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SMARTPHONE INDUSTRY
BY

INTRODUCTION
In this essay we shall look at smartphone industry and its various
features. The essay will focus on the external environment of the
Smart Phone industry, which will be analysed using the PESTEL
analysis. Then we will select three companies from the
smartphone market; the three companies will be an industry
leader, an emerging company and a company that is at risk. The
essay will be structured as follows:

Introduction
External Analysis: PESTEL
Companies in the Smartphone Industry
Conclusion
References and Bibliography

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the essay is to highlight the career opportunities
that are available in the Smartphone industry. The external
analysis will allow us to identify the various factors that affect the
Smartphone industry. The review of the three selected companies
will allow us to understand the different companies that are at
various spectrums of success in the Smartphone industry. The
Smartphone industry is fast growing and very competitive industry.
The sector is technology intensive and companies thrive on
innovations and differentiation. (Sysomos, 2012) The Smartphone
industry provides various options as career endeavour as it is
continuously changing and the industry is in need of innovative
individuals who can work out various methods that can be used by
the companies to sustain and grow in a very competitive
environment.
Figure 1: Smartphone Market Share
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EXTERNAL ANALYSIS: PESTEL
The external environment of the smartphone industry can be
analysed using the PESTEL analysis. The PESTEL analysis
allows us to understand the political, economic, social,
technological, environmental and legal. These factors play an
important role when a company develops its strategies for the
company.

Political Factors: In most of the countries, the political parties are
campaigning to make smartphones and tablets more accessible to
the consumer. Certain countries are hampered by bureaucracy in
in the government system which makes it tough new technologies
such as 3G and 4G to be implemented which are supported by
smartphones thus enhancing its performance. There are high
profile scams, which have taken place in countries such as India,
which have affected the smartphone companies negatively.


Economic Factors: Since the middle of 2013, the markets around
the world have been recovering from the financial crisis of 2008-
2009. This has led to an increase the income of consumers, which
means that the markets around the world will experience increased
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spending which is in favour of the smartphone companies. The
taxation system around the world means that the products are
priced inconsistently. The increased inflation in the emerging
markets has made the materials for manufacturing expensive.

Social Factors: Todays consumers are focused on products that
are environmentally sustainable. Many markets are experiencing a
shift in age of population as developed countries such as UK and
Germany are experiencing an increase in aggregate age of the
population. There are many negative news that have been caused
due to smartphones especially with the under age population
having better access to smartphones and the Internet. There are
various abuses that have been recorded that have been caused
due to access to smartphones. (Lin L., 2012)

Technology Factors: The smartphones are a technology
intensive industry and the companies compete on the basis of
innovation in technology. The smartphones thrive on development
of new application that can be run in these smartphones. Each
smartphone company have a virtual store, which supplies
application to the smartphone users.

Environmental Factors: The smartphones are forced to integrate
environmentally sustainable components in its products. The
companies follow a production where waste and toxic materials
eliminated from its supply chain system while adopting efficient
production processes and technology.

Legal Factors: There have been various legal battles that have
fought in the smartphones industry especially with regards to
patent rights. The legal framework governing smartphone are still
in its early stages and disintegrated thus it is not clear to the
entities concerned.


COMPANIES IN THE SMARTPHONE INDUSTRY
Samsung Communication: It is currently the industry leader in
the smartphone market and has more the 33% share in the
smartphone industry. The company runs its products on the
Android operating system, which is in partnership with Google Inc.
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The company has been driven its market share upwards with the
help of its Galaxy variant, which has both smartphones and tablets
focused on various customers. Unlike other smartphone
companies, the company focuses on providing higher choice of
products than its competitors and have a foothold in most of the
emerging markets, which is not the case with most of the
smartphone providers. Some of the financial indicators can be
represented as below:

Revenue: 21 billion US Dollar
Profit: 2.3 billion US Dollars

Huawei: It is a Chinese multinational company, which specialises
in manufacturing networking and telecommunication equipment. It
has achieved top status in the industry ahead of Ericsson in 2012.
The company has only ventured in to the smartphone industry
recently. It has been able to create for itself in the market by
providing cheap and quality smartphones, which compete with
some of the big players. The company currently 6% share in the
global smartphone market, which is a significant achievement for a
new player. It is widely used in the emerging markets and recently
it has been able to penetrate the developed markets such as UK
and Japan. The customers perceive the products to be a cheap
and likewise replacement for products provided by Apple and
Samsung while having the same technological features. Some of
the financial indicators can be represented as below:

Revenue: 240 billion Yuan
Profits: 29.4 billion Yuan

Blackberry: Blackberry is one of the first companies to develop
smartphone and it was an industry leader until the iPhone came in
to the seen. It developed products mainly for business users and
this was basically its downfall as it could not dominate the market
like the iPhone. The company has been creating losses for the last
few years and the company is in danger of ceasing to exist. The
company have lagged behind in integrating the touch screen
feature in to its phones and do not have a large application based
store like Apple and Android. The company has tried to revive its
self through its Z10 and Q10 variant, which was released to
recapture the high-end smartphone market but eventually failed to
power the company, back to profit. Some of the financial indicators
can be represented as below:
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Revenue: 4.2 Billion US Dollars
Profits: 230 million US Dollars Loss



CONCLUSION

As a career option, smartphone industry provides various
opportunities especially in the marketing side. Smartphone still
have not got a global presence and there are countries where
smartphones are negligibly used. Smartphones are very complex
when looking at the technology part thus customer service is very
important factors that have to be considered by the various
companies.















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