On: Wednesday, 29 August 2001 1:55 PM
Pekka Parnanen wrote:
>> I saw the same article and it was very interesting. This DoCoMo
>> strategy might work at start in Europe but it could fade off...
>> In Europe, the handset vendors have had very strong branding
>> (like Nokia, Ericsson etc) and people have been used to buy the
>> 'hardware'...
Let's face it SONY is a MUCH better brand than either Nokia or Ericsson.
They and the other big Japanese brands NEC, Panasonic etc. just missed
the opportunity (perhaps didn't wake up) in the first waves of Mobile
overseas.
They were also held out of some markets by protectionism in Europe,
Australia and elsewhere.
When the Japanese retail electronics companies start to play seriously
in this market they will win.
Nokia simply don't have much chance against the sort of strategy Sony
used to establish Playstation as a standard and may do (and can easily
afford to) in order to win a slice of the mobile market. Sony can sell
at a loss for years if they need to and they already have technological
lead thanks to the advanced networks here in Japan.
As mobile phones are now integrating with other personal electronics
there is a compelling reason for the Japanese companies to move
aggressively into these markets.
They obviously see i-Mode as the way to enter and DoCoMo and Vodafone
will likely get a lot of support from them if they roll out iMode style
business/network models in other world markets. Support perhaps means
$200 color i-Mode handsets. It doesn't matter how good Nokia's branding
is if it is undercut by 2x -4x on price.
This situation has obvious benefits for the carriers as they get greater
customer lock in, so they need no convincing.
Regards,
David Davies
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Received on Wed Aug 29 10:40:38 2001