There are many people who are not happy with the current popularity of smartphones. They believe that it hurts young people. They also believe that many are guilty of inappropriate use of smartphones, such as texting while driving and using it during dinnertime (Archer 1).
Although users need to learn how to appropriately use smartphones, it can be argued that smartphones have created a positive impact on society. Some people are guilty of the inappropriate use of smartphones. However, smartphones make it easier to conduct business, prepare travel plans, communicate with important people, gather important information, and locate a particular address.
According to one commentary, “Anything can be abused, even the smartphone” (Archer 1). It means that people use smartphones in an appropriate manner. Nevertheless, one of the most important contributions of smartphones is the convenience of communicating with important people (Turkle 53). In the past, one has to use pay phones to make a call. Most of the time it is difficult to access pay phones.
Sometimes the user does not have enough money to use a pay phone. In other instances, pay phones are defective; therefore, it is impossible to make a call. A smartphone, on the other hand, allows the user to make calls to important people anytime he or she wants to contact them. It is very convenient to make a call using a smartphone because it is a portable device.
The user can carry a smartphone in public places and other locations where there are no pay phones. Smartphones also allow them to send instant messages, and it is a cheap way to communicate with others. Smartphones also allow people to organize the messages that they receive, and it helps them become more productive.
Consider the following quote, “According to another poll by SecurEnvoy, 70 percent of women have phone separation anxiety as opposed to 61 percent of men” (Archer 1). It means that a significant number of people must learn how to live without a smartphone. However, it is also true that the second most important contribution of smartphones can be seen in how it helps people conduct business with each other. In the past, business people need to meet.
They need a face-to-face interaction to close a deal. In the present time, the smartphone enables business people to talk to each other using a camera. The camera enables them to talk as if they are interacting face-to-face. Aside from the convenience of using the phone’s camera to see the other person’s facial reaction, the smartphone also allows them to send business documents with ease. They can also carry the electronic copy of the business documents with them using their smartphone.
They can edit the business documents even if they are on a taxi or in a public place. As a result, they can perform necessary tasks, even when they do not have a personal computer with them. In the past, businesspeople are stressed out if they discover an error in their PowerPoint presentation or Excel spreadsheets.
In the past, they have to go back to their office, or they need to carry a laptop with them. It is oftentimes difficult to make the correction in cramped places like inside the car or inside an airplane. However, it is easier to manipulate a handheld device like a smartphone.
The third most important contribution of the smartphone is the convenience it provides when it comes to gathering important information. Students are able to perform research while they are waiting for their parents to pick them up. They are able to complete their research requirements at a faster rate because they can do research even if the do not have access to a personal computer.
Aside from students, adults benefit from the smartphone’s wireless capability to access information. If they need specific information in order to finish a certain task, there is no need to go to the library or access a personal computer. It is therefore convenient to gather information using a handheld device.
Due to inappropriate use of smartphones, observers were quoted as saying, “As our culture becomes ever more tech savvy and tech hungry, phone-free zones will become more and more common” (Archer 1). It means that policymakers will have to create laws to ban the use of smartphones in some areas. However, it is also true that the fourth most important contribution of smartphones is in the convenience it provides when it comes to travel plans (Timmerman & Rasouli 29).
Those who missed their flights or encountered an emergency may have to stay overnight in a particular location. If they were not able to make reservations ahead of time they will have a hard time finding a hotel that will suit their needs. It is also difficult to make decisions while still in the airport. However, a smartphone can help them locate the hotel that they can afford. Even if there is no emergency, a smartphone can help travelers experience a hassle-free vacation.
They can use their smartphones to discover cheap hotels or cheap restaurants that provide quality service to their customers. In the past, people need to use the telephone book. They also need establishments in order to find out about their products and services. In the present time, users can download a specific computer application in order to help them select the best hotel in a given area.
In other words, there is no need to physically go to a hotel straight from the airport. There is no need to enter a hotel establishment and ask the receptionist about available rooms. There is no need to ask them about room rates because the information is displayed on the smartphone.
The fifth most important contribution of smartphones is the convenience it provides when it comes to locating a particular address. In the past, locating an establishment or an office building requires walking long distances. In most cases, the one looking for the establishment has only the address and nothing more. However, a smartphone that is equipped with the necessary computer application can provide a map that the user can utilize to search for the said address.
Using the said computer application, the user can figure out how far he is from the establishment that he needs to locate. In other words, it is easier to look for something if there is a reference point that can be used to determine the distance from one building to the next. Aside from the maps, it is easier to locate an address using a smartphone, because in most cases one can access the image or picture of the said building or establishment.
Conclusion
The inappropriate use of smartphones is the reason why it has a bad reputation. It is easy to understand the criticism about the use of smartphones while driving. It is also inappropriate to use smartphones while eating dinner. However, smartphones provide a convenient way to communicate with people, conduct business with people, arrange travel plans, gather important information, and locate a specific address.
In the past, it is expensive to make calls. In the past, it is not convenient to make calls using payphones. In the past, it is difficult to solve problems regarding business documents, and it is difficult to solve problems related to travel needs. These problems are resolved by having access to a smartphone. Using the correct computer applications, users can locate the best hotel that will suit their needs. A smartphone can also help them locate a specific address without the need to walk long distances.
The fast-paced technological development of the past years has both positive and negative effects on society. While people in the contemporary world are more connected to one another than ever before, there are widespread fears that the use of smartphones and other gadgets has an adverse effect on people. The influence of smartphone use on adolescents is a particularly hot topic today, with studies confirming that these devices can make young adults anxious and depressed and impair their development. In her article, Carlin Flora (2018) contests this notion by showing that there are several sides to the issue and that research on the topic far from conclusive.
The author begins by offering statistics on smartphone use, which allow understanding the scope and significance of the problem. Flora (2018) mentions that as of 2016, 84% of American households own a smartphone, and 92% of teens aged 13 to 17 reported going online at least once daily. The article then explores various trends and ideas from recent research studies and offers her interpretation of the results based on expert opinions and other sources of information.
For instance, Flora (2018) states that a study found that today’s teens are less likely to drink, smoke, and have sex, and although these trends are positive, some experts are worried that they reflect their infantilism. Some studies also reported the deterioration of mental health among young adult populations, but other research pointed to the unreliability of these conclusions (Flora, 2018). Furthermore, the author explains that it is virtually impossible to produce reliable research results due to methodological issues.
By showing the inconsistencies in research results, the author suggests that the use of smartphones on its own is not a dangerous behavior, but how teens use smartphones could play both a positive and a negative role. To exemplify this idea, Flora (2018) cites a study that proved the negative effects of passive social media use (“lurking”) and the benefits of active interaction with others on social media (p. 34). The article suggests that interactions with others help teens to develop socially, whereas comparisons that teens create while looking at other people’s pictures and the lack of critical thinking can cause depression and anxiety.
This aspect of smartphone use could actually be damaging to the brain development of teenagers because of increased stress hormone levels (Flora, 2018). Similarly, the lack of sleep because of heavy social media use could be a negative factor for teens because it proved to lead to poor academic performance and mental illness (Flora, 2018). The author concludes that while smartphone use itself does not hurt teens, there are some damaging behaviors on social media that could impact mental health and brain development.
Personally, I agree with the finding that smartphone use can be both beneficial and harmful depending on each user’s behavior. For example, some people develop an addiction to games on their smartphones, which can have a damaging influence if unaddressed. There are also people who acquire the fear of missing out due to heavy social media use, which makes them addicted to their smartphones. In both of these cases, smartphone use would be associated with increased stress and compulsive behaviors, which cannot be healthy for one’s mental health at any age. Based on my experience, I can also confirm the link between smartphone use and sleep.
I have noticed that checking social media or playing a game on my smartphone before bed makes it harder for me to fall asleep, and thus I feel tired the next morning. When I realized the connection, I limited my time on social media during the day and at night, which resulted in some of the benefits listed by Flora (2018). For instance, I found that my interactions with friends online became more positive and meaningful. Therefore, the information presented by the author appears correct.
Although the article was very informative, there were some gaps or limitations that could be addressed to improve it. First of all, I found the organization of the material confusing because there were only a few subheadings, and some topics did not follow one another logically. For example, there is a figure on page 34 that presents diagrams from a Dutch study, whereas the results of the survey are explained on a different page.
I think that it would be better if the author organized her research by significant topics, such as social functioning, mental health, brain development, and more. This would help to present such a large volume of information in a way that is more accessible for the reader.
Another gap that I highlighted while reading the article is that the comparison of teenagers’ outcomes of smartphone use with adults’ is inconsistent. At some points in the article, the author mentions that despite the news focusing on teens’ unhealthy smartphone use, adults can also suffer from it (Flora, 2018). I think it would have been interesting to learn more about this topic; moreover, this information could support the author’s argument that the news portrays the issue with teens’ smartphone use in the wrong light. Therefore, this gap would also enhance the article and make it more informative.
All in all, I believe that the article explores the topic of smartphone use in teens in great detail and provides reliable information highlighting the inadequacy of current research. The author examines all the key arguments on the topic, thus providing a comprehensive overview of evidence and explaining why scientists disagree on certain subjects. I agree with the information presented in the article because I experienced the same problems in the past. Still, there are some aspects of the article that could be improved, including presentation, organization, and scope.
Reference
Flora, C. (2018). Are smartphones really destroying the lives of teenagers? Scientific American, pp. 30-37.
One cannot stop wondering how life would be in the past, especially with the advent of modern technologies that have emerged in the world just recently. These rampant technologies are thought to be the mother of modern technological era where life seems to be easier and exciting than ever.
Modern generations, especially those who were born in the last two decades when the development of modern technologies was at its threshold, would find it hard to imagine how people managed to communicate with each other at a distance one hundred years ago. The Impact of modern technology has been felt in almost all sectors of life, including in the vast field of communication.
This is evident in the current world where the power of mobile phones and other mobile devices has completely changed the way we interact and communicate with each other in life. As a matter of fact, mobile phone devices, which are in use allover the world, have taken over each and every aspect of the current society.
As it would be observed, the mobile phone is arguably the most developed device today as far as communication technology is concerned.
From the bulky radio-like devices of the past to the slimy, handy smart phones of the modern day, mobile phone devices have come a long way to make our lives more comfortable (Raento & Oulasvirta 2009). In regard with mobile phone technology, this paper examines the growing use of smart phones in the world, and the kind of impact these types of phones have on people’s lives.
What is a Smart Phone?
As it would be observed, there are various definitions for a smart phone, depending on the phone’s model, shape, and features, among other key aspects. All these definitions, however, appear to associate the devices with computers, identifying them as mobile phone devices that combine both telephony and computing applications and services.
In this regard, smart phones are types of phones having in-built computer applications or features, which are normally characterized by high computing capabilities. Just like computers, smart phones are build into special features and applications that would be certain to make their users remain fully engaged to modern forms of entertainment as if they were near computers (Zheng & Ni 2006).
Some of the common features and applications of most smart phones include, but are not limited to, high-resolution touch screens, high-resolution cameras, video and media players, GPS navigation accessibility, web browsers, and high-speed access of data. Just like computers, recent versions of smart phones can run add-on programs and be able to update software, thus giving users the potential to be more productive in various grounds of accountability.
This special characteristic, however, makes smart phones more useful to current generations who are eager to explore and experience every bit of modern technology. The rapid abundance of new innovations in the mobile phone industry has added more exclusive features on these gadgets, making them the most popular electronic devices in the world.
Types of Smart Phones
There are different types of smart phones in the market today. These differences are mainly determined by aspects such as their models, in-built applications, the operating systems used by the devices, and the manufacturing companies behind their development. Some of the common types of smart phones available in the world include Apple Iphone, BlackBerry Tour, and Samsung Galaxy.
As it would be observed, all these types of smart phones differ greatly in terms of their functionality and the type of applications they use, among other aspects. Below are individual summaries for each of the smart phones types highlighted above, whereby their varied functionality and the types of application they use are of much concern.
Apple iPhone
Just as the name suggests, this is a 3G smart phone which is owned and developed by Apple Inc. The development of the iPhone begun way back in the year 2004, but it was not until at the beginning of 2007 when this superb mobile device was finally unveiled to the public by Steve Jobs, the then CEO for the company, (Low & Pittaway 2008).
IPhone models come in generations, and currently, there are six of these generations. One special feature which makes this device exclusive is its ability to allow users to engage their friends and family in live video chats directly from the gadgets. Other common special features associated with the iPhone include video shooting, accessibility of the internet, sending as well as receiving emails, playing music, and ability to receive visual voicemail.
The phone is enhanced by various add-ons that give users the ability to access and explore Apple Application Store right from the phone’s memory and the internet. The latest versions of the iPhone have come with modified features and improved applications thus giving people improved access of the vast world of entertainment. These include, but are not limited to, a widened display, an 8MP iSight camera, and a faster chip.
Coupled with their thin and light design, all these impressive features have placed the iPhone in the list of the most valued phones in the world. This explains the resounding sales of these phones that are observed allover the world nowadays.
BlackBerry Tour
This is a mobile phone device which is designed and marketed by Research In Motion. The device would make its first appearance into the global markets in the mid of 2002. One important thing to note about this phone is that, it is part and parcel of the 9600 device series.
Some of the key features associated with this phone include Operating system, GPS navigation, media player, 3.2-megapixel camera, GPRS/ EDGE/ GSM capability, QWERTY keyboard, 3G data overseas, high-capacity audio jack, Bluetooth connectivity, and a memory card slot, among other special features.
The Tour is also widely acclaimed for its outstanding battery life and access to the device’s Application World which comprises of a vast array of downloadable programs and software.
Samsung Galaxy
This is an Android smart phone which is designed and marketed by Samsung Electronics. First released in the market in mid 2010, Galaxy is the latest version of Samsung mobile phone series. Ever since its release into the global markets slightly over two and half years ago, the gadget has won several compliments and awards from various associations, possibly owing to its unique features and specifications.
This recognition has fetched Samsung Galaxy series an international acclaim, thus making them one of the most sold smart phones globally.
Some of the common in-build features of Samsung Galaxy include a multi-touch capacity screen, microphone, QWERTY keyboard, ambient light sensors, headphone jack, both rear and front facing VGA cameras, memory card slot, accelerometer, FM radio, and magnetometer. Samsung Galaxies are also known for their support for various multimedia file versions and formats.
Impact of Smart Phones on People’s Lives
As it would be observed, the impacts of these modern devices on our lives are far-reaching. Survey shows the global demand of smart phones to have risen steadily over the last few years. In fact, the sale of these stylish phones is reported to have outstripped that of conventional phones by large margins in the last two years.
As more people across the world continue to acquire smart phones, the gadgets are becoming essential equipments in people’s lives (Barkhuus & Polichar 2011). No wonder, the devices have become a darling for both the young and adults, with teenagers making a significant impression as the largest possessors of the smart phones.
Unsurprisingly, this is owing to their appetite on addictive social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, among other engaging applications that are accessible through the in-build applications of the smart phones. However, this wide usage of smart phones across the world comes with both positive and negative impacts on humans.
Positive Impacts
The use of smart phones has helped to break the barriers of distance for international communication through various interactive applications such as the Web and Bluetooth. For instance, people are able to chat with their families and friends directly through interactive applications in their phones.
Some of these social platforms that could be accessible from the smart phones include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups, and Google Plus, among other channels of interaction. All these internet applications plays a key role in people’s lives, by enabling them to communicate effectively and exchange important information thus staying connected with each other, irrespective of the geographical barriers between them.
In just another perspective, the use of smart phones positively affects one’s productivity in the work place through a number of ways. For example, people can always load their devices with important mobile applications that would allow them work efficiently without having to rely upon their computers or any other assistive equipment.
Some of these applications include Microsoft Publisher, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Excel, all which play a very important role in our day to day lives in the work place. Two very important aspects about these applications are that; they are user-friendly and inexpensive. This, however, makes them a more convenient way of approaching work.
More importantly, smart phone users can also use online systems such as IBackup and Dropbox to save important information and documents (Zheng & Ni 2010). Apart from working as a backup security for data incase of computer crashes, these systems are also convenient in enabling people gain access to their work-related information while on the go, using their smart phones.
Smart phones with QWERTY designs such as the BlackBerry can also be very important, since they can allow users to type important reports and emails while travelling, even in the absence of their desktop computers or laptops. As a matter of fact, these applications have helped to maintain workforce mobility for regular travelers.
This wise usage of smart phones in handling work-related task away from the office is always certain to make people productive, even while they are stuck in traffic jams or waiting in cues in banks.
Another positive impact of smart phones is that, they have become all-in-one entertainment tools for many people allover the world, owing to their capability to support all types of multimedia format files. People have also used the power of smart phones to share photos and video, among other types of fun stuff, thus keeping each other motivated and entertained.
Negative impacts
While it is true that the constant usage of smart phones has helped to improve our lives in various ways, it has also brought bad effects to people’s lives. For instance, reliance on these devices, especially by the teenagers, has contributed to inappropriate use of time as a result of addiction to the devices. The wide array of applications, particularly games, music, video, and the Web, do attract users for entertainment purposes.
This, however, would contribute to wastage of time as people embark on searching for unproductive material and stuff. Relentless use of smart phones has also been linked to a number of health problems (Guo & Wang 2004).
Some good examples here would include muscle disorders, tendons, and spinal disks, resulting from repetitious use of smart phones. The habit of typing on the tiny keypad of a smart phone can also present greater risks of tearing hand muscles.
More importantly, constant use of smart phones has also been linked with marriage issues in modern societies.
Some of the common aspects and habits arising from usage of these interactive devices, and which have contributed to the above issue include; their fast data processing abilities which enables people to send messages unnoticed, the discreet nature of call and messaging systems of the phones, and increased opportunities enabling people to remain attached to social networking sites for long durations through the devices.
Based on these observations, it is arguably clear that smart phones are both a blessing as well as a curse to modern generations.
List of References
Barkhuus, L & Polichar, V 2011, ‘Empowerment through seamfulness: smart phones in everyday life’, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, vol. 15 no. 6, pp. 629-639.
Guo, C & Wang, H 2004, Smart-phone attacks and defenses, IEEE, New York.
Low, D & Pittaway, A 2008, ‘The ‘iPhone’induction-a novel use for the Apple iPhone’, Pediatric Anesthesia, vol. 18 no. 6, pp. 573-574.
Raento, M and Oulasvirta, A 2009, ‘Smartphones An Emerging Tool for Social Scientists’, Sociological methods & research, vol. 37 no. 3, pp. 426-454.
Zheng, P & Ni, L 2010, Smart phone and next generation mobile computing, Morgan Kaufmann, Burlington, Massachusetts.
Zheng, P & Ni, L 2006, ‘Spotlight: the rise of the smart phone’, Distributed Systems Online, vol. 7 no. 3, pp. 27-33.
The growth of the smartphone market is extraordinary. The landscape of such market is changing every year, with the introduction of new premium models, and price decrease of old ones. According to research firm IDC, “the smartphone market grew 57% over the past year as folks ditch their old flip-phones for more powerful handheld computers” (Lendino, 2010). Smartphones can be defined as mobile phones, which are run on an operational system (OS), for which exists a software market that expands the capability of the device. Additionally, smartphones are characterized by expansive communication capabilities, in addition to making voice calls, such as global positioning, wireless communications, mobile internet, and others. In essence, smartphones are miniature computers with relatively small displays, and which can make calls. Considering the characteristics of such products, it can be stated that the main aspects of smartphones revolve around their functionality. Considering the growth of the demand of the smartphone market, the present report provides a description plan for an online smartphone store, in which users will be able to purchase different brands of smartphones. The report outlines the objective of the website, its target audience, structure, and preliminary design layout.
Purpose
The purpose of a commercial website, namely an online store, revolves around the same aspect which is selling products. In that regard, the present online store is no different. The main difference can be seen through the niche that the website will attempt to occupy. From observation it was found out that the majority of online stores merely provide a list of the products specifications, usually taken from the website of the manufacturing. Users who search for a review of such product refer to professional websites who compile a score. The present website will attempt to provide a combination of both, an online store and a detailed description of the product and a professional review of its functionality. Thus, the goal of the website is to provide a showcase of smartphones devices with rich description, reviews, and users feedbacks, which can be searched through different parameters, and subsequently purchased and ordered for delivery online (Shelly et al., 2006). The objectives of is developing an easy to navigate search system for selection of smartphone. Integrating reviews of devices will provide a rich description of the product, which shall surpass simply listing their technical specifications. Web 2.0 capabilities will be integrated into the website providing the opportunity to publish own feedback of the smartphone, according to predetermined criteria, including pros, cons, and overall experience, and a five star rating. The description of the product will contain a buy/add to cart option enabling the purchase of the smartphone.
The Target Audience
The purpose and the objective of the website indicate that the main characteristics of customer revolve around their acquaintance with smartphones, technically savvy, rational, who likes to gather as much information as possible about a product prior to the purchase. A typical visitor is a male aged, over 20 of age, who carefully plans his purchase, and knows what he will be using the smartphone for (Rudl, 2008). Such customer knows the difference between a mobile phone and smartphone, and he likely already owns or owned a smartphone in the past. Females are also constitute a part of the target market (Be, 2010).
