The mobile Operating Systems War

Résumé du document

The mobile operating system market is relatively recent. Many major companies hailing from the computer and mobile sector are competing in order to take over this huge market. Until very recently, each mobile manufacturer developed its own proprietary operating system. Most of the mobile phones were not compatible, even those of the same brand. The digital convergence, the high costs of proprietary environmental systems development and a global willingness to move towards an open operating system encouraged the market to change directions.

The enterprise market made the first step. It needed a mobile OS that could be integrated in its information system in order to have a better control over their workforce and ensure an efficient information sharing. We can now identify several vendors trying to develop their market shares in this sector. Microsoft, Symbian (Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and PSION), RIM-BlackBerry, PALM, Linux and newcomer Apple are competing and trying to dominate this market. All of them are applying different strategies and taking advantage of their different strengths.

All these companies come from related markets, the mobile phone/handheld industry or the computer OS market. They have very good experience of the customers needs, but they are still using completely differentapproaches.The stakes in the mobile operating system market are huge. More than 990 million mobile phones were sold around the world in 2006 whereas “only” 330 million computers were sold at the same time.

For the time being, OS are only integrated in Smartphones which represent40 million units. However, this number is expected to rise to 160 million units by 2009, a 400% growth in three years.Such a bullish market could be considered a positive indication of growth for these companies.We will try to understand the benefits they hope to achieve from it.During this research, I will try to understand to what extent competitive advantages are useful

Extraits

[...] Only available on the I‐phone: The iPhone will be the only device available with the apple mobile operating system. Considering Apple's strategy towards the computer operating systems market, we can easily say that opening the OS to others vendors, is totally out of question for the moment. Limited distribution channels: In the US, the iPhone is only distributed through the only mobile operator partner's channel and the Apple stores. The iPhone will not be found in supermarkets or others non approved channel. [...]

[...] Technology Development: Technology is an important source of competitive advantage. Companies need to innovate to reduce costs and to protect and sustain competitive advantage o DIVAY guillaume o o This could include production technology, Internet marketing activities, lean manufacturing, Customer Relationship Management and many other technological developments. Human Resource Management Employees are an expensive and vital resource. An organisation would manage recruitment and s election, training and development, and rewards and remuneration. The mission and objectives of the organisation would be driving force behind the HRM strategy. [...]

[...] The main market of the OS is the enterprise server OS market. With the support of Sun, HP, Dell and IBM Linux should be able to compete on an equal foot basis with Microsoft. However, on the mass market side, the Linux OS did not manage to revolutionize the business environment. The lack of application and the lack of support from major editors and manufacturers is a threat to the development of the company. The growing number of release and the lack of standardization do not seduce the public willing to find a friendly user Operating system. [...]

[...] They buy the OS in order to make them run on their device. So the first step in the control of the channel of distribution is the ability of the vendor to integrate its OS in as many Smartphone as possible. However, main manufacturers such as Motorola, Samsung or LG are relying on different Operating systems suppliers. Nokia is one of the only manufacturers relying on a single mobile OS Symbian. However we must not forget that the company owns 50% of the vendor's shares. [...]

[...] The third market is the mobile market. The company just entered in 2007 the mobile phone market with the release of its iPhone in the US market. The phone has been a very big success taking important market shares in less than six months. The phone has been designed to improve the internet mobile navigation and the usage of multimedia features on a phone. In order to build a coherent phone, Apple decided to create both the device and the Operating system. [...]