Handspring SWOT Analysis
Strengths
1. Strong Board of Directors. Jeff Harkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan are considered industry leaders. In fact they had been credited with reviving the handheld computing industry. The Palm Pilot which they developed was the most successful product launch in computing history.
2. Good brand identity, strong reputation. By the summer of 2000, Handspring had a 40% market share. There was a four month backlog in orders when Handspring first entered market.
3. Integration of hardware and software for ease of use. Handspring had a license for the Palm operating system. Hawkins created what he called a “virtual company” to bring hardware design and manufacturing companies together to bring the product to market. Also unlike Palm, Handspring had their hardware and software developer working together to develop a communicator that addressed how people actually use their wireless devices. In developing the Treo, Handspring employed ethnographer who observed how people used their cell phones and PDAs.
4. A company with focused products. The Visor line was continued to have a large market share in the PDA user market. The Treo line was to focus on the increasing functionality by combine PDAs with Cell phone technology to become a communicator.
5. Convenience seen in all in one Treo product. Phone + organizer + e-mail + Web
Weaknesses
1. Inability to differentiate from competitors. The Palm OS had been licensed to many companies and made up the lion’s share of the PDA business. All of the major competitors have the same OS.
2. Low expertise in other areas and functionality. A Strand Consulting report stated that handspring would have difficulty surviving the smart phone market because the lack experience in the mobile phone market.
3. Profit margins are shrinking despite an 18% increase in sales. This was a result of downward pricing pressures from an increasing amount of competitors.
4. Divided focus of Harkins. Harkins had recently formed the non-profit Redwood Neuroscience Institute to pursue his lifelong passion for brain research. This of course meant that he no longer 100% focus on Handspring.
Opportunities
1. The handheld industry is still changing and currently no company is standing on stable ground.
The Sonic PDA will meet the needs of this target market. Consumers today want a device that will be multi-functional, dependable, easy to use, and durable. The Sonic 1000 will meet these needs and perhaps even exceed the consumers’ expectations. The goal of Sonic is to produce the best product that the consumer could need and making a competitive PDA is a top priority. The Sonic 1000 has multiple target markets but the product is designed to be user friendly for all potential users. The older target market is looking for a PDA that is easy to use and navigate. These are needs that are understood and the Sonic 1000 is designed to allow the user a variety of options from menu setup to font size.
Steve Jobs strove to deliver the elegant ideal. “People are busy”, he would say “they have other things to do than think about how to integrate their computers and devices.” And so, he took responsibility for the entire user experience, owning what he called “the whole widget”. Hardware, software and peripheral devices had to be seamlessly integrated. The leadership lesson here is to create products and service which reflect a passion for delivering delightful user experiences from beginning to end.
Jeff Hawkins a graduate of Cornell Universityis best known as “the inventor who, in 1994, took blocks of mahogany and plywood into his garage and emerged with a prototype for the PalmPilot” (PC Magazine, 2000). Joining forces with friend Donna Dubinsky, Jeff “pulled off one of the most successful new-product launches in consumer electronics history, selling 400,000 units when they debuted in 1996. Now Palm Computing owns 80% of the handheld market” (PC Magazine, 2000).
Grady improves the health of the community by providing quality, comprehensive healthcare in a compassionate, culturally competent, ethical and fiscally responsible manner. Grady maintains its commitment to the underserved of Fulton and DeKalb counties, while also providing care for residents of metro Atlanta and Georgia. Grady leads through its clinical excellence, innovative research and progressive medical education and training.
Telecommunications gained mainstream attention in the early 90’s; however the initial key market was business men and women, who used their phones whilst being on the move and so allowing them to communicate with their companies with ease. Though in the modern era, telecommunication went through segmentation in the market trends, and now in this day and age it would be difficult to find someone who does not own some form of mobile technology. Many phone providers battle to provide the best service for their customers (Figure 1).
My report is on the company Hewlett – Packard (HP) which was founded in 1939. I mainly focused on the Personal Systems Group (PSG): business and consumers PCs mobile computing devices and workstations which is one of the major industries of HP. In order to succeed in the business industry a company needs to understand its customer’s needs and create wants for them. HP found out that the customer needed light weight, useful notebook PCs through its Research & Development (R&D) centre. Hence, it created a want; a New Commercial Notebook PC Compaq Evo Notebook N1015v which packs the power and performance necessary for mobility into a stylish design for only $899(US $). HP also finds out about its customer needs through online feedback forms and survey. Via that, HP was also able to understand that not everyone are able to use their products hence it has created this HP accessibility products which can be accessed by anyone including people with disabilities and age – limitations. Example of such product under the PSG industry is the Mobile Speak Pocket which was specially made for the visually impaired people. ( Refer To Exhibit 1a – 1c )
There is a slowdown in sales of mobile handsets, in some markets like the UK, as the mature part of the product lifecycle is reached. Customers are exposed to a barrage of different images and messages by mobile phone companies, as the competition gets tougher. Vodafone appeals to new customers and aims to keep its existing ones by emphasising the uniqueness of the brand.
innovative companies of the world due to the creation of differentiated products such as iPod,
In the 1980s no one who was anyone, went anywhere, without his or her Filofax. The end of the 1990s had replaced it by its digital equivalent - the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). A PDA is effectively a handheld PC, capable of handling all the normal tasks of its leather-bound ancestor - address book, notepad, appointments diary and phone list. Most PDAs offer many more applications besides, such as spreadsheet, word processor, database, financial management software, clock, calculator and games. PC users have the ability to transfer data between the handheld device and a desktop PC and to convert data to and from existing organizer applications. They also achieve connectivity either via an infrared port or a special docking station.
In 1990, Nokia Mobile Phones (NMP) was the smallest of the five business divisions of Nokia, with annual sales of $500 million and 3,051 employees. Jorma Olilla, the new president of NMP, in the same year led the division to become the world's second largest manufacturer of mobile telephones after Motorola in just a year and half later. Motorola and NEC, the close third competitor, were the dominant players with a combined 33 percent global market share, compared with NMP's share of 13 percent. During this period, the main customers of mobile phones were business users who could afford the high prices. The everyday consumers were not overly attracted by these high prices and limited functional phones. Despite these limitations, the cellular market was growing rapidly, which brought more Asian producers into the competition. To make the matter worse, there was much proprietary technology and equipment required for analog standards around the globe. The emergence of digital technology provided a hope for a uniform communication standard. As a result, NMP had to make a difficult decision regarding which technology to commit significant resources to.
The SWOT analysis is a useful tool for identifying our personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to our plans and goals. According to a “Fuel My Motivation” article (2010), this analysis considers internal influences that can positively or negatively affect our ability to achieve our goals. The internal factors are our strengths and weaknesses. Also considered are opportunities and threats, which are external influences that can have a positive or negative impact on the ability to achieve our goals. I will share how the self-assessment instruments and self-exercises in this course have contributed to assessing and understanding my strengths and weaknesses. I will also discuss techniques I will use to leverage my strengths and understand my weaknesses. In addition, I will consider opportunities that I can take advantage of and the threats that can possibly impede my progress.
...shed these devices with added features and improvements. However, they are still the same basic devices. These products, built upon incredible foresight and attention to detail, carried tremendous customer loyalty and high margins.
9 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-onbusiness/the- inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all>. Thomke, Stefan and Ashok Nimgade. “IDEO Product Development.”
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