Storyboard
The main flow of the website can be seen through the following site map, which sections can be distinguished through their categories, which are global sub navigation and utility links. The organizational structure selected for the online store is a combination of a database and hypertext model. The database model will be represented through an entry for each product on the website, for which the fields of the database record will be used in the search and the categorization of the results. The following figure is a representation of the website’s storyboard (Web Design & Development, n.d.). It should be mentioned that the color scheme in the figure is not a representation of the website’s color scheme, rather than a rough draft approximation of the relationships between various elements.
Site map
Home –Most Recent
Record
Top Rated
Results
Record
Top Sold
Results
Record
Smartphones –Most Recent
Record
Results
Record
Accessories -Most Recent
Record
Results
Record
Glossary –Alphabetically ordered
Record
Results
Record
Shopping Cart –Cart content
Ordering
About Us
Contact Us
Send a message
Site Map
Disclaimer
The links on the site map can be categorized according to their nature and task within the document. The first category includes global navigation, which are links that can be viewed on every page of the website (Excellent Works, n.d.). Such links in this case are comprised of home, smartphones, accessories, about us, glossary, and shopping cart. Utility navigation are also link which can be viewed on every pages, however, they are not as important as global navigation, and are comprised of links such as contact us, site map, and disclaimer. Finally, sub-navigation, are links which are related to a content within a primary pages of the website, and can be seen on such particular page only (Excellent Works, n.d.). Sub-navigation links include in this top rated and top sold, ordering, and send a message.
The Homepage
The purpose of this webpage is to attract the attention of the visitor providing a glimpse of the best sellers of the website along with the most popular and most recent additions to the inventory. The pictures of the smartphones are large and serve as an introduction to the website and aims at making visitors strive to explore the website further. The link presents the sub-navigation link represented with other sorting categories, the rating of the product, i.e. and accumulated rank provided by users, and the most sold, provided by the company’s reports. Clicking on the sub-navigation links, either top rated or top sold, will change the corresponding content of the page into showing the top rated results for smartphones and accessories.
The images include the logo of the Smartphone Store (the name is subject to changes and modification), which will be placed at every page of the website. The global and the utility navigation on the page will be standard for all pages on the website. When rolled over the utility links on the website, the text will turn red indicating along when the page is opened on the corresponding link. Clicking on the logo will always lead to the home page of the website. The logo will not change color, where the only indication that the logo is clickable is the change of the shape of the cursor when rolled over, being change into “link select cursor to facilitate navigation (Reynolds, 2004). The content will be written with black font on a white background. The standard text font for all the texts on the page is Arial, black, for both header and content. The links for the records of the items and the utility navigation are underlined and dark blue. Any glossary item in the text of the content will link to the corresponding entry in the glossary page.
Smartphones and Accessories
The purpose of the smartphones page is to allow the customer to customize parameters and select smartphones according to the chosen preferences. Prior to any customization the page will open on the list of smartphones sorted according to their addition to the database. Searching based on the selected parameter will reveal a list of results, clicking on which will lead to a full entry. The list of parameters to add can be modified and added, according to the entries in the database. The manipulation of the parameters and the search button can be seen as the sub-navigation for this page. The style of the page remains the same. Clicking on any item in the list will open the corresponding entry for the smartphone.
When selecting a record they will be redirected to a page of this entry which contains all the information on the smartphone, along with the buy button that will automatically add the item to shopping cart. The accessories page will be designed in the same way and the same layout. The differences might be seen in the same of the categories that will be used to filter the results of the search. Similarly, the same fonts and colors will be used in the page. The page of an entry of an item will consist of an image of the4 product, smartphone or accessory, a text listing the specifications of the product, a list of links of products reviews, which contains a verdict of the device and a score, and users’ feedback on the device. If a video review is available for the device it will be embedded in the page, linked to a video hosting service or the website of the original.
Glossary
The purpose of the glossary page is to provide an explanation for any technical term that the inexperienced user might encounter reading the specifications of a smartphone. The sub-navigation on the page is represented trough the alphabet which leads to the page that contains corresponding terms and their explanation. Hyperlinks from the description might be used to lead to the explanation from other pages as well. The page uses the same style for global and utility navigation throughout, as well as the color scheme and fonts. The layout for the glossary page can be seen in the following graph.
About Us
The about us page contains a single screen that contains information about the company – the owner of the website. The amount of information contained depends on whether the company is private or public. For a private company, the information contained might be limited to the main goal, the vision, and the purpose of the organizations, a brief historical background, and an overview of the company’s accomplishments to date. Additionally, the website might contain information about the organizational chart of the company and founders and/or executive officers. The page does not contain sub-navigation, while global and utility navigation keep the standard style of the website.
Shopping Cart
Finally, the last global navigation link is devoted to the main aspect of an online store, the purchase process. The page provides a list of the items added by the customer to the shopping cart, allowing modifying the numbers of items added, as well as deleting items. The order button is the only sub-navigation used on the page, pressing which will lead to completing the transaction, according to the engine used for the online store.
Utility Navigation
The purpose of utility navigation can be seen through providing complementary information which does not affect the functionality of the website. All of the navigation links are informational and contain a single screen. The exception can be seen through the Contact Us link, which main purpose is functional rather than informational. The link contains information on the way the company can be contacted, as well as a form that enables the user to send a message to the webmaster or any other department in the company.
Conclusion
The present report laid out the plan for an online smartphone store. The growth of smartphone users, specifically in Australia indicates that there is an opportunity to utilize in the smartphone market. The differences between traditional mobile phones and smartphones outline the main characteristics of typical smartphone users as well as a typical website customer. The report outlined the way the information will be presented on the website as well as the main design and color scheme used.
References
BE. 2010. RESEARCH CONFIRMS: Smartphone syndrome hits Australia. Web.
EXCELLENT WORKS. n.d. Web Site Story Board and Script Document. Web.
LENDINO, J. 2010. How to Buy a Smartphone. Web.
REYNOLDS, J. 2004. The complete e-commerce book : design, build & maintain a successful Web-based business, San Francisco, CMP Books
RUDL, C. 2008. Profile of the average internet buyer. Web.
SHELLY, G. B., CASHMAN, T. J. & KOSTEBA, L. 2006. Web design : introductory concepts and techniques, Cambridge, MA, Course Technology.
Hayun, Sam & Gavin (2009) define a smartphone as “a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone”. Looking at smartphones today, this definition holds a lot of truth compared to a few years back.
The first smartphones can be easily compared to the regular phones in the market today as they had even less features than what a regular phone has. As recorded by (Hendricks, 2010), “the first smart phones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile phone or camera phone”. These functionalities have been greatly modified now to suit the different needs that arise in the current markets.
Like Dziri (2011) explains, “today’s models also serve to combine the functions of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units”. The modern smartphone is constantly undergoing change and upgrade, sometimes even making it hard for regular consumers to keep up. Technology providers and designers are constantly doing their best to outdo each other and ensure supremacy in the markets. The OS industry is today arguably the most competitive industry.
Functionalities available in smartphones continue to increase even as the needs in the market continue to evolve. “Modern smartphones typically also include high-resolution touch-screens, web browsers that can access and properly display standard web pages rather than just mobile-optimized sites, and high-speed data access via Wi-Fi and mobile broadband” (Dziri, 2011).
The rate at which the devices change and new functionalities arise all prove the vibrancy in the markets. New efforts, functionalities and designs continue to pour into the market, even as consumers remain spoilt for choice.
Experts argue that the trend is expected to continue making the smartphone industry among the most competitive. Even as this happens, it is expected that pressure from the markets and the rate at which trends change in the markets may force some of the players out leaving three of four major players in the market in the long run.
Aims
This paper is aimed at establishing factors that influence the decisions of the youths o acquire a smartphone.
Objectives
Understand the background of the smartphone industry
Analyze the smartphone market trends and the role played by the youths in this marekts
Understand reasons why youths buy smartphones through a survey on 100 people
Explain the significance of the study
Hypothesis
Different factors play different roles among youths in the process of deciding on which smartphone to get. They can be broken down as follows;
Social factor:
People are buying smartphones because their friends have smartphones while they do not need it
Family factors:
People are buying phones because of their positions and status
Role models buy smartphones to be a good influence to their children and younger siblings
Personal factors:
People are buying a smartphone because they think they are cool
People refuse to buy smartphones because they think they are too old and the phones are childish devices
People buy smartphones because their jobs require them to have a smartphone all the time
People who buy a smartphone do so to change their personalities
People who are up-to-date with technology and science are more likely to obtain a smartphone
Literature review
History of the smartphone industry
Like Hayun, Sam & Gavin (2009) record, “the first smartphone was the IBM Simon; it was designed in 1992 and shown as a concept product that year at COMDEX, the computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Navada”. The phone went on sale in 1993 with features considered as highly advanced at that time.
It contained an address book, a calendar, a note pad, calculator and world clock, among other basic applications in today’s phones. By today’s standards, the phone would be considered as very low-product since it lacked the ability to download any applications and also lacked a camera.
In 1996, Nokia released its first smartphone with communicators characterized by a clamshell design. It had a QWERTY keyboard and an operating system that allowed its users to have email communication. The operating system which was based on GEOS V3.0 also allowed text-based web browsing. The company released better smartphone models 1998 and 2000, each with a better web browsing capability than the former design.
The Erickson R380 was a significant step in the smartphones industry. Other than having a touch-screen, it was the first phone to use an open operating system. The device used the Symbian OS and was the first to be marketed as a smartphone. It was designed to serve as a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant. It was appointed to one of the most significant advances in technology in 1999 and has been considered as a pacesetter in the industry. The company later introduced the P800 which was a slight modification of the R380.
Since then, the smartphone industry has experienced a lot of vibrancy and competition. Nokia launched the N95 in 2007 with features that would become standard on high-end smart phones.
They include a Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, LED flash for the camera and TV-out, among other features. In 2010 the company launched the Nokia N8 smartphone with a front-facing VGA camera, allowing users a smaller device for videoconferencing. The device was the first one to use the Symbian3 OS and featured a 12 megapixel camera.
Other players in the field include Apple Inc., a company that is credited with setting the pace for innovations and products in the industry. Using its iPhone products, the company has tine and again exceeded the markets’ expectations by being able to anticipate the markets’ needs and working towards having new solutions each time.
“It is estimated that about 35% of Americans have some sort of smartphone, a figure which reveals that the market is spreading fast and there is also more capabilities for smartphones because of this spread” (Farell, 2011). The value of a smartphone is today decided based on its operating system. This has further created a lot of competition among different OS developers. The Android currently ranks as the best operating system for smartphones.
Background of the industry
“The smartphone industry’s rapid adoption seems to be going on and on and, at least for the time being, the end of this growth is not on the horizon” (Hendricks, 2010). The trend has been very encouraging in the last five years and experts point out that the current rate of growth is no news at all.
Taking a look at some of the statistics provided by different stakeholders, it is possible to have an idea on where the industry is headed to. The ABI research records that in the second quarter of 2010, smartphones made up 19% of all the phones shipped. The figure represented a 12% growth compared to the first quarter of the same year. Comparing the results with those in 2009, there was a 50% increament of smartphones shipped.
Putting into consideration the revolution that is unfolding in both the software and hardware sectors, things are bound to get better. These expectations are further backed-up by other factors such as the amount of money being spent by investors in the industry. For example, Microsoft is spending a billion dollars to stage a comeback with the Windows Phone 7 Platform. The presence of high quality brands such as Verizon-branded Apple iPhone only serve as a catalyst for bigger developments in the already vibrant market.
The battle of supremacy among the operating systems developers is now considered a matter of life and death. In realization that there is no room for everyone, most observers argue that the industry needs to boil down to perhaps three operating systems. That way, the industry will have more defined structures of growth.
The current standing with the mobile operating systems reveal a tough battle between the BlackBerry OS, Apple’s iOS and Android by Google in the US market. According to (Hayun, Sam & Gavin, 2009), “the momentum is with Android, while Apple continues to make quite a few dollars with their devices and these two operating systems are seen as the major players”.
Trends in the smartphone industry
Enterprise mobility in any industry is highly influenced by trends in that industry. According to Lee (2011), “emerging developments in the smartphone industry are exoected to bring about new trends for enterprise mobility management, with formerly popular business smartphone options being replaced by new products from Google and Apple”. In the corporate markets, the Blackberry brand seems to be taken more seriously than other brands.
Costs management in business further affects the way smartphones are appreciated in the industry. According to Lee (2011), “the ‘bring your own device’ philosophy continues to be adopted by the enterprise due to major cost savings, the consumerization of corporate IT, and mobile business applications”.
Smartphones providers will need to evolve based on business’ cost management objectives, by ensuring a richer user experience, and reduce the need to get a new device every so often. They will also need to ensure that their devices drive employee adoption and improve enterprise mobility.
Furthermore, developers need to ensure that the benefits of a smartphone are as diverse as possible to increase their usefulness in the market. The Android smartphone is viewed as one of the brands that have been able to offer diverse solutions to different needs in one device. In fact, a report by Institutional securities as quoted in Lee (2011) predicts that the brand will beat many other brands to occupy nearly half of the market share in the next five years.
In order to attract the youths, smartphones need to be designed in a way that meets their needs. May people below the age of 35 years of age will be particular about fun while using a device, entertainment and relevance in their day to day transactions. Designers will need to adapt to the needs of their end-users, in this case the youth.
As their needs get more and more complex, research and development will be critical in ensuring that a product is relevant in the market. According to Dziri (2011), “the rapid deployment of cloud based pre-packaged mobile applications, along with the scalability needed by the enterprise, makes these pre-packed mobile solutions a preferable alternative to the resource intensive alternative to writing custom mobile applications in-house”. Such benefits obviously allow young people, especially those in business to focus on optimizing resources.
Some of the trends that will shape this industry in the coming years are outlined below:
Litigation and patent assertion
The smartphones industry has attracted a lot of competition due to increasing sales volumes and stable consumer price of the product. “Increasing competition has resulted in greater use of patent assertion by incumbents to protect markets and create new revenues streams” (Hendricks, 2010).
Existing players and new market entrants have all has a share of trouble in an industry where court cases due to patent issues have become a norm. New players are especially affected as they face major patent challenges from established players such as Motorola. Non-practicing entities have also posed significant challenges to new entrants due to royalties and other related issues. The situation is currently very messy as a result of many suits and counter-suits being filed almost every day.
Product convergence such as GPS, imaging and other functionalities have made the situation even more volatile since they create too many licensing opportunities. This trend is expected to affect the market and trends in the industry, especially in implementing functionalities that are most attractive to the young people such as imaging.
Shift from emulation to innovation
China is one of the nations that invest billion of dollars each year to research and development in the area of science and technology. The country is currently looking into investing more into an innovation revolution when it comes to smartphones. By the year 2008, more than 70% of wireless patent fillings available in the country and other parts of the globe were Chinese domestic innovations. This represented a five-fold increment from the previous years.
In the same year, the number of patents filled in the US by Chinese inventors tripled. Building on this trend, Chinese major companies in the industry such as ZTE and Huawei are expected to set the pace in developing products that meet the increasing sophisticated needs of the markets.
The younger customers are especially expected to put a lot of pressure on developers as their needs evolve every day. Consumers below the age of 35 years of age are increasing expressing their preference for genuine smartphones rather than the easily available copies in the markets. The need for more innovations and less emulation trends is therefore expected to increase and change market trends in the industry.
The face of medical devices industry
“Currently, the core elements of many personal medical devices increasingly found in smartphones include: processors, displays, memory, keyboard (data entry methods), battery power, connectivity methods, speakers and sensors, among others” (Hendricks, 2010). Smartphones have become a more applicable device in the medical industry, especially among the young doctors. The face of the medical industry, as well as its needs is expected to play a major role in how the smartphone industry develops.
The need for smartphones designers to deliver valuable medical devices functionality at a cost that makes sense to all the stakeholders in the industry is urgent. Integrating the smartphones into the medical industry will be critical especially as a new generation of doctors with a high sense of appreciation to technology takes over the industy. It is viewed as a conveniently hand and ready to use device for the young doctors.
Making it available to them at an affordable cost is a debate that will obviously have an effect o the future of the smartphoe industry. New smartphone platforms must take into consideration the need for precision and reliability as key factors that doctors consider in a product that they intend to use in their profession. As new doctors graduate and take up more modern practices to manage their schedules, information and tasks, the smartphones industry cannot afford to ignore their needs and role in the market.
Factors to consider when buying a smartphone
Many consumers are already taking advantage of the holiday offers to acquire a smartphone. As the industry becomes more and more competitive, there are so many models and makes to choose from. It is important that a consumer gets one that fits their needs and expectations.
Many smartphones today can be described as handheld computers and are able to perform most of the functions that a computer can perform. Whether one needs a device to play music from, send emails or play games, different devices have been configured to ensure that most of these functionalities are available.
However, customers with more specific needs may need to be more attentive to details to reduce changes of being disappointed. This is especially important for young users whose needs become more and more complex each day. Some of the factors that youths should consider before buying a smartphone include;
The operating system
Hayun, Sam & Gavin (2009), states that when buying a smartphone, “it is all about the operating system”. The author continues to explain that as it is the case with computers, a smartphone can be defined and judged by the software powering it. This is evident by the amount of competition and fights to stay at the top of the market among different operating systems developer.
“While Microsoft Windows and Mac OS operate the majority of personal computers, there are five major operating systems for smartphones namely; RIM’s RIMM, Apple’s AAPLE ISO, Google’s Android software, Microsoft’s MSFT and Palm’s WebOS” (Hayun, Sam & Gavin, 2009). RIMM ofr a long time remained the most popular mobile OS in the US market but this has changed as Android slowly gains more favor from the subscribers.
Android is considered the most flexible option because it is available through every major carrier. It is most popular among people who are avid Google users and enjoy applications such as Gmail. iPhones on the other hand extend beyond most junkies in the market and those who have been using iTunes and iPods to access music would rather stay with what they know, which is the Apple products.
While new apps are available in the market every day to make iPhone and Android better options, no other brand beats BlackBerry in professional communication. It has functionalities that make it easily trusted among corporate and provides enough games and entertainment for the users when they need entertainment. Gamers, who are the young people can access the best games through brands such as WebOS phones.
Apps
“From navigation to productivity tools, to personalized music networks, to games that rival the best of the consoles and video arcades, apps can turn your smartphone into a universal toolbox and entertainment system” (Hendricks, 2010). The Android smartphone which has more than 100,000 apps is slowly making up ground to reach other brands such as the iPhone which has more than 350,000 apps. By 2010, BlackBerry had more than 10,000 Apps and users can still access all the basic Apps such as Pandora.
Youths have needs that keep growing and changing every day. As these needs become more and more complex, the Apps industry expands and new products are made available. For this generation, games, social networking, and imaging top the list of their needs. For this reason, smartphones that appeal to them are those that allow for such functionalities.
Data plan
The unlimited data plan is slowly becoming a favorite for many data users. Like Lee (2011) cautions, “with high definition video clips and games available at your fingertips-in addition to email, apps and browsing the web-chances are you will be running more data through your smartphone than you anticipate”.
When buying a smartphone, it is important that one establishes their data plans options first. The young people are heavy data users as they use their smartphones to do more things than the older people. For this reason, signing up for as large a data plan as possible is the best plan for them.
Research carried out in the past by different smartphone companies reveal that availability of a good data plan is one of the factors that young people consider before buying a smartphone. Different brands in the industry have signed agreements with different data providers to ensure that their users have the best data plans and do so for a favourable cost.
In the US, Verizon is among the best data providers with unlimited packages going for as little as $30 per month. Other providers base their charges on how much data a user consumes a month, an option that comes with major benefits for the light users, but is too costly for heavy data users.
Since data is a scarce commodity, most youths would rather pay a few dollars more per month, than be bombarded with an incredibly big bill at the end of the month. More people continue to appreciate this arrangement and the demand for unlimited data arrangements is increasing. Overtime, a good data plan is becoming more important than the actual device.
Power management
“Power is more precious and more important than the basic features” (Lee, 2011). For many users, it is not uncommon to run out of power in the middle of an important task. This is common among the young users who are on their smartphone constantly and do tasks that consumer more power such as playing music. Watching a Youtube clip and playing games will drain a smartphones’ power more quickly than checking an email.
Since nobody wants to have a device that they cannot use, battery power is even more important than the phones number of megapixel. Even with the best model of smartphone, having a weak battery means that you will be unable to fully utilize the phone’s potential.
Even as more sophisticated models become available in the market, it is important for smartphone designers to ensure that users have the best power management options. For those who are likely to be in the phone many hours in a day such as the youth, making available an extra battery will be an added advantage.
Looks
Smartphones today are used as a symbol of status. Young people and especially girls are more particular about colour, design, and the overall appearance of a phone. Ever since the first oversized mobile phone was introduced by Michael Douglas more than twenty years ago, mobile phones have been constantly used as a status symbol. The iPhone is currently the most elegant phone in the market and a favorite for those who care about a phone’s outlook.
The phone is easy on the eye and the touch screen provides a key element for those who love beauty. For the young people, it is essential for gaming and light enough to carry in a pocket. Even though competion and attention tends to be more focused on the operating system and Apps, looks remain a significant factor for youths when buying a smartphone. Looks also include the accessories available in a phone.
Purpose of the phone
A user’s needs largely determine which smartphone they pick. A user who needs a phone for business and one who needs one for personal stuff are bound to have different preferences when choosing a phone. Many organizations today have jobs designed in a way that an employee may need regular communication with the company when they are out of office.
In this case, communication is a significant part of many young professionals. Making it possible for employees to work out of the office further increases the need for a device that can perform several professional functions. A smartphone makes it possible for people to perform office task even when they are on the move.
