. Because the relevant survey shows that although we are very concerned about the price, China users will not choose Apple because of the high price of Apple iPhone, or this ratio is very low. This invisibly increases the difficulty for Samsung and HTC to compete with Apple in the smart phone market in China.
Second, non-price competition.
1, brand competition of smart phones
At present, the market competition of smart phones is as legendary and evenly matched as clash of the titans. Because dominant brands have created myths in their respective fields. Apple, Google, Nokia, WINDOWS and other oligarchic enterprises that seemed to have no intersection before, because of the development of smart phones, could not escape the fate of wrestling with each other, and this war without smoke began to appear in a short time. Apple has accumulated endless wealth through the hot sale of iPhone and won a large number of loyal customers with its "Apple-style" marketing method. Apple not only guides the trend and fashion, but also permeates and assimilates the consciousness of consumers and players. The system application orientation advocated by it is extremely aggressive and inflammatory, which makes consumers believe in Apple's world, that is, only having Apple's lineage is an excellent "smart machine race", and many unshakable factors will keep it in the dominant position of smart machines.
2. Smartphones and intellectual property rights
Multinational companies use intellectual property litigation as a trick of business competition. Although it may sometimes be malicious litigation, the defendant enterprises are often helpless. Under the background of economic globalization and knowledge economy, knowledge capital has become the first factor of production, and whoever has the advantage of intellectual property rights will gain the competitive advantage, which has become the consensus of this era. 20 1 1 year, the global smart phone market staged a big battle around patent litigation and bidding in the field of mobile internet. On the one hand, Apple, the representative leading the global smartphone trend, and on the other hand, Samsung, HTC and Motorola, the three musketeers of the Android camp, which officially became the best-selling smartphone operating system in the second quarter of this year, while Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, LG, RIM and Huawei. This is an unprecedented commercial competition with intellectual property as the main background, and patents have become the main weapon in this competition. In addition, a typical case is Nokia's patent lawsuit against Apple. The patent dispute between Nokia and Apple began in June 2009 at 5438+ 10. In the lawsuit, Nokia claimed that Apple's iPhone smartphone used patented technology belonging to Nokia, but did not pay the license fee. Apple objected to this and complained to Nokia at ITC, claiming that Nokia's mobile phone products infringed on Apple's nine patented technologies, and requested ITC to issue an injunction prohibiting Nokia-related allegedly infringing mobile phones from being sold in the US market. 20 10, 10 In February, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple in the relevant courts in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, claiming that Apple infringed another 13 patented technologies belonging to Nokia. In March of this year, ITC ruled that Apple did not infringe Nokia's related technology patents. Subsequently, Nokia filed a legal lawsuit against Apple again. The result of patent settlement proves to some extent that Nokia still has advantages in mobile phone research and development and intellectual property rights. In the smart phone market, owning intellectual property rights has an absolute competitive advantage, but at the same time, we should keep up with the pace of the market, pay attention to market trends and choose more suitable marketing strategies. Only in this way can we be in an invincible position.
Third, the future development trend of the smart phone market in China
ABI Research, a market research company, released a report saying that Android will dominate the smartphone market within five years. ABI Research predicts that the market share of Android will continue to grow, and by 20 16, the proportion of Android in smartphone shipments is expected to reach 45%. Due to the well-known reason of waiting for a new iPhone, Apple was surpassed by Samsung in the global smartphone market last quarter, losing the top spot in the global smartphone market for a quarter, and was surpassed by HTC in the US market. However, with the popularity of iPhone4S, this situation is expected to change in the upcoming fourth quarter. And Apple's unique system, especially the promotion of brand awareness, may make Apple reap the benefits of fishermen. If Apple lowers the price appropriately, its iPhone sales in China market will definitely increase significantly. Therefore, I think that in the future smart phone market in China, Apple and the legendary swordsman are the most likely, and if HTC and Samsung want to win, besides the brand and other factors, whether they can win the price war with local manufacturers in China is also the most important. As for Nokia, whether it can maintain its leading position in the smart phone market in China under heavy pressure will ultimately depend on its performance based on Microsoft WP7 mobile phone. But judging from the performance of its WP7 mobile phone in the global mobile phone market, the situation is not optimistic. Therefore, only the success of Nokia's new smart phone strategy will make people build confidence in its long-term financial situation.
References:
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[2] Shen Xiaojing, Ren Licheng. Dynamic Competition Analysis of Mobile Phone Market [J]. Science and Technology and Industry, 20 106