Nokia was established in Finland in 1865. Owing to its digital revolution starting from 1992 by launching its first GSM model as well as the new formulation of the key elements of its strategy by leaving the old businesses and increasingly focus on telecommunications in 1994, it helps Nokia create the basis for a successful conquer of the world telecommunication market.
Till now, Nokia is already the world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth of the broader mobility industry.Fulfilling a fundamental human need for social connections and contact by connecting people is the mission of Nokia. It aims to bridge the gap between people and the information they need by its innovative and high-tech telecommunication products. In order to achieve this mission, strong and aggressive R&D investment helps Nokia provide a wide range of easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses to the world customers.Currently, Nokia comprises four business groups namely mobile phones, multimedia, enterprise solutions and networks.
Through close collaboration and effective resources use between different business groups, Nokia is able to provide excellent products to consumers and enjoy cost leadership as its sustainable competitive advantage. Being the pioneer of the mobile communication market in the world enjoying about 30% share of the world's mobile phone market, Nokia is continuing to explore new investment opportunity. Teaming up with the Sanyo Electric Corp. which ranked the 10th world while to form a joint venture, Nokia will continue to be excel and advance in the world telecommunication market.Category SituationThe mobile phone industry in Hong Kong is under oligopoly competition by several big brands namely Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Panasonic to name but a few dominating in the market.
Although there are still many other brands competing with them in the market, their impact is significantly lower than those big brands since the big brands have earned tremendous market share already in the whole market. Those leading brands are highly sensitive to competitor's actions. They mainly compete by offering better product qualities, launching new models frequently with new features and new stylish design, and providing new accessories and offerings to make it stand out from the others.Due to the newly launched 3G services in Hong Kong, many mobile phone makers have teamed up with local telecommunication services providers to provide exclusive 3G mobile phones for their services users. Sharp has teamed up with Smartone-Vodafone and LG has teamed up with Three of Hutchison to provide their services subscribers with Sharp's and LG's latest 3G mobile phones respectively which will not be sold in other telecommunication services providers in Hong Kong. This exclusive sale is becoming common in Hong Kong telecommunication market as this practice can ensure the mobile phone sale and increase the market penetration by enjoying the local telecommunication service providers' customer based and create customers stickiness.
Purchasing mobile phones are becoming popular and normal in Hong Kong market. High penetration of mobile phone services in Hong Kong makes the mobile phones become necessities to many Hong Kong people. However, many Hong Kong people especially the youngsters and middle-income groups will tend to change its mobile phones somewhat frequently as mobile phones also create symbolization to the status of the users and the taste of the individuals. Being up-to-date and trendy also contributes to the high consumption needs in mobile phone industry.In fact, mobile phone is considered to be a high-technology product and important to the daily life of people, hence purchasing mobile phone involves high involvement decision making process. People will generally pay more attention in choosing and comparing between different brands and models in order to get the most suitable one.
In terms of product, mobile phones are available in different models with different features on the phone ranging from PDA function, media player, instant video messaging, CMOS camera and Internet browsing to mention but a few.For the pricing aspect, the market is under status quo pricing since the market is reaching to a mature stage for 2.5G mobile phones. Price range for different brands and models are within $1,500 to $4,500, and it is relatively stable for all leading brands with those newly launched models placing higher prices and gradually decreased to a steady level. Price differs also by the advance features and the time available to the market.
For the distribution aspect, most of the brands have extensive distribution network. For the leading brands, their distribution network mainly consists of major telecommunication service providers' outlets namely 3, Smartone-Vodafone, One-two-free and Sunday, major electrical appliances chain stores namely Fortress and Broadway, and numerous telecommunication accessories retailers in Hong KongFor promotion, the above-the-line channel likes TV advertisement; public transportation advertising, newspaper and print ad are commonly used. Although most of the brands launched similar advance technology products and new creative features, the executional style which the messenger delivering will be different among some of the brands and models, for example the Nokia's model 8310 and 8810 focus on the prestigious and executive style while Sony Ericsson focus on trendy and modern style. Promotion is also intensive when there is a new model launched. For sales promotion tools, special music performance sponsorship, extensive TV advertising and launching complementary accessories will be introduced to the market to create the customers awareness and intention to purchase.Brand Situation-NOKIANokia was first introduced in Hong Kong early in 1994 and currently is the worldwide leading mobile phone brand in Hong Kong.
In 1992, it launches its first GSM mobile model 1011 and soon Nokia began its leading position in the entire telecommunication industry. Nokia's constant and aggressive Research and Development supports its advancing the models and establishing the standard for other brands. It continuously launches new models with new and advance features in a new concept either appearance design or functional restructuring. Both allowing Nokia continue to be the leader of the mobile phone manufacturing industry and enjoy about 30% of the global market share under the fierce competitive environment.