Furthermore, schools are now fully utilizing technological innovations making it necessary for students to have such devices. Teachers communicate important announcements through emails and social sites, and lectures may even decide to assign tasks through electronic forms of communication. Those who are studying online need a device that allows them to access and read notes, assignments and even exams anytime and wherever they maybe.
A smartphone’s portability makes it a more preferred device to carry out these tasks instead of carrying a computer around. The need to access information instantly through Apps such as Facebook, twitter and other social sites further makes a smartphone a more relevant product among the young people.
The need to stay entertained through music and games only makes the need even bigger. Therefore, the young generation has increased and diverse functionalities that they require on their smartphones. Such factors play a significant role when shopping for a smartphone.
Managing information and its role in the smartphone industry
Information assurance concepts
As Nedja & Ajith (2007) point out, “confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication and non-repudiation are the core principals of information assurance”. Other important principals of information assurance include utility and an organization’s ability to own or posses the information.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality in information assurance is defined as “the assurance that information is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals, processes and/or devices” (Solove, 2006). Many smartphone providers have put in place measures to ensure that information is only accessed by authorized personnel, who happen to be the user of the phone and those authorized by him/her to use it, and only when there is a genuine need to do so.
Smartphone companies will also ensure that employees are well aware of the consequences of not upholding a company’s privacy policy by accessing a user’s information without their permission. When information is accessed or disclosed against the user’s wish or will, a confidentiality breach may occur depending with the circumstances under which it happened.
Integrity
Integrity involves proper handling and management of all data systems to ensure safety for smarphone users. It involves largely the people handling the stakeholders’ information such as the customers. According to Nedja & Ajith (2007), “integrity is the quality of information systems reflecting logical correctness and reliability to the operating systems; the logical completeness of the hardware and software implementing the protection mechanisms of different data structures”.
Even though integrity is mostly about people, it encompasses other technical aspects of handling information such as the reliability of security measures put in place. The smartphone industry is among the most vulnerable since users transact a lot of personal information when running different Apps.
Integrity in information assurance is supposed to ensure that any confidential information is only accessible to authorized people and it is protected from modifications by unauthorized people. Loss of integrity also occurs when unauthorized people have the ability to delete information or make it completely disappear from a user’s profile and information library.
Availability
In today’s world, specific information is important for proper management of different aspects of a device. With a realization that not all information is useful, converting information to knowledge is an important aspect in information management. Devices have to make it possible for users to be able to do this easily. Information assurance requires that a device be able to access and use convert information and data at the time when they are most needed.
For a user to fully benefit from information, they must have a timely and reliable access to it. The information itself, the smartphone’s computing systems and its security measures must be protective but at the same time, they should not make it impossible to access data and information. Denial of access, a common attack in smartphones, can mean that a user’s wealth of data is useless for the period it is inaccessible.
Authenticity
Smartphones companies understand that authenticity means that the information available for a customer’s use must be genuine, trustworthy and its credibility must be undisputed. A smartphone’s security measures must be able to validate any information received by a user and establish the validity of its sources. Authenticity is important to ensure that both the sources and users of any information are genuine.
In an era where information sharing has become extremely easy, especially for smartphone users, authentication breaches easily occur, compromising the devices’ information assurance standards. Any information management systems available in a smartphone must make it hard for unauthorized personnel to duplicate information or to send it to other destinations and data warehouses without the owner’s authorization.
Non-repudiation
“Information non-repudiation is the assurance that the sender of data is provided with proof of delivery and the recipient is provided with proof of the sender’s identity, so that neither can later deny having the transaction” (Solove, 2006).
It is a very important information assurance concept to ensure users don’t get into any legal consequences associated with improper conduct during information management. Measures available to facilitate this in smartphones include use of passwords, which can also be used to establish a user’s authenticity.
Information assurance strategies
Defense-in-depth
According to the National Research Council of the US (2010), “defense-in-depth strategy is a term borrowed from military tactical doctrine that suggests deploying war-fighting resources in a manner that presents successive lines of defense”. In this type of strategy, a device increases its resistance to deny the enemy any chance of penetration. A designer will deploy enough preventive measures at the early stages of the design to make it more difficult for the attackers.
These barriers can be enhanced by creating access control to ensure that access is only allowed to known and authorized users. Measures such as internet protocols are able to ensure that data in only fed from know sources. Defense-in-depth strategy commonly uses tools such as demilitarized zones and other detection methods to help a user identify and deal with a threat before it causes any damage to their data warehouse.
Users are required by the system to scan their data and information before using it in a device and systems that run it. In this strategy, it is common for smartphone companies to install monitoring tools and traffic control measures to ensure that all information is verified before being fed or retrieved from the device.
Defense-in-depth strengths include a fast deployment speed and its ability to adapt to dynamic threats. The strategy offers high levels of flexibility and speed since more people can feed, access and use information at the same time. Its weaknesses in include increased expenses arising from the required equipment and security tools such as access-control devices and firewalls.
The strategy calls for more labor and regular maintenance and monitoring, all which increase costs and complexity. Major processes in the strategy such as configuring, implementing and monitoring information and the systems are complex and involving, creating more loopholes for mistakes.
System-high
“A system-high approach strictly controls access to vital systems and forces all users to comply with a meticulous clearance process that notionally eliminates the need for security barriers” (Nedja & Ajith, 2007). One way through which a user can do this is ensure that information is only accessible through one specific terminal, hence eliminating all other external connectivity.
This strategy’s strengths include the fact that data protection is done at a lower cost since it does not require all the security technologies used in defense-in-depth strategy. The level of protection is high since information can only be accessed through one controlled terminal making it easier to monitor.
The approach also reduces the number of equipments needed, making it less technical and cheaper. Its weaknesses include rigidity and its inability to respond to other dynamic threats that may arise. The strategy makes deployment more slow since access is controlled.
Methodology
Background
The research methodology applied in this paper included study of books, academic journals, online articles, past projects by different authors, government statistics and non-governmental organizations in the communication industry. It also included a study of various works on communication devices, technology and science.
Study of books and different articles reveals that growth in the technology and science sectors is a bit overwhelming. The battle of supremacy among smartphones designers has led to a level of competition considered among the most aggressive in all other industries. The resources used for this study were chosen based on their relevance and understanding on the topic.
Using online resources was in line with the topic of research aimed at not only establishing factors that influence the choice of a smartphone, but also how these devices have influenced the way we carry out tasks such as research. It is clear that companies are investing billions of dollars to have the best designs in the market.
The amount of resources dedicated towards research and development in phone companies is staggering. It is also evident that individuals are spending a lot of money to ensure satisfaction, safety and entertainment in the way they communicate and interact. Communication in an efficient way has proved crucial not only for individuals, but also for many organizations who are willing to spend a lot of money to have their staff equipped in the recent devices.
These arguments are based on information collected from various reports by governmental and non-governmental organizations. These reports served very effective and relevant in trying to understand this paper’s background.
Recent and past books and research papers by different authors were also helpful in understanding what drives young consumers when choosing a smartphone. Views from fellow students were also collected to get their thoughts on the subject and how it affects them, as well as what they consider when buying a smartphone.
As Belch & Michael, (2000), argue, “the best avenue for driving an industry’s performance gains is managing the implementation of its processes”. Identifying the key communication management steps is very fundamental if the industry is expecting to have a successful implementation of its technology strategies. “Any technology management strategies are only productive if the results will be aligned with the market’s strategic objectives” (Belch & Michael, 2000).
Key communication and designer management processes are easily identifiable by their level of impact on the industry’s success. They are those processes whose success or failure has serious implications on the industry’s goals and revenues.
For a business to succeed in a specific product’s management, its implementation and management has to be given priority and has to be right. Its objectives should also be specific to the industry’s unique policies, goals and approach. The study was aimed at establishing the truth in these arguments, and establishing areas of improvement.
Triangulation was the research method of choice for this paper. This means that multiple methods of quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized. This decision is justified by the fact that while the research was interested in measuring the different decisions factors for youths who want to own a smartphone and how they change, it also attempted to qualify their impact on the performance of the industry.
Triangulation further allowed this project to get better results and manage any challenges that may arise from one research method. This was possible through balancing between the weaknesses of one research method against the strengths of the other. Data collected was categorized into primary and secondary data.
Primary data was collected through a survey conducted on 100 participants. The surveys aided in exploring the views of the policy promoters in the raison d’etre of formulating these policies and their views on the relationship between the policies and the alarming rate of change of preferences among youths in the smartphones industry.
This method of data collection was necessary for the study to be able to collect detailed information about specific questions. As explained by Singh and Naurang (1996) “Using semi-structured questionnaires allows a broad scope of answers and sufficient latitude for further questioning on specific responses”.
The primary answer sought during the survey was factors that influence a decision to buy a smartphone among the youths. Lee (2011) records that more than half of the people who own a smartphone are people below the age of forty years. This proves that the youth plays a significant role in the industry. They are a significant driving factor in the industry and investors need to pay a lot of attention to their needs. All the questions were aimed at establishing this answer and factors that influence the answers.
Another significant concern that arose during the survey was the level of satisfaction among the youthful users, as well as how it influenced their decision to acquire a smartphone or recommend one to another user. This gave rise to issues such as the role of promotions and marketing and they are being addressed in the smartphones industry.
Process improvement was an important factor when trying to understand how by making effort to make a working system better, a relatively new product such a smartphone can have more activity in the market than products which have been in existent for long. Other important issues that the study explored include the role of a good corporate culture and market trends in developing and building a product that will attract the younger generation.
Of significant importance in this study is was what role cultural and social factors play when making a decision to buy a smartphone among the youths. This was established by having questions in the questionnaire that covered what role influence from friends, relatives and the community plays when a young person is buying a smartphone. These issues were the basis for questions developed for the study. The questions were designed in a way that allowed a fulfillment of the study’s objectives.
In summary, primary data was collected through a survey carried out using self administered questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered using a convenience sample of 100 participants. 50 were below the age of 25 years old but above 18 years, while the other 50 were aged between 25 years and 35 years.
The participants were drawn from different parts of the community, professions, religious backgrounds and cultural beliefs. The choice of participants was motivated by the fact that my level of interaction allows me to reach these people more easily. The sample population balanced the representation of different people with different cultural and social beliefs. The self administered questionnaires were comprised of closed questions. Closed questions make collection of data easier and they do not take a lot of the participants’ time.
Structure of the survey
Participants
Questionnaires were administered to 100 people aged between 18-35 years of age. There was an equal representation of gender. The participants were drawn from different parts of the community, professions, religious backgrounds and cultural beliefs. The sample population balanced the representation of different people with different cultural and social beliefs.
The choice of participants was motivated by the fact that my level of interaction allows me to reach these people more easily. The self administered questionnaires were comprised of closed questions.These participants proved very resourceful in understanding factors which influence a decision when buying a smartphone for people aged between the ages of 18 to 35 years.
Recruitment
Recruitment was done by using social network and online forums to reach out to targeted participants. The snowball technique was used to reach the targeted number of participants required for the study. In this technique, people familiar with the study were used to reach out to more people who were then be directed to the research’s weblink.
To gather statistics in the industry, departments in different organizations were contacted by fetching their numbers from the directories. All participants were presented with adequate explanations and guidelines for the study. All participants were also required to fill and sign a consent form agreeing to voluntary participation.
Data collection
The research methodology applied in this research project was designed to achieve the set objectives of the paper. It included study of books, academic journals, online articles, past projects by different authors, government statistics and information from different stakeholders in the industry.
To understand the background of the problem, literature relating to promotion, marketing, competition and consumption policies will be reviewed. Primary data collection was done by administering questionnaires to 100 participants. Secondary data was collected from past research projects, government and non-governmental statistics and other relevant sources.
Case design
The case design was comprehensive and complete enough, to allow different stakeholders in the industry utilize the information in decision-making easily. Beneficiaries of the study include smartphones designers, consumers and other stakeholders in the industry. Reviewing the case design was critical to ensure its validity and applicability. This was ensured in this research project.
Cross-comparing the case design and its outcome, with similar research projects conducted in the past, helped this research to highlight commonalities and identify areas where the results need to be strengthened. Data analysis tools and software were beneficial when sorting out data and identifying patterns.
Data analysis
Data analysis comprised of diverse techniques since the study had different types of data and expected outcomes. When conducting a consumer trends study, data mining is an indispensable technique since it involves discovering knowledge, as opposed to describing it. In this project, 90% of the questionnaires distributed were returned and filled correctly.
Inquiries in different companies for data and information were made early to guarantee enough time for preparation and presentation of data. Secondary data was extremely valuable in augmenting the research.
Before any data was collected, permission was sought from different authorities such as the companies where some of the participants work. Data analysis tools and software were beneficial when sorting out data and identifying patterns. Answers to close-ended questions were analyzed in percentages while the rest of the information was analyzed and discusses individually
Project implementation
Overall project plan
Preparation and completion of this took place in two months
Table 2: Project’s Gantt chart
Ethical issues and limitations
There were a number of ethical issues that arose in the course of completing this research project. One of the most fundamental principles that I followed in research is voluntarism participation. The principle requires that no participant should be coerced to participate in a research or give false information. A participant must also give consent before their identity is revealed if there is a need to do so, although for such a project, anonymity would be applied.
During a research project, ethics also demand that the process must not subject the respondents to any danger or harm, a factor I took very seriously. A researcher is supposed to apply the principle of anonymity to protect them from consequences of revealing the information they do. It is also the respondent’s right to be treated with respect and dignity during the study. These ethical issues are expected to be adhered to when the organization is conducting its research.
Limitations faced in the exercise included language barriers since some of the participants have a different language as their first other than English. Lack of cooperation from some respondents also stood as a challenge and there were fears that they may not give accurate answers or they may take too long to respond.
Conducting a research project is an expensive activity and finances posed as a challenge. These challenges were addressed by conducting research in the most commonly used language, which was English, and using translators. There were also comprehensive explanations about the scope of the research to respondents to ensure they understood the objectives and minimize resistance. We also ensured a proper costing and allocation of funds was done before the task commenced.
Data analysis
Introduction
There are different factors to consider when buying a smartphone as discussed earlier. However, these factors are different from the reasons as to why young people buy smartphones. This paper sought to understand these reasons by conducting a survey on 100 people aged between the age of 18 and 35.
The answers were used to build an argument for the paper and confirm the hypothesis of the study. Reasons given for acquiring a smartphone were as diverse as the backgrounds of those who took place in the survey. Responses to some of the questions in the survey and an analysis can be summarized in the figures and analysis below.
Results from the survey
For the young shoppers, friends make a significant part of their decisions, However, it was notable that when it came to a smartphone, friends didn’t play a very major role. Only a few people agreed that they bought a smartphone because a friend has one. More than 35% strongly disagreed to the implication that they bought a phone because some close to them had one.
As evident from the figure below, it is evident that a big number of the participants didn’t have an opinion on the question, meaning that there was a high possibility one might consider getting a smartphone because a friend owned one. The graph below summarizes the results.
Fig. 1: I bought a smartphone because my friend has one
Even though a big number of the participants argue that they would not buy a phone simply because a friend had one, the level of influence among the youths to purchase a device is very high. This is evident from the response the participants gave when asked whether they had ever influenced a friend to buy a smartphone.
More than a quarter of those who responded to this question said they had influenced a friend to buy a smartphone. Furthermore, 30% of the participants lacked an opinion on that thought, creating further room for such a possibility. Such a response reveals the need for smartphone companies to ensure satisfaction among its youthful users, since they serve as a marketing avenue by influencing their peers to have one. The results to the question on whether they had influenced someone into buying a smartphone can be summarized below;
Fig. 2: I motivated a close friend to buy a smartphone
The issue of affordability was also raised in the study. Those who answered yes to the question on whether they is the reason they owned a smartphone were more than a third of the participants. Those who strongly agreed were more than 10%, while those who agreed were almost a quarter of those who participated in the survey.
This reveals a culture among the youths where affordability plays a significant role in their decision to acquire a device. Going by the large number of participants who agree they have a smartphone because they can afford one, it is a wake-up call for the smartphone companies to make the device more affordable to the youthful clients.
30% of those who responded to this question did not have an opinion, which means that it was a possibility. Making the product affordable would therefore mean that more than 60% of the youths would own a smartphone simply because it was affordable. The response to this question can be summarized as follows;
Fig. 3: I bought a smartphone because I can afford one
As established by the survey, family plays a very small role in the youths’ decision to acquire a smartphone. Out of the 100 participants, less than 5% agreed that they bought or would buy a smartphone because they did not want to feel less than their family members. Almost 50% strongly disagreed to this notion, perhaps from the fact that for those who might be youngest in their families, the older members of the family would have less value for such products.
The issue of age and preference came out clearly from a question where the participants were supposed to confirm on whether they felt they had a lesser need for smartphone as they grew older. Though the situation may be different now for the older people who feel they are too old for such devices, the participants strongly disagreed that they would have a lesser need for a smartphone as they grew older. Their opinion on the role of the family status and the needs for a smartphone can be summarized in figure 4 below.
Fig. 4: I bought a smartphone because I don’t want to feel less than my family members
Interestingly, a good number of the youths who felt obligated to influence the younger people than them to appreciate technology by owing a smartphone were quite significant. Participants were divided right at the middle when it came to this question even though the number slightly leaned towards the disagreeing group.
5% of those surveyed agreed that they acquired or would acquire a smartphone for this purpose, while 25% agreed to the same. 30% of the participants remained without an opinion on whether they bought a smartphone to influence and motivate the younger ones to stay in touch with technology. Asked on whether they bought a phone to influence the young sons and brothers stay in touch with technology, the results can be summarized on figure 5 below.
Fig.5 : I bought a smartphone to influence brothers and sons stay up-to-date with technology
Prestige and status played out in the survey as seen in figure 6. An overwhelming 65% disagree to the notion that youths buy phones for the purpose of prestige. Even as smartphones get more and more sophisticated, from the survey, it is evident that prestige is the least of the reasons as to why youths acquire smartphones. These results can be summarized as follows;
Fig. 6: I bought a smartphone because I am prestigious
As opposed to fashion and other industries where celebrities and famous people influence the decisions of the youth, the trend seems to be different in the smartphone industry. An overwhelming 80% disagreed to the question on whether they bought a smartphone because a famous player used one. As evident in figure 7, the number of those who agreed was least compared to the rest of the questions.
Fig. 7: I bought a smartphone because a famous player uses it
As is expected, work requirements and love for technology are not major drives among youths in their love for smartphones. Asked on whether they bought a smartphone because their work required it, the response was as shown in figure 8.
The biggest number of participants did not any response to the question and only a third agreed to the fact that work had an influence on their having a smartphone. This brings into play the role of organizations in the smartphone industry. Samrtphone providers can work with different companies and organizations to influence their employees use smart devices by encouraging an stronger embrace to technology.
Fig. 8: I have smartphone because my job requires
Even though a love for technology is a common drive for people who own a smartphone, the results from this survey revealed that it was a much bigger influence. 50% of the respondents agreed that they owned or would own a smartphone for their love of technology. A response to that part of the survey is summarized on the chart below;
Fig. 9: I like keeping up with technology
Issues arising
Marketing
Marketing, advertising, branding and marketing departments play a significant role in the performance of any product in the markets. These areas of business influence a product’s image to the public, accessibility of its products, brand image, customer loyalty, sales volumes and the products’ strength against competition.
Depending with the nature of a product and a business’ budget, these roles can be assigned to different people or be managed by one person or department. Some businesses will prefer to handle their own marketing needs and outsource the rest, while some will have all the departments as part of the company.
Form the survey; it is evident that influence plays a significant role in youths’ decisions to buy a smartphone. It is also important to realize that the influence isn’t just from friends and family, but the companies to have a chance to influence the young people preferences in the markets.
Marketing plays a significant role in influencing the youths buy a smartphone, and even work with a specific brand. This is achievable through responsibilities such as measuring the business’ strategy success, managing marketing budgets, ensuring timely delivery of products to the youths, approving products’ images, developing marketing guidelines and making decisions based on customer needs.
Marketing contribute largely to how youths respond to a product in the market by directing the marketing plan, which the company is heavily dependent on for its success. It puts a business in a well informed position regarding competition and opportunities. This in turn affects the business’ profitability and ability to establish long term success.
Advertising
In any smartphone company, anyone in the advertising position is supposed to have exhaustive information about the industry in which the business is in, competitors’ strategies and the needs of the market at that particular time. In this case, it is important to understand the needs of the youths and how they can be met.
Advertising in this industry is responsible for creating and directing advertising campaigns that can penetrate the market and offer what is expected of them by customers. It is the responsibility of the advertising director to raise brand awareness and recognition in the market.
Any smartphone company that wants to stay ahead in the markets as far as the young people are concerned must also be responsible for developing brand strengthening strategies. They must be aggressive in implementing creative brand building strategies, and developing artistic campaigns and advertisements for a brand.
Advertisement directors definitely need to play a major role of ensuring a smartphone company can capture the young people. Their decision making and factors that influence the process is quiet unpredictable as evident from the survey. A good product’s image is bound to attract the youths, last long in the market and reduce the need to redesign brand images, which results in minimize costs of doing business.
Through constant monitoring and campaigns, it is easier to identify areas that are not working in the company’s marketing strategy. It is then easier for the business to make necessary changes in a timely manner and operate within or close to the set budget limits. Through such surveys, it is possible for companies to identify what appeals to youths most, and what might be a waste of money in their advertisement campaigns.
