All,
on the subject of Japanese handset makers in Europe, I agree with Declan that we will see a change in the way Japanese makers participate in the European market.
Up to now the main reasons why Japanese markets failed to make a dent in the European markets were
- Late to the game - did not recognise what GSM would become and had no significant development centres in Europe
- High GSM royalty payments
- Lack of infrastructure business/knowledge to enter the market at the beginning
- Focus on Japan-only standards PDS & PHS
- Reliance on direction and orders from Japanese operators (NTT DoCoMo really) rather than real product planning and marketing - inability to play the "tiering game"
The world is changing now since:
- MCI, Mitsubishi, Sony and NEC all have GSM development centres in Europe since may years
- GSM royalties are lower than at the start and will be running out soon
- Next generation infrastructure is based on GSM backbone and Japanese companies are present
- PDC and PHS focus is off, W-Cdma/UMTS focus in on
- Some Japanese companies have learned to get the right connection in the European markets and playing the tiering strategy better.
The best example of this is Mitsubishi. They are doing very well at the moment tripling phones sales over last year. They are right up there with the top European tier 2 players: Alcatel, Siemens, Sagem, Philips.
In fact Mitsubishi are ahead of the pack with their GPRS and WAP phones. They have a huge demand for their products at the moment due to the fact that they worked very closely with top European operators.
MCI still do not have it as totally together for GSM as you might expect from their dominance and perfect product execution in the Japanese market but you will see a change there too very soon I believe.
Sony and NEC are still struggling.
best regards
Gerard Cronin
Declan.Collins@enterprise-ireland.com@SMTP@appelsiini.net on 2000/08/21 13:54:22
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Subject: (keitai-l) Re: I-mode in Europe
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Hi All:
Thank you to all contributing to the i-mode in Europe discussion - very
interesting.
A few comments:
i-mode on GSM or GPRS? - the various contributions come down on both sides
of this issue:
Paul Eijkemans says with regard to I-mode on GSM:
>As far as I know KPN is absolutely not planning this<
While the article submitted by Kristian Solberg carrys a quote by
>Amos Kater, innovation manager for mobile data at KPN:
>I-Mode has proven itself as a technology and we are looking for a way >to
bring i-Mode applications to Europe," he said. "At the moment there >are
only few GSM cHTML phones available but we do not expect that to >become a
problem.<
Which seems to suggest that I-mode will be introduced on GSM.
While Bruce Kirk states in response to my question >Has KPN announced the
timing of the roll-out of GPRS< says:
>Don't know to be honest. Most of the main European carriers are trying to
aim for a Christmas / New Year launch.<
This would seem to suggest that it will be i-mode on GPRS.!!!
I'm still not sure which way to jump!!
Regarding handsets: I agree that the Japanese manufacturers have not been
major players in the European market but I would not take that as an
indication of what is about to happen. Japanese have demonstrated, time and
time again, their expertise in bringing *cool consumer products* to market
in high volume. In the area of handsets, they can produce new models in
less than 9 months where European and American manufacturers require close
to twice that time. Make no mistake about it - Japanese handsets will be in
Europe, and elsewhere, in a big way.
Mats Ulenius states:
>I think that sometimes we exaggerate some sort of fierce competition
between "Japan" and "Europe"<
The competition will be fierce, especially when carriers try to recover
their hugh investments in 3G licenses. Manufacturers cannot fail to be
drawn into the frey, alliences or not.
Declan
Received on Mon Aug 21 08:54:32 2000