The Mobile Phone Market

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There are many industries where companies are beginning to focus their activities on the acquisition and protection side of their company’s intellectual property. Strategically many companies are realising that intellectual property is one of the most important parts that differentiates them as an individual organisation. The essay addresses the logic behind the focus on intellectual property and evaluates how this now impacts on industry and the firms involved within it.

The essay will focus on the mobile phone market with many companies having leading brands in the market. This industry is interesting to evaluate as it is very fast paced with many well-known companies engaging in patent wars. Recently competition within the market has got so fierce that many firms are entering into acquisitions with competitors to increase dominance within the market. The main findings of this essay should reveal the impacts on firms, and the industry, now that companies are focusing their strategic activities on the acquisition and protection of intellectual property.

Background

Since the introduction of the smartphone the mobile phone industry has taken off with many companies trying to succeed in the battle to have the best quality phone. In the third quarter of 2013 smartphones accounted for 55% of overall mobile phone sales, with worldwide sales of smartphones up 50%. (Johnson, 2013) However before the creation of palm sized smartphones there had been a large amount of different versions of mobile phones going all the way back to 1938 with the SCR-194 and 195. This was the first portable AM radio produced by the U.S. Army signal Corps Engineering Laboratories, which was considered as the first “walkie talkie”. (Meyers, 2011) The tech...

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...rting to look rather bleak with competition growing and growth shrinking. Once cheaper handsets are manufacturered then prices will be driven down and penetration will increase which will shrink margins for the manufactuer as consumers will still demand high quality devices. Overall the activities from firms undertaking acquisitions and proctection of their intellectual property won’t stop the industry from declining unless these firms can innovate something exceptionally good that’s completely new. By the looks of it the mobile phone industry is bound to see a slump as many of these companies are already pumping billions of their revenue back into R&D without succeeding. The only way forward for these companies is to find a new strategy or prepare for a decline in sales, which will impact the industry by many firms leaving as there is no more profit to be made.

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