Public relations
It is evident that the needs of the youths and their preferences are constantly changing and evolving. What might be thought as a major factor in their purchase decisions might be completely untrue. For example, while celebrities have had a lot of influence on young people’s decisions to use a product, it is evident from the survey that this might not be the case with smartphones.
When asked on whether they would buy a smartphone just because a famous player was using it, the response was an overwhelming no. There is therefore need to stay close to the young people and ensure that their needs and preferences are well understood.
According to Belch & Michael (2000), “public relations are fundamentally the art and science of establishing relationships between an organization and its key audience”. For a long time, smartphone ompanies paid very little attention to this department, since they assumed that this is a product that is readily needed in the markets. Today however, it is evident that it may be the most important departments in any smartphone company.
It plays an important role in helping businesses create a healthy relationship with its customers and other stakeholders. This way, a company is able to understand the constantly changing needs of the youths in the industry. The objective of a public relations department is to put in place healthy and efficient ways of a two-way communication between the business and its outside environment, in this case the youthful customers.
The most important role of public relations director in a smartphone company in such a scenario would include informing the youths about the company’s products, policies and any other information that attracts their interest and helps them understand the markets better.
Another important role of the public relations director is to reach government representatives and legislators, to ensure that their devices are compliant with all the legal requirements, and meet all quality standards. This is particularly important in an age where youths face constant security threats by the amount of information they divulge to different people when using their smart devices. There is need to ensure that customers are constantly reassured and understand the consequences of their actions.
Managing available information in the market
Nearly every organization today is faced with a challenge of coping with constantly changing information systems and needs. This is the same for the smartphone industry. In order to stay in touch with the customers’ needs, there is a need to stay in touch with the markets through interaction and feedback.
This may result in overwhelming amounts of information and data. Businesses that have been around for a long time have had to adjust from ledger cards to keeping up with big volumes of information generated in the digital era.
The speeds at which information flows in today is making it hard for organizations to keep up. “As we move rapidly into the future, leaders face the challenge of being effective in a global knowledge environment” (Solove, 2006). “Today, leaders have to undertake the responsibility of helping their organizations cope with the challenges they face from expanding knowledge and knowledge systems” (Nedja & Ajith, 2007).
Knowledge management is of paramount importance in businesses today, especially in a competitive and vibrant industry such as the smartphone industry. It comprises of many tasks and initiatives to enable a business create, represent, distribute and adopt data and information.
As a part of their business strategy, many businesses today have a department and resources strictly dedicated to knowledge management. There are also many consulting companies coming up to help businesses understand the role of this significant aspect of business. In the smartphone industry, companies contract researchers to do market survey and collect feedback from users, a majority of whom are the young people.
When managing information from a very flexible group such as the youths, knowledge management is concerned with creating competitive advantages and innovations to improve performance. It also plays a major role in ensuring continuous improvement and accurate interpretation of data.
It is clear that knowledge management is attracting a lot of attention in both small and big organizations today. This survey and the unexpected results and feedback prove the need to constantly interact with the markets and get up-to-date feedback from customers. This is also from the realization that it is impossible for a business to succeed in today’s constantly changing markets without proper investments in knowledge and information.
In order for businesses to become and stay truly globally competitive, it is important for them to recognize that information is required to support decisions at various levels of business. In order for them to stay relevant to the young people, there is need to be in touch with them, collect feedback from them constantly, and convert it into knowledge that is valuable to a business.
“In a world overloaded with information, there is need for emphasis on not just more information, but actionable intelligence that is capable of guiding decisions in a business” (Hayun, Sam & Gavin, 2009). Therefore, knowledge management, which creates competitive intelligence in a business, must be positioned in a way that it can easily identify threats capable of negatively impacting the business in its external environments.
The other function of knowledge management processes is to identifying new opportunities for the organization, which hopefully leads to new innovations, which will in turn create more benefits and productivity for the organization.
Designing and implementing knowledge to be a valuable asset
Implementing knowledge management may take place in different models which will not be discussed in this paper. However, regardless of the model used, the entire process must be guided by the company’s strategy. Constant guides for the process must take into consideration the mission, vision and strategic objectives of a company.
There are several areas that must be considered fundamental for the success of knowledge management. They include top management support, unfiltered access to information, knowledge management teams and resources, and professional knowledge on how to implement the process.
Cultural support in a company is important as the whole team must be willing to adjust and adapt to changes that may be brought about by the implementation of the process. When dealing with the youths, a company and its team must place itself in a place where it fully understands their needs, as well as availing solutions to their advantage.
Clear priorities and key intelligence needs must be well identified and specific enough. In the smartphone industry, the process must have set objectives, products or outputs. This will enable the team to develop a clear route of development and be able to easily monitor progress.
Each model is based on simultaneous development of both capacity and infrastructure development and value addition. “Each process theoretically starts with the development of capacity and infrastructure but the process of adding operational value is initiated soon after management has brought in the concept of knowledge management.
The survey reveals that many assumptions made by companies may be untrue. This is evident from the fact that the results in this paper did not fully agree with the hypothesis. Young people are buying smartphones for more solid reasons rather than peer influence and prestige. For the reason, the process of knowledge management will only be useful if a business is dealing with factual information from a market and not assumptions.
For the process to be successful and effective, it is important for the management to support the information management tools and have a clear and shared vision for the function. When this support is not available, the function seizes to be viewed as important and priority is no longer placed on it.
It is important for the management to be open and appreciate new tools for decision-making. They should also appreciate that the function of knowledge management is an important support for the business’ landscape. Every business in this industry should always maintain a healthy level of pressure for change to allow implementation of new business tools such as knowledge management.
Good leadership is important for a successful business in this industry. Having a leader who is in touch with the young people’s needs is a critical advantage as has been evident in Apple Inc. under the leadership of the late Steve Jobs. It is therefore critical that a company identifies someone who is actively involved in the markets to lead processes such as products developments.
A year ago, the biggest need among the youths in a device was its ability to serve as a music player, allow them to plays games and communicate. Today, these needs have changed to the need for quality imaging, video communication and sharing information. This goes to show that the needs among the young people will never remain fixed and will constantly change.
The management should therefore find or appoint the most suitable person to oversee and drive the process of managing products designs and manage information from the youths. Apart from having extensive and professional knowledge on the concept of knowledge management, the leader must be well conversant with the business and have healthy relations with the targeted market, in this case the youth.
Timing and readiness are important elements when implementing information management in any smartphone market. Since most companies are today overloaded with other core operations, timing is an important consideration in adding another operation to the already existing load.
The plan and timing must make it easy to integrate knowledge management with other initiatives in the company. It should also be easy to integrate it to the organization’s culture and decision-making. “The requirement to be able to fulfill the entire scope of functions is more important than where the function is positioned” (Dziri, 2011).
Knowledge management for a product targeting the youth should be positioned in a place where it is able to look out for significant changes that may impact the competitive future of the business. The author continues to point out that the function is more effective when positioned as high up in the organization as possible where it will have unfiltered access to the major decision-makers in the organization.
Benefits of information and knowledge management in a vibrant market
The most important thing that leadership can do in the smartphone industry is understand the importance of knowledge management in managing their brands and work towards implementing its success. For the big players such as Nokia, selecting a well experienced knowledge officer will enhance the business’ capacity to integrate and benefit from such a business tool.
In such a vibrant, competitive and unpredictable market, knowledge management has many benefits in modern times, especially those operating in more than one market. Among the most important benefits is its ability to promote stability in today’s ever changing environments. In an era where information streams in every second, it is very important for a business to be able to convert it to information and to knowledge.
Timely delivery in this market is critical. When a product is delayed, it might get into the market when it is already considered outdated or no longer relevant. Knowledge management provides businesses with a capability for timely delivery of goods.
Multinational organizations such as Nokia and Apple Inc. today need effective and modern strategies in their supply chain systems to ensure reliability and customer satisfaction. In this case, knowledge management is important in ensuring proper communication between customers, manufacturers, transporters, warehouses and chain managers
Another important benefit of knowledge management is the fact that it makes it more feasible for businesses to specialize. When businesses have the ability to sort out information and knowledge, it is easier for leaders in different departments to only focus on what they require and save time that would otherwise have been used to sort out all the information available. Knowledge management has made leadership easier by allowing people to focus on specific needs of the business at any particular time. The result of this is satisfaction and an improved level of loyalty to a product among the users.
Leaders in a business can access knowledge in three different stages. They can access it before, during or after knowledge management activities. As different organizations try various incentives to capture knowledge, it is clear that leadership plays a critical role in implementing knowledge management strategies. “Leaders have the responsibility of making content subscription mandatory and incorporating rewards into performance measurement plans” (Belch & Michael, 2000).
Active management of knowledge is a commonly used strategy by leaders today. In this strategy, every department in the organization has the responsibility of encoding their knowledge into databases and being able to retrieve it whenever it is needed.
Another commonly used strategy is managing information at a central location and having making available to leaders when they need it. The leaders then have the responsibility of converting the available information to helpful knowledge, on their own or with the help of experts.
As knowledge management becomes more and more important, more consultancy businesses are coming up to help businesses understand the millions of gigabytes of information coming in everyday. Many companies with a global presence such as Nokia may need expatriate services, since the business deals with many business environments at the same time.
Satisfaction as a factor
From this study, it is evident that it is not easy to point out one single factor that youths consider before buying a smartphone. To ensure that they stay loyal to a product, satisfaction is critical. It is through satisfaction that they will be willing to try a brand again when getting a new device, and recommend to their friends and family.
Taking into consideration the high number of respondents who said they have influenced someone into buying a smartphone, having a satisfied customer is critical for the success of any brand. The youth are very vibrant people and are a good group to do marketing through the word of mouth.
Satisfaction can be measured through various ways. It can be measured by availability of a product, affordability and the experience that the customer has with the product. However, for a business to ensure satisfaction among its users, it must be in a position where it is able to maintain and sustain what they are offering through having a viable strategy. The industry’s cost structure is an important factor when evaluating a market and its viability.
Cost structures play a big role in a product’s indirect costs and consequently, profitability. A company may not be able to sell a certain product or have satisfied customers in a market whose cost structure is too high even though the product may have a very low production cost.
The cost is dependent on many things among them the market share a business holds and the amount of sales. For a vibrant product such as a smartphone, a small market share industry at the moment may increase the market’s cost structure for it, putting a company in a disadvantaged position.
Continual improvement is a big part of customer satisfaction. It is one of the focuses in the smartphones industry’s modern research projects. A company must be willing to seek continual improvement of its products’ quality while reducing the cost of doing so. Being in such a competitive industry, customer satisfaction will have to be on top of any brand’s priorities.
It will be made possible by ensuring quality assurance through continuous improvement. Logistics will play a major role in quality assurance by ensuring supplies are available and are handled with proper care during transportation and storage to ensure that products delivered to a customer are of the highest quality.
In order for the youths to play a significant role in the markets, there is need to encourage consumption among them. This means that promotion strategies must be aimed at meeting consumers from different places, especially the urban market which is largely targeted. Promotion for such an industry must include use of video and print advertisements, audio channels and most importantly, e-marketing where most young people can be reached.
A big percentage of the target market in the smartphone industry is today aged between 18 -25 years, an age group that is more excited about technology. This further makes it easy for business to reach them through e-marketing. Most suitable e-marketing strategies include use of social groups such as facebook and twitter, email advertising, videos posted on the internet and use of a well informing and attractive website.
The product’s’ reputation largely serves as an advantage to a business that has been able to develop the best in the market. The high level of quality exhibited in a device can be used to prove a brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction. The foundation on which a product is built is based on putting customers’ needs first and ensuring a good experience with a device.
A promotion campaign and market strategy must therefore be focused on selling these strong points. Acquisitions and partnerships are a good way to build the business’ position in the any developing market and must therefore be put into consideration.
Any brand with intentions of working with the youths as a target market must be willing to work on pricing. While people aged below the age of 40 are the majority consumers of smartphones, the issue of pricing still remains thorny. Highly priced smartphones lock out a very large number of youths that would be more than willing to acquire a smartphone for a cheaper price.
A brand that is intends to market its products to the young people must base their pricing on several key trends that continually shape the economic trends of different markets. Factors that affect pricing include the cost of production, target market, competitors’ pricing, consumers’ wealth, spending habits, among many others. The industry can take advantage of the big population of the youths in many countries and register even higher levels of profitability by making the products cheaply available and focusing on volumes.
Significance of the study
This study is significant in understanding the smartphone industry. It is significant for us as students especially in understanding the factors that influence consumers’ decision to make a purchase. Furthermore, this study is a humble contribution to the marketing industry through understanding the youthful consumers, using the smartphone industry as a case study.
The information and data gathered in this paper can be used by marketing managers to understand what is expected by consumers in the markets, as well as drivers in different markets. It is also valuable to consumers who can use the information to understand their role in shaping brands and influencing trends in the markets. The information is especially useful to the smartphone industry where understanding consumer trends is critical in maintain a significant market share.
Conclusion
As defined in the begging of the paper, “a smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone” (Hayun, Sam & Gavin, 2009). The smartphone industry has come a long way since the invention of the first smart devices, to now when a smartphone can perform virtually all tasks which have for long been only possible if one owns a computer.
As explained by Hendricks (2010), “the smartphone industry’s rapid adoption seems to be going on and on and, at least for the time being, the end of this growth is not on the horizon”. The trend has been very encouraging in the last five years and experts point out that the current rate of growth is no news at all.
Taking a look at some of the statistics provided by different stakeholders, it is possible to have an idea on where the industry is headed to. The ABI research records that in the second quarter of 2010, smartphones made up 19% of all the phones shipped. The figure represented a 12% growth compared to the first quarter of the same year. Comparing the results with those in 2009, there was a 50% increament of smartphones shipped.
This paper was aimed at understanding factors that influence youth’s behavior towards purchasing a smartphone. The hypothesis of the paper was that youths buy smartphones because of different social, family, social and personal reasons. Some of these include the need to be a role model, prestige, age, attitude and beliefs. This study partly confirmed the hypothesis but also disagreed with some of the reason identified during the formulation of the case study.
The results proved that youths will buy a smartphone because they want to be in touch with technology, because they need one at work, and because they have been influenced by friends. A majority of the participants disagreed with the assumption that they would buy a smartphone because they don’t want to feel like lesser than their family members, or because a famous person is using one.
A majority also denied that they would buy a smartphone because a friend has one, but agreed that they have at one or more points influenced a friend to buy one. A majority of them agreed that they would buy a smartphone because they love and want to be up-to-date with technology.
From this survey, it is evident that different factors influence the youths towards buying a smartphone. It is the responsibility of a company, through surveys and feedback to collect factual information and data from the youths, and convert in to useful information that will put them ahead as far as the youths as a target market are concerned.
Collecting real-time data from the market can be done using professional researchers, social sites and other feedback avenues. This paper identifies knowledge management, satisfaction and pricing as some of the factors that will help businesses understand the youths as the majority customers in the industry.
Furthermore, continual improvement is a big part of customer satisfaction. It is one of the focuses in the smartphones industry’s modern research projects. A company must be willing to seek continual improvement of its products’ quality while reducing the cost of doing so.
Being in such a competitive industry, customer satisfaction will have to be on top of any brand’s priorities. It will be made possible by ensuring quality assurance through continuous improvement. Logistics will play a major role in quality assurance by ensuring supplies are available and are handled with proper care during transportation and storage to ensure that products delivered to a customer are of the highest quality
In this industry, profitability and customer satisfaction is the biggest measures of success for a new device in the market. Launching a new product for new entries requires a significant amount of investment making it easy for existing players to constantly dominate the markets.
Customer satisfaction has been a significant measure of a brand’s success, as is evident with BlackBerry’s success in the industry. The company has been able to find its niche in the market through ensuring satisfaction and reliability. This has made it possible for the business to achieve dominance in the corporate markets.
Recommendations
Different factors influence a youth’s decision to acquire a smartphone. Just like their needs keep changing, there is need for the businesses to keep their strategies updated. There is need to ensure that their strategies fit into the markets competitive trends. One way through which the companies can capture the youths is by ensuring that they have the right distribution channels.
They are important in helping a business decide on the best methods to distribute their products and ones which will ensure that products are accessible to as many customers as possible. In this case, smartphones need to ensure that the channels put in place are designed to reach the young people. Such strategies include making the products available online, having shops near places where young people frequent, as well as making their shops and attendants are friendly to the young people.
The already existing channels for smartphone companies are more direct to the customers as they are more used to them. Emerging ones will however offer them an opportunity to develop a more competitive advantage in the markets as they target the young people.
Another strategy is to develop a supply chain and logistics management strategy that allows flexibility just like the young people are in their demands and needs. The youth have very changing needs and may place a bigger demand for a completely different product from the one available in the market within a very short period of time.
The operational techniques to be used in logistics management must be aimed at sustaining quality in the industry. Using such techniques is intended at attaining better quality for products preferred by the youth and keeping it monitored at all times. Quality assurance must be a big part of a product’s success, especially because the youths are not afraid of experimenting on a new product when they are not satisfied with one.
Judging from the reasons they gave for acquiring a smartphone, it is evident that their level of loyalty for a product is quiet low and they will change preference easily. For this reason, it is important their satisfaction be at its best to give them a reason to stay with a smartphone and even refer someone else to buy it.
It is important for smartphone companies to realize that logistical management is made possible through the companies’ commitment to quality. It is through quality that manufacturers are able to have a competitive edge, especially in such a changing, competitive and wide market.
For a product with such a large market, handling information can be hectic and inaccurate without proper quality and organization. Knowing when products have been released and when they are due for delivery may be challenging without real time information, which can only be made through a logistics management that assures quality.
Continual improvement will be a big part of the smartohone’s industry. It is one of the focuses in the industry’s modern research projects. The players in this industry need to continually improve its products’ quality while reducing the cost of doing so. To target the young people, it is important to realize that price is a significant factor.
Being in such a competitive industry, customer satisfaction will have to be on top of the business’ priorities. It will be made possible by ensuring quality assurance through continuous improvement. Logistics will play a major role in quality assurance by ensuring supplies are available and are handled with proper care during transportation and storage.
Another important factor for industry’s quality assurance will be a factual approach to decision making. Such an approach can only be made possible if there is enough and accurate information for the player’s decision makers.
Logistics management will have to be in place to ensure that information collection, storage and recovery is available to the executive organ in the company. It is through market and customers information that the company will be able to sustain a mutually beneficial relationship with its clients, who provide the company with the
Marketing strategy will be a significant strategy for smartphones that want to acquire a significant market share among the youths. In order to achieve the marketing objectives, a smartphone must be packaged in a combination of local and international brands but ensure that it remains a flagship brand in the markets which it targets.
Whereas companies must design products that easily attract the young people, they should also make sure that they can easily fit into the needs of other age-groups to make it possible for the young people to refer the products to them or buy the product for them. Smartphone providers must implement measures that will ensure they gain a broader position among the youths.
A top or secondary position in the market will help definitely help a company and its product the product deliver a high target in both marketing, distribution and even production. Moreover, such a position will create the much desired platform from which the companies can further increase their smartphones range of products.
Brands doing well in other markets such as North America and Europe are good examples of how much an asset position can be. With a continued focus on other market factors such as price and quality, a product that focuses on the youthful age group will undoubtedly reach its marketing objectives.
Promotion as a strategy cannot be ignored. Like Belch & Michael (2000), put it, “the key success factors in a market include those elements which are important for a firm to achieve its marketing objectives”. They include access to essential unique resources such as communication services, a company’s ability to achieve economies of scale, accessibility of distribution channels and technological processes.
It also involves having strategies that suit the targeted market, in this case the youth. The smartphone with the best economies of scale is able to do much better than its competitors in any market and so will a product with technological resources which best suit the market.
A proper marketing strategy must ensure that the product is felt in the market, not just when it is new but in the many years that follow. “Ultimately, each product will reach its maturity stage and a decline period but how long that takes is dependent on several factors” (Belch & Michael, 2000).
These factors include ability to fight price pressure from a competing product, ability to maintain brand loyalty, how well it can hold with emergence of new products, how soon the market gets saturated, amongst many other factors. Lack of growth drivers has negative effects on a product’s performance in a market regardless of its quality or how well it can cope with pressure and competition in the market.
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This paper analyses the competitive strategies of the leading global mobile phone companies, including Nokia, Samsung, and Apple within the broader context of understanding their corporate strategies in the volatile smartphone industry. Notably, this paper keenly focuses on how these companies have formulated their competitive strategies to cope with the dynamism of their business environment. In a broader attempt to understand how they survive in the fast-paced smartphone market, this paper adopts a case study approach of Nokia. Four primary research questions guide this study.
They strive to estimate the potential for Nokia’s revival in the technology industry, understand the factors that led to the company’s demise, evaluate the factors that led to the prosperity of its rivals and formulate recommendations that could help it to reclaim its market dominance. A comprehensive review of the findings gathered from secondary data analysis, and interview findings show that Nokia’s lack of understanding about changing consumer tastes and preferences, its failure to innovate, and its overconfidence on the company’s brand image were mostly responsible for its failure. Overall, the story of Nokia and its fall from grace, which is highlighted in this report, provides a compelling case of what modern technology companies, such as Apple and Samsung, should do to stay relevant in today’s competitive smartphone industry. More importantly, it provides valuable lessons for businesses that may want to enter the smartphone market. However, essential to this study is the need to comprehend why leadership is critical for managing the operations of smartphone companies.
