Hi group,
here's my two cents on the handset market. i don't think it is as simple
as japanese against non-japanese, i-mode vs wap, export against import,
docomo vs the world.
someone in the industry in japan once told me that japanese handset
makers don't have to worry about selling their phones because whatever
quantity they make and at whatever price, DoCoMo buys them all.
if this is true, then japanese handset makers are little more than R&D
centers and OEMs for DoCoMo. their job then becomes one of adding new
features and then making the commercial product and then delivering it
to DoCoMo. they don't have to worry about product cycles, marketing, or
sales since DoCoMo does all that for them. i suspect the case is quite
different for someone like Ericsson and Nokia
eventhough i do admit that ericsson's new i-mode phone is over 6 months
late to market with outdated technology, i don't necessary agree with
the notion that nokia and ericsson are inferior to japanese handset markets.
ever wonder why nokia and ericsson product cycles are so long. i suspect
it is because they have to make so many (i think about 70 million for
nokia) units each year. imagine the financial risk, logistics and time
it takes to manage that supply chain. Also, Nokia and Ericsson have to
provide products for every region in the world. They can't just make
50,000 units and then launch a new phone. They might have to make
500,000 as the initial batch. Just the time alone to make the initial
batch might delay product launch for months. Also, the risks are
significantly higher and distribution much more difficult for these
vendors. If they have a product that works, they will be much less
inclined to change it.
also, i suspect japanese handset manufacturers, with strong electronics
backgrounds, probably have access to all the supply of the latest
technology, i.e. color screen. i think ericsson would have put a color
screen on the new imode phone if it had gotten its hands on a steady
supply of them (anyone from ericsson or nokia who can confirm the
difficulties in getting the latest component - screens and sound chips -
for phones)
someone from neopoint, the US handset maker, also mentioned that
japanese handsets have much less range than it is required for the US
market. he said that most japanese phones (we were talking about cdma)
would not pass the performance tests in the US because of the range that
is needed in the flat and wide landscapes of most US cities instead of
Tokyo's densely packed environment.
just to clarify my position, i have a japanese phone - the Kyocera
skywalker GSM dual-band phone, and having used it for about 6 months
now, i think Nokia's 8210, launched six months before the Kyocera, is a
better product in the GSM market.
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Received on Tue Dec 19 09:15:01 2000