Overview of Smartphone Manufacturers and Increasing Users
Mobile as predicted and contemplated by varied segments of pundits across industries has been one of the emerging winners in 2013. The global adoption of smartphones has up trended by many leaps with a huge number of local manufacturers catering the smartphones at a cheaper price.
The consumer adoption of smartphones as predicted by the analysts across the globe has increased by many leaps. The very proof of it is that the number of smartphone users round the globe has increased to a staggering 2 billion by the end of 2013.
The developing countries and in particular those in Asia are still bigger markets for smartphones with a huge number of local manufacturers entering the market with cost effective devices. The developed countries are also witnessing an increase in the number of Smartphone users due to the two primary phenomena: Mobile Computing and Bring-your-own-device.
The APAC region in particular has a huge number of budding manufacturers who are diluting the share of the global giants. The biggest advantage these manufacturers have is due to the localization of manufacturing within the target markets, the prices are highly affordable to the low income class people who would otherwise have been content with non-smartphones. In spite of companies like Samsung, Nokia and LG having their product portfolio expanded to cater to various segments with products ranging from cheapest price to the premium segments, there is a psychological factor playing on the target segment. Due to the constraints in their affordability, and the shortening life cycles of the smartphones, local manufacturers are having an upper hand in the low-end smartphone market.
List of major local manufacturers capturing significant share in the smartphone market in Asian countries:
Company
|
Major Markets Served
|
Xiaomi
|
China
|
Coolpad
|
China
|
OPPO
|
China, Taiwan, Thailand
|
Micromax
|
India, Russia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal
|
Karbonn
|
South Asia, Middle East, South Africa
|
Smarfren
|
Indonesia
|
Evercross
|
Indonesia
|
Cyrus
|
Indonesia
|
Mito
|
Indonesia
|
Ninetology
|
Malaysia
|
I-Mobile
|
Thailand
|
FPT
|
Vietnam
|
Further to the above list there are more than 100 manufacturers of smartphones round the globe, who are actually biting a significant share of market away from the giants.
Mobility in Enterprises
Due to such a huge and rapidly increasing adoption of smartphones and other smart devices in the consumer market, the companies particularly those in the B-to-C segment have a quintessential need to incorporate mobility in all of their technology initiatives. In consumer facing businesses a finely enabled business process on a mobile device is bound to reap benefits. This mobile transformation where businesses can interact with consumers on an entirely different and most efficient of the current lot will certainly improve business productivity significantly.
The enterprises across industries barring the industrial equipment manufacturers will certainly have a huge scope of improving significantly, in respective parameters, by adopting mobility. As concluded by McKinsey in a very recent study on mobility initiatives, more than 50% of the technology providers, have for the same reason, announced their initiatives in the mobility space. Of this a major focus has been laid on technology that will connect ‘field based’ work force to the office resources such that the information exchange and data flow is scrupulous like never before. Among others, the gravitational shift towards m-commerce enablement and customer engagement and retention has been high.
Mobile Enabling Business Strategy
As always believed by many, mobile is more than just the latest step function in technology innovation. It is a fast-moving engine that is fundamentally reshaping operating models, business models, and marketplaces. Now, the reshaping of operating models had begun already as the fundamentals of market places had changed. It is now time for the business models to be reshaped to be responsive enough to these evolving demands. With this increasing usage of the smartphones, a new culture of banking on mobile technology is increasing in the hindsight. However, the organizations have yet to connect the dots between the mobile strategy and the business strategy to devise a Mobile Enabled Business Strategy. The organizations thus have to be market ready by executing their mobility initiatives at the earliest.