Introduction
Background of the Study
Smartphones are among the most popular technological devices among the young and the old. A smartphone differs from an ordinary cell phone because it has more advanced features than the latter. In other words, its functions are almost similar to a computer, except for the fact that it is smaller in comparison to the ordinary desktop. Relative to the similarity of features between a computer and a smartphone, it is important to point out that the latter can perform several advanced technological functions associated with modern technical devices, such as playing high-quality videos, taking images, and web browsing. The ability of smartphones to perform these tasks largely explains their popularity in many parts of the world (Woyke 2014). Additionally, the increased availability of technological expertise associated with their development has made them cheaper than most digital devices, such as tablets and computers, further increasing their application in modern society.
The popularity of smartphones in today’s contemporary society has made them increasingly integrated into people’s lifestyles. These developments have made them not only a necessity in modern life but also a norm in the same. Their popularity in contemporary society has also created a lucrative industry for mobile phone manufacturers and their agents (Cecere 2014). Relative to this assertion, Li (2017) says the global smartphone market is a multibillion-dollar industry, which has tentacles in almost all parts of the globe. Concisely, Meyer (2012) adds that the popularity of smartphones in the global telecommunications sector has seen industry players report significant gains in profitability and brand value. Woyke (2014) adds to this narrative by saying the industry’s value has been growing at a steady rate of 7.9%, while the growth in volume has been pegged at 5% annually. Additionally, experts project that this rate of growth should prevail up to the year 2024 (Cecere 2014).
The mobile phone market is a global one because many people find cell phones useful to their lives. However, it has various dynamics such as its localized nature, which differentiate it based on the understanding that different markets exhibit unique characteristics that are only specific to their customers (MIC Research Team 2016). Experts also argue that the industry is dynamic and volatile (MIC Research Team 2016). Technological advancements are at the core of this observation because through changes in technology, shifts in consumer tastes and preferences (including the development of new smartphone functionalities) have been observed. The same volatility in the industry has created a change in corporate policy for most mobile phone companies (Ma 2016).
Despite the existence of the above characteristics of the mobile phone market, some key trends have emerged in the industry. One of them is that smartphones that are priced between $200 and $500 are the most popular in the market (Woyke 2014). The Android operating system (OS) has also emerged as the most commonly preferred OS worldwide. Ma (2016) supports this statement by quoting a 2015 industry report, which showed that the Android operating system was the most popular in the market. Li (2017) adds to this observation by saying that smartphone customers prefer this operating system to any other in the market. This explains why several mobile phone companies have signed partnerships with over 1,300 original equipment manufacturers to use this operating system on their devices (MIC Research Team 2016).
Another trend that has emerged from the global popularity of smartphones phones is the dominance of a few firms, which command most of the market share in the industry. Ungson and Wong (2014) support this assertion by saying the industry is only characterized by a handful of players who command up to 80% of the market share. Most of them have been involved in intense jostling to be at the top of the industry with innovation being a critical success driver for their success.
According to the market research firm, IDC, Samsung, which is a Korean-based technology company, currently leads the market as the world’s dominant smartphone company (Ungson & Wong 2014). In 2016 alone, it produced and sold more than 300 million smartphones worldwide (Jin 2017). Other dominant players in the market include Apple and Huawei. OPPO and Vivo are other smaller players in the sector (Jin 2017). Analysts often evaluate the activities of these technology giants based on different analytical categories, including pricing, the technology used to make their phones, screen size, and the geographical area where they have a dominant market presence (MIC Research Team 2016).
In this paper, the business strategies of these corporations are analyzed from a competitive angle. A crucial area of this discussion involves an evaluation of how these organizations are developing plans to outwit one another, within a broader competitive and analytical framework of “survival of the fittest.” This paper adopts a case study approach to the analysis by investigating the corporate strategies of Nokia, which used to be a market leader in the early and mid-2000s. The focus on Nokia is a deliberate one because the company failed to maintain its dominance in the wake of increased competition from other players. The section below explains the research problem.
Research Problem
Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, Nokia has a long history that traces its roots to 1865 when the company was founded as a rubber shoe manufacturing organization (Jin 2017). After its founding, the company divested into the mobile phone and telecommunications sector – a process that started in the 1960s when it developed several infrastructure gains in this industry (Jin 2017). Based on these developments, the company established itself as a formidable brand in the telecommunications market. Today, many mobile phone users view Nokia as a brand that brings a lot of nostalgia because it is among the first phone companies to produce flagship phones, such as the Nokia 3310 and N8, which were popular among many users in the early 2000s (Savoc 2014). While some of these brands bring many memories to different people, there are many doubts about whether the once-famous company would survive in today’s competitive smartphone industry (Ungson & Wong 2014).
Such doubts emanate from different quarters of the industry and among people who have not only questioned the company’s strategic direction in the last few years, but also the merit of some business agreements it has signed with other companies within the same period (Jin 2017). For example, the deal between Nokia and Motorola, where the latter acquired the former’s products and services for more than $7 billion and sold it to Microsoft worried some commentators who viewed it as a poor strategic move by the Finnish company because it left it strategically weaker than it was before (Jin 2017).
In a narrative aimed at painting Nokia as a relic of the past years, Microsoft is reported to have made losses amounting to $8 billion from the same transaction (Savoc 2014). Thousands of jobs were also lost in the process based on a move termed by some pundits as one of the most disastrous acquisitions in the smartphone industry (Savoc 2014). Many stakeholders have also unsuccessfully tried to “resuscitate” Nokia. Similarly, efforts by some of the company’s employees to revamp some of the company’s business divisions have also failed (Ungson & Wong 2014). Based on these weaknesses, Nokia’s market share significantly declined from 2007 to 2013. This decline happened during this period because its market share slipped from 48% to 3% (Ungson & Wong 2014). These issues have further increased people’s doubts about whether the company could reach the same heights of success it enjoyed in the early 2000s.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to understand how mobile phone companies struggle to remain relevant in today’s competitive smartphone industry using Nokia as a case study. The organization is selected for this analysis because it has been both successful and unsuccessful within a short period of less than a decade. This review is mostly hinged on the rapidly changing nature of business dynamics in the industry, which many experts have characterized as a volatile one (Ungson & Wong 2014).
Through this analysis, it would be possible to estimate the company’s potential to revive and possibly stake a claim in the global mobile phone market. Key areas of emphasis in this report would involve understanding the kind of strategies adopted by the technology giant and exploring whether they have been able to redeem the organization. Another area of analysis that would be examined in this report is why the strategies adopted by Nokia were ineffective when it was losing its market share. Stated differently, some sections of this paper would explain the factors that led to Nokia’s demise. Conversely, this analysis will also reveal the main factors that contributed to the success of the company’s rivals. By analyzing both sides of the argument, it would be possible to formulate a set of recommendations that could make Nokia successful again, relative to the quest to command a significant market share of the global smartphone industry. Furthermore, this analysis would be instrumental in comprehending how Nokia could outwit today’s market leaders, Apple, and Samsung.
Aim of the Research
To understand how players in the smartphone industry are coping with increased competition.
Research Questions
What factors led to Nokia’s fall?
What factors contributed to the success of Nokia’s rivals?
What is the potential of Nokia’s revival in the smartphone industry?
How can Nokia reclaim its once-dominant position in the mobile phone market?
Research Objectives
To estimate the potential for Nokia’s revival in the smartphone industry
To understand the factors that led to Nokia’s fall
To evaluate the factors contributing to the success of Nokia’s rivals
To formulate recommendations that could help Nokia reclaim its once-dominant position in the mobile phone market
Scope and Limitations of the Study
Although this study principally explores the strategies that different mobile phone firms have chosen in their effort to overcome stiff competition in the sector, our analysis will primarily be limited to Nokia’s corporate plans. Relative to this assertion, this investigation would be focused on understanding Nokia’s past and present struggle to remain relevant in today’s competitive smartphone market. The analysis would be limited to a review of the company’s strategies, which led to its failure to reclaim its position in the industry and its present positioning, which would help us to ascertain its potential for revival. The current analysis is also hinged on explaining how Nokia lost its market dominance in the wake of a changing and competitive smartphone industry, which saw other entrants slowly diminish the company’s market share in the global sector (Ungson & Wong 2014). This review highlights the company’s international strategies and not regional ones. Thus, the scope of the analysis is centered on investigating the company’s global plans and limited to its competitive actions, with a specific emphasis on how it has fared, relative to other players in the smartphone market.
One limitation of the study was the time available for carrying out the research. In other words, the entire research process had to be conducted within a short period, which made it difficult to carry out and process many interviews to answer the research questions. Consequently, the information obtained from the data collection process was received from a small sample of respondents who came from a few selected consultancy firms. The second limitation associated with this study relates to the data collection strategy, which was based on interviews and secondary research data. Consequently, the findings presented in this study were limited to the information obtained from these sources of research. At the same time, most of the respondents who gave their views in this investigation were constrained by their obligation to perform other responsibilities in the course of executing their duties. This issue may have restricted the time, which they accorded the interviews. Lastly, since some of the findings obtained from this report relate to published research data, the results of this study are also limited to the quality of information generated by the original researchers.
Significance of Study
This review is significant to the area of strategic management in the mobile phone industry because it provides useful insights regarding the strategies that work and those that do not work in the same. It also demonstrates the need for a strategic fit in organizational performance, based on corporate decision-making processes and their effects on organizational performance, relative to environmental and market dynamics. Lastly, this study is significant to the growth of academic literature that has focused on corporate governance and strategic analysis because it touches on the core of organizational decision-making skills that could spell doom or success for organizations. It is also instrumental in understanding the influence of environmental factors in corporate management and the development of proper leadership acumen.
Literature Review
This second section of the report highlights and explains what other researchers have said about the study topic. Part of the analysis includes a review of existing theories of competitive analysis and a broader analysis of what other researchers have written about competitive strategies being applied in the smartphone industry. The first section of this chapter evaluates existing theories of inquiry to explain competing tactics in the smartphone industry.
Theoretical Analysis
Several hypotheses of competitive advantage have been developed to illustrate situations where organizations generate a set of essential competencies or attributes that they could use to outwit their competitors. Relative to this assertion, Hasan (2014) says the management community has been preoccupied with this area of corporate governance for the better part of half a century. This section of the literature review would help to highlight and explain some of these theories and models. The first segment of the analysis describes the theoretical foundations that were developed during the early periods of management review (the 1960s) where the market-based, relation-based, and resource-based views were predominantly popular. The second section of the analysis would highlight the knowledge-based and capability-based views of competitive performance that were introduced in the last half of the century.
Resource-based View
The resource-based view of competitive analysis focuses on leveraging an organization’s resources to outwit its competitors (Burton & Rycroft-Malone 2014). In other words, it is an inside-out strategy adopted by companies, which strive to exploit their internal competencies (as opposed to external skills) for the benefit of their shareholders. A critical underlying philosophy in the analysis of the resource-based view is the understanding that firms are heterogeneous because they possess resources of similar characteristics (Hasan 2014). The resource-based view is often used by different companies that follow unique processes, which include identifying an organization’s vital resources, evaluating whether the resources meet key criteria, such as being valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and non-substitutable) (Bromiley & Rau 2016). The last step involves caring for and protecting the resources that meet the characteristics mentioned above.
Although the resource-based view has been touted as a useful theory in understanding the competitive processes of different firms, it is important to point out that some researchers have criticized it for its tautological nature (Burton & Rycroft-Malone 2014). Others have cast their doubts on its ability to create sustainable competitive advantages because they argue that when resources are configured harmoniously, competitive advantage is lost. After all, firms would experience the same value in the end (Hasan 2014). Some critics have also expressed similar reservations regarding the application of the theory on product markets because they say it is not entirely designed to work in companies that are product-oriented (Bromiley & Rau 2016). Lastly, some critics of the theory say it is limited in perspective (Burton & Rycroft-Malone 2014). Nonetheless, there have been counter-arguments developed to address some of these criticisms, but they will not be comprehensively covered in this paper. Overall, researchers who are unsatisfied with the merits of the resource-based view have turned to the market-based view to explain firm performance. The market-based aspect is illustrated below.
Market-based View
The market-based view of strategic development primarily focuses on aligning an organization’s policies and strategies with industry or market dynamics for strong competitive positioning (McGee 2015). This approach of competitive positioning aims to shape an organization’s systems and structures to exploit critical opportunities in the market. Relative to the dynamics of the market-based view highlighted above, Hasan (2014, p. 34) says, this approach “works by understanding how firms perform similar activities to other firms but in very different ways. In this perspective, a firm’s profitability or performance is determined solely by the structure and competitive dynamics of the industry within which it operates.”
Proponents of the market-based philosophy often view strategic analysis within the broader context of industry dynamics. This review has been further explained in the extended understanding of the industrial complex paradigm, which has also been referred to as the structure-conduct-performance paradigm by Burton and Rycroft-Malone (2014). These models have explained how industry dynamics often affect firm behavior and, by extension, their performance. Some industry dynamics known to affect firm performance include barriers to entry, rivalry among competitors, and supplier power (Burton & Rycroft-Malone 2014). Most of these external market dynamics are explained in Porter’s five-force analysis, which shows that supplier bargaining power, rivalry among competitors, buyer purchasing power, the threat of substitute products, and the potential of new entrants in the industry affect firms’ competitive behaviors (McGee 2015).
Based on the presence of these environmental factors, corporations always have to align their strategic goals with the prevailing market dynamics. This approach explains the gist of the market-based view in understanding competitive strategies. Nonetheless, it is common to find different organizations pursuing one (or both) of the tactics mentioned above, based on their goals, corporate cultures, or market dynamics. For example, Hasan (2014) says that Dell has used both approaches in a concerted effort by the company’s managers to shift from the resource-based view to the market-based approach, owing to market dynamics (recession) and competition from some of its primary rivals, such as HP. Companies, which do not find the resource-based or market-based views of analysis as integral to their competitive performance often resort to the knowledge-based view or capability-based views of competitive analysis. The knowledge-based view is explained below.
Knowledge-based Theory of the Firm
The knowledge-based aspect of a business often considers a company’s knowledge as being the most integral to its overall performance, relative to its competitors. This approach is a relatively new area of competitive theoretical development because it mostly characterizes 21st-century companies, which are tapping into the dynamics of today’s knowledge-based economy. The growth and spread of the internet around the world and the consequent plugging in of many organizations to this platform has increased the relevance of this theory because many smartphone companies are trying to leverage their knowledge to stay competitive. Hasan (2014) says that experience is a powerful competitive tool because it is difficult to imitate.
Furthermore, for some organizations, it is socially complex and difficult to replicate. These factors make heterogeneous knowledge bases as some of the most powerful in the smartphone industry. Different platforms within an organization often carry or replicate this entity among workers, thereby making it an almost immortal type of competence that runs deep in the memory of all workers involved. For example, some kinds of knowledge are often replicated in organizational cultures, while others are safeguarded through corporate rules and policies (McGee 2015). A classic example of the power of the knowledge-based view in competitive performance could be demonstrated through the dominance of Coca-Cola in the beverage market. The company has maintained its position as the leading beverage brand it is today because of the knowledge it has safeguarded in the production of its drinks.
Capability-based View
As its name suggests, the capability-based view of competitive strategic development hinges on leveraging an organization’s key capabilities (Hasan 2014). In other words, this approach derives its power from the assumption that not all companies will have the same skills at the same time. Thus, it is possible to find one organization performing one aspect of its operations better than another does. Consequently, teams, which could work better than their competitors have a real chance of outwitting them. This view of competitive performance could be applied in the smartphone market differently. For example, it is possible to find companies that have tremendous capabilities in operational software better than its rivals do. This approach is a source of capability power. At the same time, another organization could have immense knowledge in hardware development, which would allow it to outperform its rivals, which do not have equal competencies (Savoc 2014). This distinction reveals how the capability-based view could differentiate companies from one another and create a source of competitive advantage among them. Broadly, the same view also draws our attention to the theory of specialization of labor, in international competition, among nations because the concept also taps into the ability of countries to develop goods and services better than others do, depending on their capabilities (Woyke 2014).
Besides the smartphone industry, different companies have used the capability-based view to outwit their competitors. For example, Hasan (2014) says Toyota is one of the most prominent companies to use this strategy for creating dominance in the global automobile market. Other researchers have mentioned Disney World, Boeing, and General Motors as other companies that have effectively used the strategy to outwit their competitors in their respective markets (Savoc 2014). While different groups have used the capability-based view as one of the critical instruments of competitive decision-making processes, some observers agree that the knowledge-based and resource-based views of competitive rivalry have a role to play in elevating the power of the capability-based view in explaining competitive performance (Woyke 2014). For example, Hasan (2014) points out that companies can’t develop a competitive edge without relying primarily on their knowledge-based resources.
As opposed to a resource-based view, such an assertion automatically draws our attention to the power of organizational capabilities in explaining competitive positioning, primarily because the presence of resources without the knowledge to use or deploy them would automatically lead to poor competitive positioning. In other words, it would not be possible to experience capability-based competitive advantages without the deployment of appropriate resources. This statement overtly means that the resources organizations need to create a competitive advantage are capability-based. Comprehensively, a review of these theories of competition draws our attention to the need for institutions to apply each one of them well, depending on their market or organizational dynamics. The process of doing so largely depends on a proper understanding of their industry. Since the locus of focus in this paper is the smartphone market, the following section provides an analysis of the same.
Smartphone Market – An Analysis
Although the world has witnessed volatilities in the global economic landscape, the smartphone market has been characterized by several years of impressive growth in sales numbers. According to a research firm, Credit Suisse, the sales numbers of mobile phones have been fluctuating, but the same trend has not been reported in the global smartphone market because the growth has been steadily on the increase. Figure 1 below shows this pattern.
Figure 1: Smartphone Market Sales (Ungson & Wong 2014, p. 3).
Today, 50% of the total sales of mobile phones is because of smartphone purchases. Although there has been increased growth in the sales volume for most companies operating in this industry, many of them have devised unique strategies to outwit their competitors in the fight for global dominance in the same. Many factors account for this. For example, the rise in disposable incomes in developing countries has been a significant consideration in the formulation of marketing strategies for many mobile phone companies in the industry (Ungson & Wong 2014). Notably, there has been a constant emphasis on significant economies in the developing world because they have huge populations and are witnessing substantial increases in their household incomes.
Rising disposable incomes have been ordinarily attributed to increased consumer spending on entertainment and luxuries (Cecere 2014). Increased consumption of media reports, online networking activities, and gaming consoles are also associated with the same market driver, thereby increasing the sales of technological gadgets, such as smartphones and laptops (Cecere 2014). This explains the high rates of adoption of smartphones in urban areas compared to rural ones. Similarly, the same phenomenon explains why there is a higher rate of smartphone use in developing countries that have a significantly higher proportion of urban residents compared to rural inhabitants (Ungson & Wong 2014).
To differentiate their products from competitors, most phone companies, such as Apple and Samsung, are investing billions of dollars in the production of unique application processes that would enable them to “lock-in” their customers from competitors (Ungson & Wong 2014). The increasing popularity of mobile commerce is driving part of the innovation because it is widely popular among the working-class population who now prefer to own mobile phones that could have this feature (Ungson & Wong 2014). Growing internet penetration in many cities and suburbs is primarily informing an increase in the number of customers in this market segment. The increased number of subscribers to online social media sites is also supporting the same growth (Savoc 2014).
The production of excellent and affordable smartphones is also another competitive area where industry leaders in the mobile phone industry are competing (Song 2017). This competing platform is buoyed by several views from different observers who believe that the production of high quality and affordable smartphones would define the growth trend in the next decade (Savoc 2014; Song 2017). The popularity of smartphones as the most desirable type of phone to have has also contributed to the growth in the global market. Similarly, increased investments in the development of mobile operating software, such as Android, iOS, and Windows Phone are also set to provide the next growth area in the market segment. Nonetheless, the impressive growth in the global smartphone market is partly influenced by different market dynamics, which are explored in the section below.
Market Analysis
This part of the chapter reviews the mobile phone market by outlining how industry dynamics have shifted, based on changing consumer tastes and preferences, including evolving market dynamics. The analysis below provides a review of the current market fragmentation according to operating systems
Market Fragmentation (OS)
According to a 2015 report published by Ungson and Wong (2014), mobile phone providers who use the Android operating system mostly dominate the global smartphone market. This fact is supported by figure 2 below.
Figure 2: Smartphone market share (Ungson & Wong 2014, p. 4).
The Windows Phone, Blackberry OS, and iOS trail the market leader inapplicability. In later sections of this paper, this analysis would be instrumental in explaining how the OS market performance contributed to Nokia’s downfall. However, several research studies have highlighted different reasons for the collapse of traditional tech giants, such as Nokia and Blackberry, in the section below.
Lost Grip of Smartphone Pioneers
Perhaps one of the most documented issues in the smartphone industry is the lost dominance of the pioneer companies in the smartphone sector. Besides Nokia, many researchers have mentioned Palm and Blackberry as other giant organizations that fell by the wayside (Savoc 2014). All these companies lost their dominance in the market based on different reasons. Some studies have shown that Blackberry lost its market dominance in the smartphone market because of internal disagreements within its company’s leadership structure, especially after Apple started gaining prominence in the market, post-2007 (Ma 2016). The conflict was mostly focused on divided opinions about whether the company should embrace the revolutionary touchscreen technology or stick to the brand’s identity of using the keyboard on its mobile phones (Ungson & Wong 2014).
