The Apple iPhone idis 619 Capstone Assignment By



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I (B): Executive Summary


Strategic move – Apple, with Cingular as its exclusive service provider in the US, has entered the mobile phone handset industry with introduction of its high end mobile phone handset names iPhone, and essentially created a consumer smartphone segment. Apple’s move seems to have caused the existing major mobile handset manufacturers to introduce there own consumer-centric smart phones with high “user experience” features.

Key issues: The following are the key issues facing Apple and Cingular which may impact the adoption of iPhone:

  1. Launch of similar products by other mobile phone manufacturers could have the impact of flooding the market with high-feature smart phones and diluting iPhone’s value proposition

  2. So far, smartphones have been targeted more towards business users than consumers. It is not clear as to how consumers might react to the iPhone upon its scheduled launch in June ’07

  3. As compared to existing smartphones, the iPhone lacks some important features such as 3G capability, security features, enterprise productivity applications support, expansion slots and an open platform that allows compatibility with 3rd party software

  4. The iPhone’s price points are higher compared with other handsets in this already subsidized mobile phone handset industry

  5. The duration of the exclusive contract between Apple and Cingular is not clear and is leading to speculation on the kind of partnership strategy that the firms are opting for – e.g. Window or Option.

Final recommendations:

Short Term Recommendations: (1) Facilitate streaming content between iPhone and iTunes to enhance value proposition;(2) Design Apple iPhone for CDMA subscribers to expand market share and lock out competitors from entering into partnership with CDMA service providers; (3) Offer capability to seamlessly switch between cellular and WiFi networks to enhance value proposition to consumer.

Long Term Recommendations: (1) Enhance relationship with Cisco to enter into corporate world with enhanced security and enterprise applications; (2) Enter into alliance with Microsoft and third part ISV’s to enhance enterprise capabilities to enter into corporate world; (3) Tightly integrate products and services of Apple iPhone, Apple TV, at&t to offer two-way streaming audio-video content, so that Apple and Cingular offer a solution rather than a product.

II EXTERNAL ANALYSIS

II (A): Industry Definition


The Apple iPhone competes directly in the smartphone segment of the handset industry. It combines an iPod, a smartphone and an internet communicator in one devicei. Unlike other smartphones however, it lacks enterprise level features including support for enterprise business software and security support thus making it unsuitable for corporate smartphone users. It appears Apple is attempting to carve a new market segment – a smartphone for mainstream consumers. Its exclusive partnership with Cingular will indirectly influence the wireless service provider industry as subscribers start moving from other service providers to Cingular. The Apple iPhone is expected to be introduced in the US in June 2007 in partnership with Cingularii Wireless. Introduction to Europe is planned for late 2007 and Asia in early 2008.

Note on organization of Sections II & III: To improve the readability of the paper, Sections II and III have been organized as follows: Part A focuses on Handset Manufacturers and Part B focuses on Wireless Service Providers. However, since Macroeconomic Environmental Forces Analysis provides the best insights when done holistically for both industries, we’ve started the next section with this analysis. This is followed up with external and internal analysis of the handset industry and wireless service industry. The Strategic Analysis section ties up the key insights gained from these into a cohesive picture leading up to the final recommendations

II (C): Macro Environmental Forces Analysis, Economic Trends and Ethical Concerns.

1) Global trends: Wireless communication continues to be the hottest sector in the information technology market today. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has “announced that global cell phone usage has doubled over the past four years to nearly 1.5 billion consumers” iii. While the market penetration in the US is about 70%, there are certain European markets like UK, Netherlands and Sweden, where the market penetration is almost 100%iv. The sales in the high revenue markets of US and Europe are driven primarily by handset replacement with consumer desire to gain access to new features driven by technological innovation. The handset market grew by 11% in 2004, with most of the growth driven by young consumers, for whom new technology promises new and more exciting social applications driven through cell phonesv. The emerging markets (such as India, China, and Russia) on the other hand are not yet saturated. In India for example, five million new subscribers signed up every month in 2005, while China experienced a growth of 30% over the same time periodvi. Here, the primary driver for handset sales is price due to the local economic conditions. However, as the market penetration in these economies increases, there continues to be increased demand for additional feature offering. These emerging markets promise a great growth potential for both the handset and wireless service industries (accounting for 56% of all cell phone users and 79% usage growth as of 2006, according to ITUvii). The potential of these markets is further highlighted by the fact that current market penetration in India is less that 4% of the population, while in China it is 25% of the populationviii.



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