Apple

The problem with Apple vs Samsung: Is this situation going to lead to more marketing share battles being fought in court and not on the marketplace?

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

So it has come and gone that Apple have taken the fight wth Samsung for smartphone and tablet market share beyond basic marketing strategy. I worry that there is a possiblity of setting an ugly trend here were companies that feel insecure about their marketing positions can use legal instruments to win their battles in the shop.

So if Apple could win, who else has a chance to sue their rivals and get ahead in the market. Word is NOKIA still contributes significantly to the antenna technology in all mobile phones. Imagine NOKIA saying F OFF to everyone in the mobile phones game. Apple won’t like that one bit.

The whole thing reminded me of the Olympics in Athens when NIKE wanted to get Adidas to remove some of its branding from products and have just one trademark like NIKE does. They were suggeting that Adidas either has the 3 leaf mark or three stripes or the more modern 3 blocks on the chest but not all three or 2 as is usually the case. Apparently NIKE felt this was unfair advertising and Adidas were getting more out the money they paid for advertising at the olympics, which, incidentally was the same as what NIKE paid at the same time.

The problem I have with all this is it kills competition and creativity from marketers in their quest for market dominance. With budgets topping £28 billion in 2011/12 there is hope yet for marketing to prevail, perhaps the creators of products should stop focusing on their rivals’s product and invent new ground braking technology rather than this endless chain of innovation that has lead Samsung to pay a king’s ransom in fines.

But, maybe we have reached the end of our inventiveness as a generation. I often ask my students – “is it possible to come up with something totally unique and not a copy of anything on the market at the moment?”

 

Everyone can be your customer, even your supplier!

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , , , Leave a comment

The pressure to sell is greater than ever in these austerity driven times because the more a company can sell the better it would be able to not only survive but also compete in an environment that has driven down profit margins to the bearest minimum.  So where possible companies are finding that strategic alliances or strategic networks can also be fertile hunting grounds for sales generation.

Consider the case of Tom tom and Aple, until now Tom Tom has used the iOS App Store as platform to sell its products and profitably so, I might add. But, this postion is now compromised because over time other brands selling the same product have also joined the market place and have come with the benefit of learning from Tom Tom’s experiences which has enhanced their competitive strategies to levels where they are out selling Tom Tom with better products and lower prices. Tom Tom have had to look around for further opportunities to sell their product and realised that developments on the iOS have created sales opportunities. Apple have ditched the Google Maps for their own maps app in the next version of the iOS and it has been announced that Tom Tom will supply the maps for the new Apple Maps! The intricacies of the deal havent yet been published but the benefits will not be little especially if the deal pays on units installed and not on a flat fee. Click the link to drink from the source!

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/46081/tomtom-supplies-apple-maps-ios6

Nokia, still relevant????

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

So Nokia are advertinsing the “real windows moible phone” to borrow from the words of their CEO, I watched the promo materials and the phone looks nice, their differentiation to the usual Windows Mobile user interface looks nice but should they really be as excited as they are about the market potential of this modile and their union with Microsoft?

Why am I sceptical? Well here we have 2 brands that are the weakest in the compititve smartphone market, Nokia has the lowest performance in terms of units sold and Microsoft can’t sell any phones on their own and HTC is regretting creating phones for Windows 7 put briefly Windows Mobile is even worse in the market that NOKIA’s Symbian software!!. Why are they excited?

I think Nokia needs to review its strategic thrust at the moment, this new relationship with Microsoft is at least 3 years too late and the consumer has moved on, the Windows Mobile platform’s unique proposition to the customer is social newtorking connectivity my problem with that is haven’t they heard of BBM? Social networking was all the rage 2 years ago, not its all about augmented reality, BBM and Facebook where does NOKIA  fit into all that?. Another question is, does NOKIA really need to be relevant in the smartphone market and how much of that effort takes their resources from their core market, low income people and cheap mobile phones?

I think NOKIA are getting spooked by the events around them but they are not strategically ready to respond to these new players taking over their upmarket customers. But, why should they fight on their competitors’ terms, they are still selling the most number of mobile phones in the world, cheap phones but still the most units in the industry. I would suggest, if anyone asked me, that NOKIA focuses on its bread and butter market, the cheap phone market, there are still enough lower income people in the world to make good business for NOKIA. Developing smartpones need not be an obsession for NOKIA but running a strategical sound business is more important. Smartphones for the lower income market, now that’s were the real money lies imagine a $100 simfree Apple phone or a $50 Android phone,that is were the marketers need to go next. Simfree phones or pay as you go phone still account for the large users on mobile telephony.

I’m just saying, stop fighting Apple and Google on their patch, go scratch your own new market and this applies to any other business fighting to survive against dominant rivals

Really, is this what we were holding our breath for?

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , , , 2 Comments

So the “let’s talk iPhone” event has come and passed, leaving some punters a little less satisfied than others because the expected iPhone 5 was not to be seen anywhere, instead all we got was the S version of the iPhone 4. Which got me thinking, what else have organisations pretended to bring to the market, creating hype in the market only to dissappoint with far less offerings when the launch happens.

Do we, as customers, now expect more than what the companies are capable of but if we do why do they not manage our expectations? Apple could have managed the anticipation for an iPhone 5 better. Some people, including myself, have waiting for a show stopper so that it would be our next smart phone but I am afraid I might have to look to other manufacturers for my next smart phone. I’ve had the iPhone4, Siri or no Siri I am looking for more especially at that price.

Apple has lost me and I bet more customers until the next iphone reincanation