Pundits say the decision to venture into the touchscreen market heralded a period of financial hemorrhage for the company, especially after it became clear that it made losses of $965 million because of a weak decision-making process (Ungson & Wong 2014). The damages mostly arose from the failure to clear its Blackberry Z10 stock (Ungson & Wong 2014). The inability of Blackberry to allow app developers to run their programs on the Blackberry OS also stunted the company’s growth because, as Woyke (2014) observes, the developers did not want a platform that constrained them. Evidence of this fact manifests in the refusal by some program developers to allow their applications to run on the Blackberry OS. For example, Instagram and Tumblr refused to let their apps run on the blackberry operating system. However, some experts say blackberry’s failure in the American market was partly caused by the company’s inability to work with Verizon to defeat the competition, which was forged by Apple and AT&T (Hasan 2014). The failure of Blackberry to penetrate the Chinese market further dented the company’s prospects of success and diminished its ability to forge a recovery plan. Today, most of the company’s sales come from a few loyal users in the Americas, Asian, and European markets (Hasan 2014).
Palm is another smartphone company that lost its popularity among smartphone users, despite being a household brand in the late 1990s for its flagship brand – Treo600. In 2010, Hewlett Packard (HP) bought the company for 1.2 billion (Ma 2016). Afterward, it was sold to a Chinese technology company known as TLC because of low sales numbers. The reasons for the company’s collapse are many, but some researchers point to poor leadership and the pursuit of ineffective marketing strategies (Ma 2016). The collective failures of these corporations are extensively highlighted in different academic works, but few have bothered to explain them in greater depth. However, some researchers have pointed out that changes in the smartphone market have partly contributed to their collapse. These changes are highlighted below.
Changes in the Smartphone Market
Shift of Core Value
A key trend in the global smartphone industry that has happened in the last decade is a critical shift in the core value underpinning the industry’s operations. The change in value has been from hardware to software (Savoc 2014). Traditionally most phone companies focused on hardware development, while software content growth was mostly offered through their respective portals. However, the instability involved in exposing customers to new content made this strategy untenable. Nokia was a principal player in this market because it was among the first few companies to focus on software development. However, as Woyke (2014) observes, it did not execute this portion of its corporate strategy well enough to have an impact on the market. This inability made the company’s mobile phones unmarketable to most would-be-customers. At the same time, most customers were focused on having phones that provided good quality functionalities, such as good sound quality, camera quality, and display quality (among others) – attributes that still focused on hardware development (Ma 2016). Thus, companies, such as Nokia, LG, Motorola, Sony Erickson (and others) dominated the market because they had developed essential competencies in hardware development.
An IDC research study published in 2006 affirms this trend because it shows that in the same year, Nokia led the market by selling 347 million units (Ma 2016). Comparatively, its rival (at the time), Motorola, sold 217 million units, while Samsung sold slightly more than 100 million units (Ungson & Wong 2014). Smartphones only contributed 10% of the total sales. Figure 3 below shows the structure of the traditional phone market.
Figure 3: Traditional cell phone market structure (Ungson & Wong 2014, p. 5).
The standardization of hardware technology and developments in internet configuration changed the entire landscape of the cell phone market and made it possible for software-oriented companies to stake a claim in the market. A critical contribution that came with this change was the ability of users to make significant changes to their mobile phone interfaces, as opposed to the standardized interfaces associated with traditional cell phones. Comprehensively, this analysis shows that a shift in core values from hardware to software has characterized market developments in the last decade. However, this trend has further morphed into new market dynamics that are explained below.
Current Market Analysis
The current market for smartphones can broadly be divided into three main categories that include software-orientation, hardware orientation, and content-orientation. Experts deem the hardware-oriented market as one of the most competitive in the industry (Ma 2016). The second category of the market (software-orientation) has seen new players become increasingly interested in the sector through app development (Ungson & Wong 2014). Some notable players include Apple, Google, RIM, and Nokia. Many researchers regard the process of developing content as a new area of market growth, and it consists of all Smartphone companies because its structure has a vertical integration as industry players look for partnerships that would allow them to achieve their long-term business goals (Ungson & Wong 2014). Figure 4 below provides a synopsis of the current market segmentation, relative to traditional players in the phone market as well as new entrants in the same.
Figure 4: Current Smartphone Market (Ungson & Wong 2014, p. 6).
The diagram above shows that different companies have been jostling for the top position. However, various market dynamics and leadership strategies are at play to explain their performance. It is pertinent to investigate each company at a time to understand its effects. This study adopts the case-specific approach.
Summary
The findings of this chapter show that since the popularity of smartphones soared in the last decade, mobile phone companies have been engaged in a bruising battle for the global smartphone market. This chapter has also explained what other researchers have written about the industry and provided a synopsis of its competitive nature that could provide a context, which people could use to understand the successes and failures of the world’s most prominent mobile phone brands. Additionally, this chapter has highlighted different theoretical bases used by various researchers to explain the competitive behaviors of different firms in the global smartphone market. The market-based view, capacity-based view, knowledge-based view, and resource-based view have notably emerged as critical theoretical foundations for analyzing the competitive behaviors of different firms in the industry. However, these frameworks provide general views of how various firms could compete against each other. Therefore, they fail to recognize unique organizational dynamics that are central to making sure organizations succeed.
Of importance in this chapter is the revelation that past studies have generalized changes in the smartphone industry to different organizations without adequately scrutinizing their internal intrigues to comprehend their performance. More specifically, this literature review has not identified research studies that have focused on Nokia as a case study that would help to explain how companies strive to survive in today’s competitive smartphone industry. At the same time, most of the studies that have touched on this research topic are either outdated or too broad in perspective. Based on these gaps in the existing literature, this paper will explore the competitive strategies of one Smartphone Company that is struggling to find its relevance in today’s fast-paced market. Chapter 3 below highlights the research strategy used for answering the research questions.
Methodology
This chapter outlines the research strategies used to answer these research questions. It contains six sections that describe the research approach, research design, data collection strategy, data analysis technique, ethical considerations, and how to address the reliability and validity issues that emerged in the investigation.
Research Approach
According to Ivankova (2014), there are two main types of research approaches – qualitative research and quantitative research. Researchers often use the qualitative research method in cases where they want to explore subjective issues about a research topic. Comparatively, the quantitative research approach is instrumental in answering research questions that have a measurable or quantifiable attribute (Mette 2016). The mixed methods research approach is a third research method used by some researchers, and it includes characteristics of both the qualitative and quantitative approaches. This research approach applies to this research study because competitive strategies in the mobile phone market contain subjective issues (such as consumer-based preferences) and quantitative issues (such as sales numbers).
This paper concentrates on the business strategies adopted by smartphone companies as they compete with one another in today’s fast-paced and aggressive market. Based on the topic’s business-oriented nature, qualitative and quantitative elements of analysis are instrumental in exploring this research topic because business strategies are often formulated through qualitative processes (management outlook and decision-making processes), but the final goal is usually quantitative (profitability). The four research questions underlying this paper also mirror the same dichotomy. Thus, the mixed-method research approach is justifiably used in this study to accommodate both the qualitative and quantitative elements of analysis.
Research Design
According to Mette (2016), there are six research designs associated with the mixed methods research approach. They include the sequential explanatory design, sequential exploratory design, sequential transformative design, concurrent triangulation technique, concurrent nested technique, and concurrent transformative method. These research designs are explained below.
Sequential Explanatory Design
This research design is characterized by the collection of quantitative data as the primary type of information to be relied on in the study. Comparatively, subjective data is integrated complementarily to the analysis. Thus, researchers who want to use qualitative findings to explain quantitative findings mostly use this design of data collection (Riazi 2016).
Sequential Exploratory Design
The sequential exploratory design is often characterized by the predominant use of qualitative data to answer research questions. Quantitative information is also obtained at the same time, but priority is given to qualitative data when answering the research questions. Researchers who prefer to use this research design are often interested in exploring a research phenomenon. For example, it has been commonly used when testing a new instrument of scientific investigation (Mette 2016).
Sequential Transformative Design
This type of research design does not give priority to any data as the predominant one, or one that should be collected first. Instead, it allows researchers to receive equal numbers of quantitative and subjective data during the initial phases of the research. Afterward, the researcher could integrate both types of information when developing the research findings. The goal of choosing this research design is usually to give a researcher enough room to choose whichever type of data that best suits a theoretical perspective (Riazi 2016).
Concurrent Triangulation
As its name suggests, the concurrent triangulation technique is often used when researchers want to gather data concurrently. In other words, it is possible to collect both numeric and subjective data in one study. The purpose of doing so is to cross-validate the information obtained from one type of data with another. Since data collection is concurrent, it is also possible to corroborate the findings obtained. The principal purpose of using the concurrent triangulation technique is to make sure the weaknesses of one type of data do not affect the overall results of the research because they would be counter-managed with the strengths of the other (Mette 2016).
Concurrent Nested Technique
The concurrent nested technique is characterized by the reliance on one type of data and the use of another in a nested or embedded manner. This research design is often used in cases where researchers want to address a research question at multiple levels of analysis. Similarly, it is commonly used in situations where researchers would want to discuss a different matter other than the dominant one (Mette 2016).
Concurrent Transformative Technique
The concurrent transformative technique is used in situations where researchers want the theoretical foundation of a study to guide the entire process of data collection. Since the gist of the research design is based on a specific theory, researchers who want to analyze a particular approach at different levels of analysis mostly use the concurrent transformative technique (Riazi 2016).
Based on the characteristics of the research designs mentioned above, this research study was more adaptive to the sequential exploratory method because it has a strong focus on gathering qualitative data as the central source of information for the research. The qualitative data would be expounded using the secondary data analysis method as a point of reference and corroboration of the findings obtained using the interview method. Thus, the sequential exploratory design emerges as the best research design for the study. Further details surrounding the data collection process appears below.
Data Collection and Sampling Strategy
Information about the research process was obtained on two fronts. As mentioned above, qualitative data was collected using interviews, as the principal data collection method. The meetings involved engagements with professionals who have vast knowledge about the smartphone market. The interview protocol provides a point of reference for understanding some of the fundamental issues discussed in the interview. In total, 16 respondents who worked in two London-based consultancy firms were recruited using the snowball technique. The snowball sampling technique works by selecting respondents based on referrals or recommendations from initial contact (Garner, Wagner & Kawulich 2016). This sampling technique is chosen for the study because the researcher knew one of the professionals who introduced the other respondents to the research. The interviews were semi-structured and took about 30 minutes to complete. Discussions happened via telephone.
The second front of data collection involved a review of published research materials. The research materials were mainly books, journals, and credible websites. Emphasis was made to include only those documents that were published within the last five years. Similarly, only those materials that were released, or verified, by credible authors were included in the study. The keywords and phrases used to conduct the investigation were “Nokia,” “smartphone industry,” “business strategy” and “competition.” The information obtained through this data collection technique was used to verify, compare, and corroborate the interview findings.
Data Analysis
The thematic and coding methods were applied in this study as the central data analysis techniques. The technique involved collecting information obtained from both sets of data highlighted above. The data were categorized into different themes and coded for purposes of easy identification and analysis. The main thematic areas were coined from the main points of focus highlighted in the four research questions, while the codes assigned corresponded to the specific areas of study interest. Since there were four areas of interest in the study, four codes were generated, which were numerically arranged as 1, 2, 3, and 4. The thematic and coding process included six simple steps highlighted in table 1 below.
Table 1: Data Analysis Process.
Step 1
Familiarization of data
Step 2
Generating Initial codes
Step 3
Searching for themes
Step 4
Reviewing themes
Step 5
Defining and naming themes
Step 6
Producing the report
Ethical Considerations
Privacy and Confidentiality issues
The respondents were guaranteed that the information obtained from them would be presented in the study anonymously. The purpose of doing so was to protect the identity of those who took part in the study. Thus, no names of the respondents are included in the study.
Consent
Consent involves the free will of participants to take part in the research process. All the interviewees did so without any coercion or receipt of payment. They also enjoyed the free will to withdraw from the study at any point without any repercussions.
Treatment of Data
Data obtained from the research was stored and secured in a computer using a password that was only accessible by the researcher. After completion of the study, the data would be destroyed to protect the privacy of the information obtained from the research participants.
Validity and Reliability Issues
Two methods helped to safeguard the quality of the study’s findings. The first one is the member-check technique, which ensured that the results obtained from the respondents were shared with them. The purpose of doing so was to make sure that the views presented in this study were actual representations of what the respondents said. Amendments were made in areas where the interviewees felt that their views were misrepresented.
Findings
As highlighted in the third section of this paper, the principal sources of information for this study were interviews and secondary research data. These two sources of research information were used to answer the four central research questions of the investigation. This chapter outlines the main findings that emerged from the analysis.
Interview Findings
Eighteen respondents were recommended for the study using the snowball sampling technique. However, only 16 of them found time to participate. Four thematic areas having unique codes as depicted in table 2 below summarised the findings. The table below shows the main thematic areas represented by each code.
Table 2: Thematic Areas and their assigned Codes.
Thematic Area
Code
Potential for Nokia’s revival
1
Factors that led to Nokia’s fall
2
Factors that contributed to the success of Nokia’s rivals
3
How Nokia could reclaim its market dominance
4
Factors that Led to Nokia’s Fall
The reasons given by the respondents as the main factors that led to Nokia’s decline were widespread and far-between. However, the emergence of Apple and the Android operating system in the mobile phone market became a typical response from most of the respondents. They believed that these two entities made it untenable for Nokia to continue doing business (as it was) because they offered customers better alternatives such as superior products and services. However, some of the respondents deemed the explanations for the failure of Nokia to rise to the challenge posed by Apple and Android as “mysterious”. However, two of them tried to clarify this issue by saying that Nokia underestimated the power of the software business to its corporate model.
At the same time, they pointed out that the company did not understand the importance of transitioning to the smartphone business as a critical component of its business model. One of the respondents said that this inaction was in a way a case of the company being trapped in its past success. The same respondent said, “You know, in one way, I cannot blame Nokia for its failure because most of its profits around 2007 were not predominantly coming from the smartphone business. Therefore, it is forgivable that they did not see it as a threat to their bottom-line. However, this should not have been an excuse for it not to be ahead of the curve.”
Another respondent who shared a similar opinion said, “You have to look at this issue in the right context. In 2007, the touch screen and smartphone business largely looked like a high price-low volume kind of business. In general business terms, we would refer to this market as a high-risk model. Therefore, I understand Nokia’s reluctance to venture into it. However, I must admit that its failure to transition into a new age of mobile telephony contributed to its failure.” Another reason touted by some of the respondents as part of Nokia’s failure is its inability to gauge its brand strength. They argued that the company significantly overshot its brand value by thinking that it was probably “too big to fail.” One of the interviewees further opined that Nokia thought it could catch up quickly with the market, but this did not happen. Thus, it was left in a disadvantaged position when most of its competitors produced better mobile phones for its traditional customers, who later changed their brand loyalty.
Factors That Contributed to the Success of Nokia’s Rival
A key theme that emerged from the respondent’s views regarding the main factors that contributed to the success of Nokia’s rivals was an innovation. Notably, the interviewees argued that innovation was perhaps the most revolutionizing thing that Nokia’s competitors did to outwit it. The touchscreen technology was also one example highlighted by some of the respondents as another type of innovative development that contributed to the success of Nokia’s rivals. For example, creative mobile phone designs are also featured among some of the views highlighted by the respondents. One of them explained that innovation influenced how companies designed their phones – a process that revolutionized the smartphone market since 2007.
The respondents commonly drew comparisons between Nokia and Apple because they said both companies had different visions of the industry and executed them as such. While Nokia’s vision was mostly focused on making some of the world’s best handheld devices, Apple focused on revolutionizing the industry by creating a similarly revolutionary touch interface that was a big hit among many smartphone users. From this understanding, a better grasp of consumer experience also emerged as another strength of Nokia’s rivals that helped them overshadow the once-dominant tech giant.
Respondents who used Apple as an example of Nokia’s rivals mostly referenced this attribute. One of the respondents had the following to say, “See…some of Nokia’s rivals were facing absolute irrelevance in the tech market, mostly because they were facing stiff competition from other companies. One such example is Apple, which was facing stiff competition from its rivals. The company knew that if it did not do something drastic, it would be “game over” for them. So they had to innovate and come up with a dramatic product that could disrupt the market. Their gamble paid off, and I must admit Nokia did not see it coming.” Comprehensively, based on the findings of this interview area, innovation emerged as a key area of analysis that helped to answer the question regarding what helped Nokia’s rivals supersede its market dominance. However, it was interesting to note that the respondents considered Apple to be Nokia’s main rival that contributed to its fall.
Potential for Nokia’s Revival
When the respondents were asked to state their views about the revival of Nokia, only two of them answered in the affirmative. They believed the company has a real potential of reinventing itself because the smartphone industry is not static. However, most of them believed that so much had happened in the industry, since the fall of the tech giant for it to forge a formidable comeback. One of the respondents who held this opinion said, “I do not believe Nokia could forge a comeback because it takes years to build some of the competencies that existing market leaders have developed. In the past five years, it has not been able to do so. I do not see how it could do so in the next five years, or even in the next decade.” Another respondent who held a contrary opinion said, “The smartphone industry is a very volatile market. Companies that dominate the market today were not known a decade ago. All it takes is ingenuity and clear organizational strategies for Nokia to make a comeback. If it were possible for a completely new company to have an impact on the market today, I would not deem it impossible for an experienced organization, such as Nokia, to make a comeback.”
The above views notwithstanding, most of the respondents sampled did not believe that Nokia could make a comeback in the market. Their views were mostly hinged on the company’s failure to make any significant attempts to reinvent itself in the past five years, thereby casting doubts regarding the management’s ability to do so. Changing market dynamics also emerged as an impediment for the organization to tap into current market opportunities. Thus, the collective view was that Nokia has a low probability of reviving its business, at least to the level of market dominance it used to enjoy.
How Nokia Could Reclaim Its Market Dominance
When the respondents were asked to state their views regarding how Nokia could reclaim its market dominance in the wake of today’s competitive and fast-paced smartphone market, most of them expressed their reservations about the likelihood of such a thing happening. Their main point of discussion was the company’s inability to marshal a robust infrastructure, or pool of resources, to match its competitors. The sale of some of its principal divisions mainly sprung up as a common point of discussion for most of those sampled because they believed that this action rid the company of some of its key competencies or business divisions that would have ended up aiding it in its long path to recovery. The sale of some of the company’s business divisions to Motorola was mainly identified by some of the respondents as an example of the company’s inability to make a significant comeback. Only two respondents believed the company could make such a turnaround because they argued that its hardware and engineering competencies could still be leveraged on its competitors.
Secondary Data Analysis Findings
This section of the analysis highlights the findings obtained from a review of secondary data analysis. In total, 43 articles matched the search criteria highlighted in chapter 3 of the report. However, only 21 materials were used in the paper based on the exclusion and inclusion criteria mentioned in the same chapter.
Factors That Led to Nokia’s Fall
According to most research studies sampled in this report, Nokia’s failure was partly caused by the company’s perceived unwillingness to efficiently innovate and align its business strategies with changes in consumer tastes and preferences (Savoc 2014). In other words, the lack of innovation was touted as one of the main reasons for the fall of Nokia. Again, it is imperative to understand how Apple surpassed Nokia in the global smartphone market to demonstrate this fact. The latter was eager to innovate by introducing new technologies that would allow it to create new products and services for its clients. This innovation strategy is similarly demonstrable through the development of the iPhone after the introduction of the iPod in 2001 in a move that was largely touted by many observers as a deliberate attempt by Apple to cannibalize its product (Savoc 2014). This strategy was developed after the company’s founder, Steve Jobs, saw how smartphones with cameras had obliterated the camera market. Thus, he was fearful that the same would happen to the iPod, mainly because Smartphones were cheap (Savoc 2014). Therefore, he decided to innovate. Nokia did no such thing.
Nokia’s dominant failure emerged from its fixation on the hardware development market, thereby neglecting other aspects of its products that required innovation as well. This strategy was contrary to the approach taken by its rivals who decided to build ecosystems around their products that included hardware, mobile phone applications, and unique operating systems (Ungson & Wong 2014). While this finding is correct, it is equally important to point out that the company did not refuse to innovate. For example, it was among the first businesses to introduce the touchscreen feature on its mobile phones. At the same time, it was among the first companies to offer Wi-Fi and camera features on its mobile phones. However, its innovations failed to take off because of the company’s inability to provide its customers with radically different user experiences that would revolutionize its business model. These issues were the main weaknesses of its corporate strategy that contributed to its failure. In separate quarters, Nokia’s failures were mostly attributed to the company’s pursuance of an innovative incremental craft, as opposed to a radical or disruptive creative plan. In other words, the company needed to do “something big” to maintain its market share, or prove to its customers that it was still valuable to them. However, this outcome failed to suffice.
As highlighted through examples mentioned above, the entry of Apple’s iPhone in the smartphone market emerged as a key point of reference in most studies sampled. Most of them showed that before 2007, Apple had negligible sales compared to the numbers it boasts of today. For example, an article by Jin (2015) reveals that the success of the iPhone was mainly pegged on its revolutionary nature, which most competitors, such as Nokia and Samsung, could not match up to. Other reports showed a higher contrast between the performance of Nokia and Apple by demonstrating that, in 2007, Apple had zero sales in the Smartphone market, while Nokia enjoyed more than 50% of the global mobile market (Ungson & Wong 2014).
