Introduction In this age of technological advancement, owning a mobile phone is one of the survival essentials. It enables a person to get connected with his contacts anywhere he goes, wherever his contacts may be.
Most mobile phone units enable its user to do most office applications, making it an essential business tool to get organized. And because it is human nature to always look for advancement beyond what they already have, this market has still a lot of opportunities for growth. This paper chooses to export Sharp cellphones, one of the popular brands in Japan. It is available widely in Asia and Europe, but not yet in the United States. The US, with an approximate mobile subscription base of 4 out of every 10 Americans, has a steady growing trend with regard to mobile usage and ownership (Barrett, 2003). With leading cellphone brands in its market such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, Sharp will be able to play in the field.
Product Focus Sharp company has been known worldwide for its household, mostly kitchen appliances. What the US market is still not aware of, is that it has mobile phones with advanced features under its wing. With the advent of 3G technology, Sharp launches new phone models for its Asian and European market. These are mobile phones that have the capability to do video conferencing (through a camera attached on the front panel), multimedia messaging, internet browsing (through WAP or GPRS), instant messaging and other standard features. These phones are also equipped with high-quality digital camera, capable of recording still and video images.
Sharp has different phone models that are fit for every need of the user, be it in terms of specifications, aesthetics or sophistication. With these mobile phone model variety and good service offering, this paper strongly believes that Sharp will be able to capture a good market share in the US. The Potential Market United States has an estimated mobile phone subscriber base that is close to 200 million, with a population of close to 300 million. It has grown steadily from 1997-2007, but the market has become extremely tough these days (Barrett, 2003). The demand for more advanced and more sophisticated mobile phones at an affordable price has greatly increased that is why the trends and technology have been changing fast as well. Mobile messaging or the use of SMS and MMS was never popular in the US.
But in 2006, it increased by 106% and is expected to grow in the next five years. This is brought about by the different promotions and offering of service providers, bundling the messaging service in the monthly fee subscription (Reilly, 2005). The networks have also continued to increase investment in 3G and 4G networks in order to offer next generation applications. One major network, Sprint Nextel announced its intention to deploy a 4G WiMAX network to 85% of the largest US markets (USA – Mobile Market – Major Operators, n.d.).
However, the key to succeed in the US market for a mobile phone manufacturer is to tie up with a network in offering their products. Most networks offer discounted or even free mobile phone units when you subscribe to their services. With these attractive packages, Americans go for the package deal and do not purchase mobile phones separately. This is the reason why Panasonic marched out of the US market in 2005 when it lost its partnership with AT&T (Rojas, 2005). References: Barrett, J.
(2003). U.S. Mobile Market Intelligence. Park Associates. Reilly, M.
(2005). USA Messaging Market Set for Rapid Growth. Retrieved April 3, 2007 from http://www.analysys.com/default_acl.
asp?Mode=article&iLeftArticle=2002&m=&n= Rojas, P. (2005). Panasonic Bids Farewell to the US Cellphone Market. Retrieved April 3, 2007 from http://www.engadget.
com/2005/04/20/panasonic-bids-farewell-to-the-us-cellphone-market/ USA – Mobile Market – Major Operators. (n.d.) Retrieved April 3, 2007 from http://www.budde.com.au/Reports/Contents/USA-Mobile-Market-Major-Operators-1773.html