However, in 2013, the tables turned when Apple managed to command more than 40% of the market in America alone. In the same year, the California-based company managed to stake a claim to about 50% of the global cash flow in the smartphone industry. Reports also show that in 2013, Apple had managed to increase its sales numbers to more than five times those reported by Nokia (Ungson & Wong 2014). In other words, Apple was selling up to 150 million mobile phones in one fiscal year, while Nokia was only selling 30 million mobile phones (Ungson & Wong 2014). Google and Samsung also exploited Nokia’s unwillingness to innovate to further diminish its dominant position in the global smartphone market (Woyke 2014).
Factors That Contributed to the Success of Nokia’s Rivals
Different publications sampled in this report highlighted various issues that contributed to the success of Nokia’s competitors in the smartphone industry (Li 2017). Stemming from the differences in corporate strategies adopted by the company and its rivals, Apple leveraged its software to provide its customers with other products, including music, movies, and mobile phone applications. This business model allowed other players in other industries to plug into the Apple ecosystem and develop a new brand that would enable them to make money from it as well. iTunes is an example of such an innovative model. The Appstore is another unique product highlighted by a sample of the publications reviewed that emerged from this strategy. The realization by Nokia’s rivals that customers wanted a better user experience created additional value to customers, thereby making them more appealing than traditional mobile phone brands, such as Nokia. Overall, this outcome meant that, while Nokia was mostly focusing on building a brand that centered on technological competence/superiority, its rivals were able to develop a new ecosystem that allowed them to create value through product-service ecosystems. This strategy allowed them to dislodge Nokia from the helm of the smartphone market.
How Nokia Could Reclaim Its Market Dominance and Potential for Nokia’s Revival
An insufficient volume of literature explained how Nokia could reclaim its market dominance. Most of them provided a synopsis of efforts by the company to make a comeback in the global smartphone market, but none of them painted an optimistic view of the company. Nonetheless, some of the documents sampled showed that the company has a better opportunity of reclaiming its market position by trying to position itself in developing markets, as opposed to reclaiming its once-dominant position in the American or European markets (Li 2017). Besides this proposal, few studies delved deeper into this area of investigation.
Analysis
This section provides an analysis of the main findings gathered through the interviews and secondary data collection processes. As mentioned in the research design (chapter 3), the justification for selecting the sequential exploratory technique was hinged on its focus on qualitative data, which was the primary source of information for this study. Published research information was also used in this study, but it will be integrated into this chapter as secondary research information. These two sources of research data were used to answer four central research questions that strived to estimate the potential for Nokia’s revival in the technology industry and understand the factors that led to Nokia’s demise. The inquiries also sought to evaluate the elements that added to the success of the company’s rivals and formulate recommendations that could help it to reclaim its market dominance. These four areas of investigation are explained in this chapter, relative to the findings gathered in chapter 4.
Factors That Led To Nokia’s Fall
Based on the analysis of the secondary research information and interview findings, we find that both datasets support the narrative that Nokia did very little to innovate, as a way of keeping its competitors at bay. This view is primarily supported by independent studies, which demonstrated Nokia’s fall from the top. For example, several studies showed that Nokia used to be a leader among many of its peers during the early and mid-2000s. The Symbian OS was responsible for most of the company’s success, but the same operating system failed to deliver the same success through the Android era. The company’s excellent performance (pre-2000 period) was enshrined in the fact that out of the 20 best selling brands in mobile phone history, Nokia phones were at the top.
Several publications sampled in this review showed that the popularity of Nokia mobile phones was at an all-time high in the company’s history, such that it was not possible to think of mobile phones without mentioning Nokia (Li 2017; Ungson & Wong 2014). In the mid-2000s, Nokia was extensively touted as one of the world best selling mobile phone companies based on independent reports, which showed that the company was responsible for manufacturing half of all mobile phones on the planet (Ungson & Wong 2014). At the same time, its Symbian OS was used in 65% of the global mobile phone market. However, in less than a decade the corporation faltered and lost its dominance of the global mobile phone market to other players, such as Apple and Samsung.
According to a comprehensive review of the interview findings, the year 2007 was a significant one for Nokia because many of the interviewees believed the launch of the iPhone was a turning point for the company because the latter was a vital device that revolutionized the smartphone industry. During the year, Nokia’s market share significantly declined, while Apple’s skyrocketed. This outcome was also affirmed by independent reports sampled through the secondary data analysis. A more in-depth analysis of this fact reveals that the pressure exerted by the popularity of the Android operating system on low-end mobile phone users also caused a strain on the company’s bottom-line performance because it was unable to cope with different pressures from the market. Consequently, Nokia had to cede its control of the mobile phone market to Samsung, Apple, and other competitors.
This move heralded an end to Nokia’s dominance of the mobile phone market, which it had enjoyed for more than 14 years. Coupled with the company’s strategy of using the Windows operating system, Nokia ultimately failed to outwit its competitors. The company’s decline was further signified by its announcement of the sale of the Symbian operating system, which happened in 2013 (MIC Research Team 2016). At this time, the operating system was of little value to investors. In 2014, the organization also announced that it had to sell some of its products and services to willing investors. Around the same time, the company also sold its patents to Microsoft for 1.2 billion (MIC Research Team 2016). The 2014 agreement marked an end to Nokia’s dominance in the market. Most of these events have been captured in multiple materials that have documented the company’s decline. However, an interesting dynamic that the respondents sampled revealed was the identification of the company’s failure to innovate as being at the heart of the problem.
Factors That Contributed To the Success of Nokia’s Rivals
The main factors that contributed to the success of Nokia’s rivals were highlighted by most of the respondents to be a better understanding of the market by Nokia’s competitors. In the words of Cecere (2014), the company’s rivals had a better grip on the pulse of the market by a better understanding of future consumer tastes and preferences. The shift from hardware to software emerged as the core point of reference for this assertion because companies that understood this fact, such as Apple, were able to significantly increase their market share, while those that did not lose customers. Nokia falls in the latter group. The ability to change with the market further draws our attention to the concept of change management, which is at the heart of the leadership of most of Nokia’s rivals. In other words, the Finnish company was unable to recognize this fact and therefore unable to respond decisively to market needs. The same problem has been highlighted in the literature review section as being a cause of Blackberry’s fall.
How Nokia Could Reclaim Its Market Dominance
Nokia could reclaim its market dominance by addressing one of its fundamental problems, which is innovation. Innovation has been highlighted as a pivotal issue in most of its business divisions and has been supported by both the interview and secondary review findings. While this may be true, it is also important to point out that innovation in a company (or the lack thereof) is mostly a leadership issue. In other words, proper or visionary leadership should help businesses to manage the market and their internal resources better. Nokia had no shortfall of funds and, as the resource-based view stipulates, it should have succeeded to develop a strong competitive position over its rivals. However, this did not happen because of a leadership problem in the company.
The contrast between Apple and Nokia’s leadership, which has been cited several times in this report, highlights this fact because Apple’s vision of developing a revolutionary device was more superior to Nokia’s concept of focusing on its hardware competencies. Typically, what Nokia lacked was proper leadership that could have helped it to navigate the murky waters of the competitive mobile phone market. Based on this analysis, Nokia could reclaim its market dominance by developing effective leadership.
Potential for Nokia’s Revival
According to the findings highlighted in this paper, the potential for Nokia’s revival was either unexplored (secondary research analysis) or perceived to have a low likelihood (interview findings). These conclusions were mostly derived from the fact that Nokia sold most of the fundamental business divisions that could have helped it to revamp its business operations. A majority of the respondents highlighted this view. Independent research findings also support this assertion because they show that Nokia sold off most of its engineering and hardware development operations to other corporations, such as Motorola – a process that has made it significantly weaker, relative to how it used to perform in the past.
However, the idea that the company could forge a new competitive front in emerging markets also appears as a possible frontier for the company’s re-emergence because some reports have shown that this potential exists in these markets. This view stems from the fact that the company has reported significant losses in several years from most of its traditional markets. It has poorly performed in the American and European markets. Currently, most of its sales come from the Asian (Middle East) and African markets (Cecere 2014). These markets are where their potential lies. Based on this analysis, the knowledge-based view highlighted in chapter 2 of this paper emerges as the central theoretical foundation for this exposition because most of the changes that have shaped the smartphone market in the past decade are mostly linked to knowledge creation.
Conclusion
This paper has set the analysis of Nokia’s business strategy within the extended context of the competitive smartphone industry. Notably, the investigation of the research questions in this paper has focused on the company’s positioning and the relationship between its competitive strategies with the dynamics of the smartphone market. This report has provided an analysis of the same market, including a synopsis of its origin, growth, and structure with a predetermined goal of understanding the critical dynamics that players have to adapt to in a bid to win more customers. Although this study has primarily concentrated on Nokia, it has also profiled the strategies adopted by other companies to stay relevant in the global smartphone market by contextualizing their policies and market approaches within the extended understanding of evolving industry trends and dynamics. This view was the overarching aim of the study, but a more specific investigation of the same drew our attention to Nokia.
Four central research questions guided this study. They strived to estimate the potential for Nokia’s revival in the technology industry, understand the factors that led to the demise of Nokia, evaluate the issues, which added to the success of the company’s rivals and formulate recommendations that could help it to reclaim its market dominance. A comprehensive review of the findings gathered from the secondary data analysis, and interview findings showed that Nokia’s lack of understanding about changing consumer tastes and preferences, its failure to innovate, and its overconfidence on the company’s brand image were mostly responsible for its failure. The same sources of information showed that Nokia’s rivals took advantage of these weaknesses and dislodged the once-dominant company from the helm of the mobile phone market.
Apple emerged as one of the company’s most formidable competitors that largely contributed to its fall. Samsung also emerged as another successful company that dislodged Nokia from the top position in the market. The focus on the software part of mobile phone operations, as opposed to hardware development, was one strategy adopted by both companies in the quest to produce superior products that led to the collapse of the Finnish company. Since both organizations still dominate the market and are spending many resources in research and development, the potential for Nokia’s revival remains grim. Although the secondary research data analyzed in this report never investigated this matter carefully, the interviewers sampled demonstrated the same pessimism. However, the recommendations section below provides some insights into what Nokia needs to focus on to improve its future market position.
Recommendations
The tale of Nokia and its decline offers a compelling story of what modern technology companies should do to stay relevant in today’s fast-paced smartphone industry. More importantly, it provides valuable lessons for corporations that may want to enter the smartphone market. However, essential to this study is the need to understand the importance of leadership in managing operations in the smartphone industry. Leadership is instrumental in this analysis because it encompasses all processes that could be instrumental in an organization’s survival strategy. Expressly, it is essential in improving the competitive positioning of firms because leadership creates an organization’s vision that helps it to navigate extreme competitive pressures, such as that which Nokia experienced.
Most of the findings highlighted in this paper drew our attention to innovation as a key aspect of operational weakness that led to Nokia’s collapse. However, what respondents may have failed to mention was that this was largely a leadership problem at the organization. The resource-based view, market-based view, and knowledge-based view cannot adequately conceptualize the weaknesses of the company because they fail to understand the intangible elements of firm behavior that are essential to their success. However, the capacity-based view of firm competitive strategies best explains Nokia’s problem because it was unable to develop the capacity to formulate influential leadership plans that would guide the company through the intense competition it was facing. Thus, the findings of this paper draw our attention to the need for practical leadership reforms at Nokia if it is to reclaim its position at the helm of the competitive smartphone market.
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The main issue under research is made very clear right on the first page of the article – in the abstract. In this short passage, the authors summarized the problems related to mobile security that occur due to the lack of training among the new workers and the unawareness of their responsibilities and threats to which they expose the company. In the introduction, the research question is presented in an analytical manner because the authors provided substantial evidence to support the problem statement.
Jones and Aiken also explained why the question is relevant to the contemporary companies by stating the risks that result from the impaired security or the employees’ inability to follow the rules designed to protect the data from malicious programs and misuse (73).
Scholarly Contribution
The study builds upon the previous research, and it is made visible in the introduction where the authors referred to the findings of many different studies concerning the issues or mobile security, their prevalence, the threats they create, and due to which causes they appear. The studies quoted by Jones and Aiken in the introduction are recent (3 or 4 years old only) and reliable due to being scholarly and explorative.
The study will make a contribution to the field via investigating a sample of students who are the owners and regular users of smartphones about their attitudes towards the devices and their purposes, as well as their awareness of the security concerns and ways to address or prevent them.
Theoretical Background
In the literature review, Jones and Aiken stated that “Today’s students are tomorrow’s employees — with responsibilities for protecting both personal and enterprise data” (75); this statement indicates that the theory behind the research is that the youth who do not know or care about the security concerns are likely to make very irresponsible employees creating multiple risks to their organizations. This theory guides the research.
The review of the literature, as well as the introduction, provides evidence from the previous research that supports the authors’ theory thus indicating its relevance.
The theory is explained in a comprehensible manner. The reader does not require any specialized education to understand the information. The authors used evidence for better persuasion.
The method used in the study is a survey with a questionnaire. The questions are presented in a table. The variables are justified as the authors provided an explanation of why they are important.
Research Design
The sample involves 347 respondents who are college students and regular users of smartphones. The sample is appropriate and adequate for the researched issue.
The questionnaire assesses sample demographics and their attitudes towards mobile devices and security experiences, so they are relevant and appropriate.
Each variable was separately run through ordinal regression to find the relationships between the numbers. Overall each variable’s significance and coefficient were calculated. The qualitative and quantitative techniques used by the authors were appropriate for the data collected. However, the reliability and validity of the user survey tool were not established, and this is marked as one of the study limitations.
Concluding Remarks
The conclusion is based on the analysis of the data and the research findings that showed that many smartphone users do not adhere to appropriate security practices. The answers to the research questions were not provided in conclusion but presented in the discussion and Ordinal Regression sections.
The conclusion includes the study limitation (unestablished reliability and validity of the survey tool) and recommendations for future research – the investigation of student behavior in terms of mobile security and learning why the students who had an understanding of the security threats were still reluctant to protect their devices.
Work Cited
Jones, Beth H. and Peter Aiken. “Risky business: Students and smartphones.” TechTrends 58.6 (2014): 73-83. Print.
Advancing in the contemporary market of technological innovations is both an exciting journey and a challenge. On the one hand, a plethora of innovations is waiting to be discovered; on the other hand, stiff competition makes it nearly impossible for companies to gain any substantial competitive advantage (Knežević et al. 2017). Therefore, to market the organization producing smartphones for Europe and Asia, one will need to build the competitive advantage that will allow target audiences to pay closer attention to the brand in question.
Audit Review
The business sunder analysis focuses on producing and selling smartphones to European and Asian markets. The main mission of the company is to offer customers a comparatively cheap experience of substantial quality and an opportunity to customize the product to a certain degree. The company’s vision includes creating an environment where information sharing will become affordable to anyone. Over periods 1-4, the organization has shown quite positive performance, delivering the results that allowed it to enter the global market.
PESTEL
Table 1. PESTEL (Yang & Shim 2018)
Europe
Asia
Political
Mostly favorable environment
Possible restrictions based on a different political regime
Economic
Options for partnership
Cheap workforce
Sociocultural
Appreciation for technological advances
Clear focus on luxury as a marker of a social status
Technological
Environmental
Active focus on environmental concerns; Need to control waste production
No major issues regarding environmental standards
Legal
Mostly friendly legal environment
Possible restrictions caused by local perceptions of economic relationships
As the PESTEL analysis above shows, the venture is not facing any major obstacles in its way to the European and Asian markets apart from rigid competition. The organization needs to revisit its approach toward appealing to its demographic in order to become popular in both European and Asian markets. While in the latter, the products will have to be marketed as the item of social status, the former will need the proof of the product’s utility (Jayaram et al. 2015). Therefore, two different marketing techniques have been used. In addition, possible political impediments may be observed in the Asian market due to different standards for economic interactions.
Porter’s Five Forces
Figure 1. Porters Five Forces.
The outcomes of Porter’s Five Forces analysis indicate that the competition rates are devastatingly high in the target markets, especially in the European one. Due to the presence of established brands and their multiple clones, the market is quite saturated with the product in question, which is why the bargaining power of buyers is very high (Rahman et al. 2019). Consequently, the situation that the company faces in the European and Asian markets would have been dire unless a marketing campaign that showcases the product’s competitive advantage had been designed.
STP
Figure 2. STP (Kurniawan et al. 2018).
The model in question targets primarily young people, as well as lower middle class citizens. Since the company does not provide the brand of the same recognition and popularity as its competitors such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and others, the organization has to position itself as a unique, highly customizable and efficient tool that people with restricted financial resources will like. The specified approach has been quite effective in the target markets so far, leading to a rise in the company’s revenues.
Marketing Mix
Table 2. Marketing Mix.
Product
Smartphone
Price
Cheap to moderate
Place
Malls; stores
Promotion
Social media
People
Customer profile: lower middle class; student/aging person
The key product is the smartphone that appeals to both European and Asian markets. The task was quite difficult to implement due to differences in values of the target customers. Therefore, the product that appealed to the European customers’ need to save and the Asian buyers’ need to use the latest and highly customized technology was developed. Promoted as the tool for effective management of information for a reasonable price and with numerous customization options, the smartphone is set at a rather low price in both markets.
The approach that the company has been using to address the pricing issue and remain faithful to its price-to-quality ratio is one of the aspects of the company’s functioning that is worth noticing as an important one. Despite numerous challenges that have been hindering the firm’s progress in the Asian and European markets, the pricing strategies have remained the same, and customers are still provided with the products of impressive quality for comparatively low price. Therefore, the organization can boast significant consistency in its pricing approach. The specified point of the firm’s marketing has been especially important in attracting customers since the opportunity to save money has been an important aspect of European customers’ perspective (Shin 2015). The incorporation of luxury elements and additional options for navigating multiple applications has been used as the selling point for the Asian clientele (Zhang et al. 2016).
SWOT
Table 3. SWOT.
Strengths
Good prince-to-quality ratio;
appeal to target audiences
Weaknesses
lack of a clear competitive advantage;
Opportunities
Increasing customer base;
Gaining greater influence in the target markets;
Threats
Failure to manage risks;
Inability to allocate resources
As the SWOT analysis performed below indicates, the project in question has numerous strengths, the main ones being its price-to-quality ratio and its customizability. However, the lack of a distinctive competitive advantage may set the brand back in the competitive chase. The opportunities that the brand can pursue in the European and Asian markets include increasing its consumer base and building a stronger presence. However, the threat of being overshadowed by a larger brand remains strong.
Moreover, the SWOT assessment has shown that the brand has reached impressive heights in promoting its products to the target demographic. While the specified characteristic is currently viewed as one of the main strengths and the aspect of the company’s success, it may become an impediment in the expansion to be planned for the organization to enter other markets. Shaping the existing product in the way that will catch the attention of a new audience and at the same time allow the organization to retain the current one is a highly challenging task to perform, especially for the company that cannot characterize itself as the corporate monster such as more recognizable brand names such as Xiaomi.
Marketing Plan
Presently, the organization needs to make its presence in the European and Asian markets as strong as possible. For this reason, the company will need to shape its brand personality slightly and make the distinction between the brand marketed to European customers and Asian ones more pronounced. Thus, the firm will appeal to culture-specific characteristics of buyers, encouraging them to purchase the product. Namely, other types of population in the specified markets will be marketed to and viewed as the main focus of the future promotion campaign. In addition, the current brand will have to be represented in a more neutral form that will make it simpler for the organization to enter the American market as well. With the brand that will retain its main characteristics, namely, the price-quality ratio and customizability, at the same time being highly flexible for adjusting to culture-specific needs of customer, the company will be able to enter any market with impressive success rates.
Objectives
The goals that the organization is pursuing currently are quite basic. Namely, it strives to attract the attention of a larger range of customers, including the segments that it may have overlooked before. While the product in question has been aimed primarily at students and lower middle-class citizens, the company will also have to try marketing it to other demographics such as business people and families to embrace every opportunity. Attracting the attention of the teenage audience may also become possible in the future.
Strategies
Achieving the objectives outlined above will require a large effort form the organization. A combination of further market penetration and product diversification will have to be used in order to keep the project successful. The suggested strategies will help the company to expand both in terms of its market influence and the range of services that it provides to its audiences. The expansion of the digital marketing approaches should also be viewed as an important change.
The importance of product diversification cannot possibly be overly emphasized in the case of the company in question. Since customizability is one of the main qualities that constitute the brand’s identity and its appeal to the target population, it will be critical to ensure that the product will remain pliable wen being introduced to new markets. Moreover, the introduction of new products associated with the brand, such as mobile applications targeted at customers based on their interests and culture-sepcific characteristics, will also have to be developed. The specified suggestions will help the company to keep its trademark appeal, while making its brand diverse.
Figure 3. BCG Matrix.
As the BCG matrix above shows, the company needs to rely on its brand products in order to foray into the new economic context, as well as cement its success in the present setting effectively. The development of the products that will have new functions appealing to the needs of the target demographic, in turn, can be seen as “dogs”. The smartphones that will be built to incorporate multiple applications for the comfort of Asian buyers, as well as the designs that will involve high functionality and a wider range of design options for European clients. Thus, the company will retain its current customers, at the same time attracting new ones.
Therefore, the company will have to diversify its product significantly in order to meet the needs of its customers. The creation of other variations of the brand product may be needed to cater to the needs of the firm’s new audiences, which currently include families and business people, as well as possibly other continents. For this purpose, the firm will have to place emphasis on the R&D processes and revisit the marketing strategies that it has been using to attract the attention of its Asian and European clients.
Marketing Mix Tactics
The current marketing mix tactic is aimed mostly at creating a cos-efficient pricing strategy and positioning the product as a compromise between financial constraint of buyers and their requirements for quality. However, the introduction of new customizing options that will allow business people and families to become interested in the product will bolster the company and offer it the chances to penetrating the market deeper. Therefore, the proposed marketing mix includes aiming at people of other age ranges and, possibly, the representatives of the middle class.
Planning and Implementation Controls
To plan the introduction of a new set of marketing strategies and the creation of an innovative marketing framework for appealing to a broader audience, the company will have to use several techniques that will leverage its current position and allow the firm to gain competitive advantage. For example, the integration of benchmarking into the process of addressing the existing concerns within the organization will have to be used. Notably, the firm is continuing to penetrate the Asian and European markets, yet also enters the new territory in terms of the audience to which it will appeal in the designated environment. Thus, it will be necessary to incorporate flexible control tools for alleviating risks and reducing the exposure of the company in question to the threats of being ousted from the market by its more successful competitors. Thus, the use of benchmarking as the method of identifying the quality standards which the organization will have to meet is essential. In addition, the introduction of the Corporate social Responsibility by using the Transformational Leadership technique will be needed to keep the staff members invested. The key performance indicators that will be used to measure staff’s efficacy will include engagement, percentage of errors, and compliance with set standards for quality and workplace performance.
Quantitative Forecast
Table 4. Financial Projections: 2020-2022.
FORECASTED REVENUE
Units sold annually
Average price per unit (USD)
Annual revenue per product (USD)
Smartphone and apps: European market
10,000
150.00
1,500,000.00
Smartphine and apps: Asian market
12,000
130.00
1,560,000.00
Smartphine and apps: American market
8,000
180.00
1,440,000.00
Related devices
30,000
25.00
750,000.00
TOTAL OF FORECASTED REVENUE
5,250,000.00
COST OF GOODS SOLD
Expected gross margin
Annual cost of goods sold
Smartphone and apps: European market
30%
450,000.00
Smartphone and apps: Asian market
25%
390,000.00
Smartphone and apps: American market
25%
360,000.00
Related devices
30%
225,000.00
TOTAL COST OF GOODS SOLD
1,425,000.00
ANNUAL MAINTENANCE, REPAIR AND OVERHAUL
Factor (%) on capital equipment
15%
ASSET DEPRECIATION
Number of Years
5
TAX
Annual Tax Rate
30%
INFLATION
Annual Inflation Rate
2%
PRODUCT PRICE INCREASE
Annual Price Increase
2%
FUNDING
Loan Amount
50,000.00
Annual interest rate
5.00%
Term of loan (months)
60
Monthly rate
0.41%
Payment
941.02
Total Amount Payable
56,461.20
As the table above shows, it is believed that the suggested practice will help to raise the company’s profits by at least 5%. Changes in the firm’s general appeal and the marketing framework, as well as its target demographic, is expected to cause an increase in the range of audiences that will be attracted by the brand. Moreover, the introduction of an innovative approach toward the brand architecture process will lead to the company developing new branches of its products and grasping the attention of diverse audiences.
As a result, the profits of the organization are bound to rise with the introduction of a new focus that will allow attracting new audiences. Although the current pace at which the organization has bene evolving approaches the mark of satisfactory progress, further advancement into the European and Asian markets, as well as the focus on new economic environments, namely, the U.S., is inevitable.
Critical Evaluation
In order to ensure that the project succeeds in the target market, the tools for evaluating it critically will have to be introduced. An objective assessment of the chances that the organization has in the European and Asian markets will shed light onto the options that it will have in other economic environments, as well as with different types of customers and a more diversified line of products. In order to make sure that the company meets the set objectives and gains the attention of new customers, at the same time diversifying its products, it was be necessary to introduce the planning tools based on the concept of strategic planning.
The use of the SWOT model will be particularly helpful due to the chance to identify and summarize the key characteristics of the internal and external factors that influence the organization’s performance. Namely, the SWOT tool set the scene for the assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the current approach used by the organization to manage its performance and address customers’ needs. Specifically, the approach in question highlighted the inherent qualities of the organization, including positive and negative ones, and outlined the prospects for its performance in the market, embracing the influences that offer opportunities and those that pose risk.
One might argue that the application of the SWOT tool offers rather generic results that cannot be used directly to inform further strategies for operating, especially in a new environment. However, the SWOT model provides a chance to compartmentalize the key influences, assigning each outcome to a particular aspect of the company’s performance. Therefore, as a method of exploring the firm’s chances in the Asian and European smartphone markets, the SWOT technique provided quite a range of opportunities. The method helped to define the general trends in each aspect of the firm’s functioning, including internal and external issues, to detail the changes that have to be made.
However, the SWOT analysis suffers from the lack of objectivity, as well as the absence of any restrictions concerning the number and type of factors that need to be included into the analysis. The same can be said about PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces, which provide general statements concerning the status of the target market, yet lack specificity. As a result, the accuracy of the outcomes suffers to a significant degree. In order to manage the disadvantages of the SWOT tool, one may have to incorporate the VRIO assessment tool as the method of embracing the objective characteristics of the target environment and the chances that the company has in the Asian, European, and, possibly, American contexts (Chen & Ann, 2014). The incorporation of the balanced scorecard technique might also reveal multiple factors that affect the company’s performance and especially its endeavours at entering the new market and attracting new customers.
Key Planning Tools
The process of planning also implies dealing with the analysis of the structure of relationships between the company and its stakeholders. In the context of the supply chain that the present organization has developed in the Asian and European markets, it is important to consider how the organization manages to develop trust-based relationships with its buyers. For this purpose, the use of the mind-mapping techniques should be considered (Kofahi & Alryalat 2017). Mind-mapping will allow the company to locate connections between different aspects of its performance, at the same time keeping the eye on the latest trends and interweaving them into its functioning organically. The model also allows incorporating the tools such as brainstorming, which will lead to the creation of multiple effective decisions and cause a rapid economic growth in the company (Bocken et al. 2015). With the two techniques combined, the firm will be capable of considering introducing the principles of incremental changes into its production design.
Moreover, the techniques associated with collaboration and especially interdisciplinary cooperation within the company should be seen as the priority for the firm at present as far as the planning tools are concerned (Antonaci et al. 2015). The organization needs fresh ideas for pursuing the opportunities that the target market holds for it, as well as discovering new tools for implementing its practices in the best way possible. Thus, the focus on collaboration must remain consistent.
Finally, the selection of digital tools for supporting organizational planning and enhancement of organizational processes will have to be considered. For this purpose, the company will need to update its planning kit on a regular basis as soon as an innovative application is created to offer new options in the planning process. Currently, the digital tools such as the performance tracking software will be crucial for keeping the firm responsive to the key changes occurring in the target markets (Langlois & Chauvel 2017). The use of online tools for planning, collaboration, maintaining communication, and keeping all participants aware of the changes made to the set framework for corporate performance is essential. Thus, the company will maintain the continuity of it organizational processes, production, supply chain management, customer relations, and other areas. Moreover, the use of the designated tools will help company members to view their workplace environment as a single entity with every process affecting the other. Thus, staff members are likely to develop understanding of the company’s needs, their role in it, and the responsibility that they need to take.
Theories and Concepts
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the current framework, several theoretical concepts will need to be reviewed. To create the perpetual cycle of change within the organization, the frameworks such as Kotter’s 8-step Model and Lewin’s Change Model will have to be considered. While Lewin’s theory is quite basic and suggests that only three steps should be taken to implement change, specifically, the freeze, change, and unfreeze phases, Kotter’s eight steps are the extension of the specified idea. Thus, using Lewin’s Theory as the basis and Kotter’s Model as the tool for setting further objectives, one will move the company toward its current goal of attracting more attention in the European and Asian markets, as well as trying to establish its presence in the American one (Hooda & Chhillar 2015).
Another model of change that the organization may need to try is the McKinsey 7-S model. Revolving around the notion of shared values, the model provides extensive opportunities to create the value system based on which the organization will develop further tools for maintaining flexibility toward customers’ demand sand technological innovations (Ravanfar 2015). In fact, the transition to the philosophy of innovativeness as the foundation of the organizational shared values will help the company to manage the threats that disruptive innovations will pose to its integration into the target markets. As new technologies emerge, the company will use the available tool to incorporate these innovations into its products and provide customers with the latest ITC opportunities. Thus, the firm will be able to respond to changes immediately.
Keller’s Consumer-Based Brand Equity Model
Viewing the company’s brand from the perspective of Keller’s framework will help to understand how the organization manages to cater to the needs of such diverse audiences ad at the same time keep its brand integrity and image intact. Using the model in question, one will realize that the company has developed a rather strong sense of self in the selected market (Yousaf, Amin & Gupta 2017). Although the identity in question cannot be defined as larger than life, as some of the firm’s competitors may boast, it still has a definitive set of standards and a unique philosophy based on which the product is developed. Namely, the brand identity of the company is based on the concept of providing people with advanced technologies for a sensible price-quality ratio and at the same time offering highly customizable options as far as the use of the devise is concerned (Çifci et al. 2016). Thus, the salience of the brand is maintained. The presence of salience helps to connect the company’s performance to the image that it has constructed of itself. Namely, the existing perception of the organization as the single entity where every performance aspect affects the other will affect the judgments and feelings about the company’s goals and the role of staff members in it (Theurer et al. 2016). As a result, the development of resonance and loyalty in employees is expected according to the model.
Co-Creation of Value
The process of creating value has been quite easy for the company despite the presence of numerous competitors and the fact that the smartphone industry has already been dominated by several brands that have practically monopolized the environment, specifically, Apple (iPhone) and Microsoft (Android). Tue to the focus on customizable devices, the company has been exploring the opportunities for engaging in a dialogue with its customers for a while. In fact, reciprocity has become one of the main pillars on which the company’s quality management was built. Therefore, the communication channels developed by the organization deserve the name of the main factors that have contributed to the co-creation of value.
However, the current stage of co-creating value is far from being over at the firm. Since the organization is planning to enter every market of Europe and Asia, cementing its status of a commonly used brand there, as well as possibly enter the American market, it will be necessary to revisit some of the approaches toward value co-creation. For instance, the use of the Big Data will be inevitable in reshaping the company’s approach toward value co-creation (Ramaswamy & Ozcan 2016). As the firm expands, so will its customer base, which will create the need to segment it in a more elaborate manner.
The co-creation of value will have to start with opening the access to information to target buyers. People need to be aware of the changes that the organization is planning to implement to its current products in order to decide whether they are going to buy these products or not. By being open and honest with its target demographic, the firm in question will be able to develop the system of reciprocity and collaboration that will lead to a better understanding of the target audience’s needs (Iglesias et al. 2017). The specified change will be not only crucial but also inevitable in the new market setting, as well as with new audiences in the current one since the organization will need to find out how to cater to their needs.
To make sure that all target audiences are involved in the dialogue, the firm will have to build thematic communities in which the discussion of the subject matter will be possible. Granted that moderating these communities and responding to every feedback or query submitted by participants is going to be quite painstaking and time-consuming, the specified approach is expected to pay off as the company advances in the market by offering the exact devices that customers need.
It or worth noting that the strategy described above does not negate the need to introduce innovative solutions that will surprise the target audience. Quite the contrary, staying innovative and providing original solutions to communication issues should be one of the many aspects of the company’s performance. However, it is also crucial to establish reciprocity in the relationships between the organization and the community to which it caters. Therefore, the process of the co-creation of value must start with the development of additional communication channels and the promotion of the cross-cultural conversation with the target audiences (Laamanen & Skålén 2015). Afterward, the principles of networking will have to be integrated to connect the participants of the communication process and engage them in the continuous dialogue with the firm. The information flow that the specified change will cause will lead to the effective change management within the organization. Moreover, the described alteration in the management of customer relations may cause a change in the corporate philosophy and the transition to the change-oriented model. Thus, the firm will be able to meet the needs of the audience with every new demand.
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Throughout the 90’s and early 2000, the PC was the most sought after gadget for personal and business use. While it is still early to declare it outdated, its getting a lot of competition from the introduction of the smart phones. The blackberries, iphones, androids and the now popular tablets have considerably reduced the significance of the PC. In fact, it is estimated that smart phone sales will eclipse desktop computer sales by 2012. Many more people will be conducting business and paying bills besides performing many other tasks using smart phones. Numerous companies in the world manufacture the apps used in smart phones. There are many companies in the world involved in the development of the apps available in the market today (Ezine Articles, (N.d). These companies exist to serve national as well as international clientele. Saudi Arabia has a number of these companies. Though the development of these apps in the country is not badly off, these companies have faced a few challenges and successes that this paper will seek to discuss and possibly come up with some recommendations.
Purpose of the proposed study
The purpose of this study will be to gain insights into the smartphone apps development industry in Saudi Arabia. The study will also aim at identifying trends, problems and successes of the industry so that they can act as the basis of continued strong growth.
Relevant background literature
According to Business Intelligence (2011), the UAE controls about 60% of all smart phone applications in the Middle East. It’s closely followed by Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Growth in Saudi Arabia has been phenomenal with more companies including the national telecom company entering the foray in producing smart phone apps. The latest smart devise in the Saudi market is the Sam Sang galaxy (A1Saudi Arabia, 2010). According to MENAFN Arab news (2010), the kingdom has a larger Smartphone market than Europe. Many companies like Sam Sang are also entering the Arabia market with new smart devices and subsidiaries that produce their apps. In January 2011, KSU became the first university in Saudi Arabia to launch a mart phone application. There are numerous companies in Saudi Arabia like MibileSOFT, Nafithtech that produce smart phone apps for different smart devices such as iphones, ipad, Blackberry and symbian windows mobile. The companies which have been in business for over 40 years are diversifying there operations due to what they refer to as the growing market for smart phone applications. Current estimates show that over 60% of Saudi internet users access the net using their mobile phones. Smart phones users make up a large chunk of these.
The RNCOS (2011) says that the number of these companies is growing signifying the potential that the country holds. According to Arabian Business (2011), the Middle East market is likely to grow by 39% by 2015. The above successes show the potential that Saudi Arabia has in the smart phone app development.
There are however some challenges that these developers have faced. Lack of government support or unfriendly business decisions from the authorities threatens to impact negatively on the Smartphone apps development. According to the Daily Mail (2010), the UAE and Saudi Governments threatened to ban the use of e-mail, web access and instant message applications on Blackberry. The then intended action was because of unspecified security concerns. The Brighthub (2010), reported that the fears were as a result of terror concerns expressed by US. Though the ban did not take effect, the over one million users of blackberry and the companies that develop their apps were temporarily put off balance, something not good for business. According to Mobile Phone Industry Today (2011), there are suggestions that Smartphone companies should allow authorities to have access to five year calling records of smart phone users. Additionally, E-zine articles (n.d) say that the authorities may be considering DIU devises in smart devices. Any negative impact on the sale or use of smart phones is likely to have a ripple effect on developers hence presenting a significant challenge to the industry in Saudi Arabia.
Research Questions or Hypotheses
The study will be seeking to answer the following questions:
What are the successes that the industry has experienced?
How can they build on the successes to ensure steady growth of the industry?
What are the challenges the smart phone application makers face in the Saudi Market
Are the challenges industry related or they are external?
What is the role of the government and private sector in the growth of the industry?
Research methodology
The study will use information collected from a sample. The researchers will put together a sample representative of the target population in Saudi Arabia. The sample will be chosen randomly to eliminate the chances of bias. The data collected from the sample will be analyzed and the results will be generalized on the population.
Significance of the study
The findings of the study will be used by both government and other stakeholders in the smartphone application developers in the country to understand what ails the industry and how it can be improved. I will also be use to provide important statistics of the current Saudi market in terms of sectors control by different companies, government participation and the dominant trends as far as the use of smart phone apps is concerned.
Ethical considerations
The research will be carried out in Saudi Arabia. All respondents will participate on voluntary basis. The participants will not be coerced to reveal their identity nor will they be under obligation to complete the study. The participants will be informed of all their rights before the study begins and none will be forced to answer any question that he /she feels not comfortable with. The participants will be assured of a risk free research study. They will not be exposed in any way to risky content or situations.
Anticipated problems and limitations
Some of the anticipated problems include language barrier. Though many Saudis are educated, a good number of those that own smart devices and who will be eligible for the study may not be able to speak English.
Also, given that many of the participants will be scattered around the country, there will be some difficulty in accessing them and that will also escalate transport costs.
References
Arabian Business. (2011) Mideast Smartphone market to grow by 39% by 2015. Web.
A1 Saudi Arabia. (2010) Samsung Smartphone hits Saudi market A1SaudiArabia.com. Web.
Business Intelligence. (2011) UAE controls 60 % of mobile apps development in Middle East, tops list of Arab countries. Web.
Brighthub. (2010) BlackBerry Ban and Secrecy Issues. Web.
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Smartphone Technology is one of the best innovations developed by the human race in the world today. The ability to improve communication, entertainment, and online education by using smartphones is a milestone in the development of the world. The world has utilized and enjoyed this technology and is looking forward to improving its innovation to fit the high demands as a result of using this technology.
Size of market
These phones have taken the market by storm since their introduction. The number of smartphones shipped in 2011 was 207 million. This is a significant number especially if you consider the 507 million smartphones installed base reached. The shipped smartphones raised $110 billion in revenue that is a very clear indication of its position in the market today. Looking at individual brands, Apple smartphones and their operating systems lead the way in the most consumed products. It constitutes approximately 55% of the market share and we expect it to encounter very stiff competition from other smartphones like android and blackberry (Gookin 111). The revenue raised from all smartphones was more than that of ordinary phones for the first time.
Description of the product category
The smartphone has more complex features than other normal phones. The most common features include Basic communicative functions like voice calls and SMS services. They also have multimedia and entertainment features like watching movies and playing games on top of work-related functions like emails and surfing the web. They have many complex components like RAM, LCM and touch panel, wireless transmission module among others. Series 60 by Nokia and Windows mobile for smartphones by MS are the two major platforms for smartphones. The most common operating systems used in smartphones are Windows OS, Android, palm, RIM, Symbian, and WM.
Pricing
Blackberry and iPhone models are among the most expensive category of smartphones. However, there are many models of smartphones, which are less expensive. For example, one spends about $160 per month in owning and operating the iPhone, compared to $110 per month to have other cheap alternatives of a smartphone like T-Mobile. It is also worthy to note that developing countries find it expensive to purchase or use the iPhones to their maximum. For example in Kenya, the iPhone costs around $ 500 on purchase in addition to other charges on the operation. This explains why we have few smartphones in developing countries.
Distribution
From the above figures, we can conclude that the distribution of smartphones is lower in African countries and the greatest in America. Europe and Asia are behind America while the Middle East and Africa are the worst in the use of smartphones. Cohn (2012) says that Americans have really adopted smartphones which typifies their way of life. The 2011 shipment indicates 25% of smartphones for America, 21% of shipment to Europe, and 18% of smartphone shipment to Africa. The USA, UK, Russia, and Canada lead the world in the country category of smartphone possession. China, Japan, and India have the least phones.
Promotion
Smartphone companies have done well in promoting their products. Some companies have engaged in negotiations with respective governments to reduce the levy on these phones to make them available to their citizens. This aims at increasing their market share. A good example is Kenya where the cheapest Android phone costs approximately $60 that most citizens can afford. Various promotions are used on these phones. The marketing methods employed are successful in promoting the distribution of these precious electronics. The promotions have indicated a positive response. This is a high achievement in this area.
Smartphones have several strengths compared to other phones. They keep an individual in a regular voice and email communication. This ensures that the message from the sender reaches the recipients in time. As a result, they take the required action in time. There is also regular access to schedules and calendars, which acts as reminders to its users (Cohn 122). It is expensive to buy a smartphone. As a result, there is a poor market for these phones. Their complex applications highlight the need to train users on some applications. Their billing rates can also be alarming since they require so many expenses in order to support some applications.
Smartphones have so many opportunities in the market today (Porter 153). They have replaced personal digital assistants and allowed the use of maps like Google maps in traveling. There are some additional features to support distance learning and e-learning among others. They have the ability to support thousands of useful applications in life. Therefore, they can offer more than they currently do.
Consumer behavior
These phones have numerous challenges. They can be exposed to harsh weather conditions, poor handling, and theft. Theft is the biggest challenge owing to their high prices. It is disappointing to spend thousands of dollars on an item and lose it after a short while (Cambridge 112). The consumers of smartphones are luxurious. They value phones with many features even if they do not use all features provided. They are dependent on their phones for applications like reminders, emails, games, and video and audio streaming. They also value voice clarity that makes them different from the users of ordinary phones.
References
Cambridge D. (2012). How NOT To Use Your Smartphone. Cambridge: Rodney D. Cambridge.
Cohn R. (2012). Smartphones. Washington: VSD.
Gookin D. (2012) Android Phones For Dummies.New Zealand: For Dummies.
Porter, M. (1998). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Massachusetts: Free Press.
