Japanese high-tech brands are at a turning point, which by what appears to be in free fall, Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, Toshiba, once global leaders of consumer electronics are looking for lifesavers based on survival strategies, In just 20 years the electronics industry was radically transformed, from the industrial era to the digital era.
We went from components, electronic parts, mechanical parts, to components governed by software, the brain of all consumer electronics components, the digital era catapulted software from vassal to king, this unprecedented change is yielding great corporate benefits, generating building powerful brands, Apple with a brand value of $ 185,071 million and Google $ 113,669 million.
The technology industry battlefront is and fierce on two flanks, tablets and smartphones, the market share of smartphones in the first quarter of 2013 according to Wall Street Journal, Samsung 31.7%, Apple 17.3%, LG 4.8 % Huawei 4.3%, ZTE 3.8%.
Market share shows the great challenges that await the Japanese technology industry in the immediate future, overshadowed by new players unthinkable in the past, such as South Korean technology companies (Samsung, LG) that were imitators of Japanese companies in the decade of the 90.
The consolidation of Samsung in the subsequent decade (2000) as a leader in various areas (Computers, LCD screens, LED screens, Semiconductors) began with the aim of being on par with its Japanese rivals but in 2005, Samsung surpassed Sony as the most respected and consumed high-tech brand on a planetary scale.
The Samsung brand value is estimated at about $ 21,404 million according to the Millward Brown firm, in its ranking it is placed in position 30 of the select club of the 100 best valued brands of 2013, with a growth of 51% in relation to the Last year, this makes clear the implementation of disruptive strategies of the company in the technology sector.
The secret of technological leadership
In an interview with the communications director of Sony Kunimasa Suzuki, in the fiscal year that began April (2013) the mobile division expected to obtain profitability, he explained “We could not renounce our past and we could not change, our mobile phones did not updated and mobile sales hit bottom in 2011 "
The technological market leaders are based on innovations and fundamentally on a list of patents developed with large investments in R&D (Research and Development). Apple has invested a whopping $ 7.592 billion in the triennium (2010-2013. Other innovations and patents resulted from startup acquisitions (high-risk, high-profit, high-growth small tech innovation companies).
An essential component for success in addition to innovations are the aggressive marketing plans developed by the two leading companies in the technology market that consolidate a technology duopoly, these companies have sold 335 million Smartphone in the last year (2012-2013) representing the 50% of the market share, in advertising Samsung is responsible for having invested $ 401 million dollars and for its part, Apple has invested $ 303 million dollars in advertising of its Smartphone in the United States alone in 2012.
Google has recognized these two essential components in the introduction of its Smartphone in the market by the subsidiary Motorola Mobility, they would invest some $ 500 million dollars in a big bet after Motorola lost the leadership of mobile telephony from Samsung in the United States United.
Allies and Rivals
The technology industry seems to have its own rules, in this context the leading companies Samsung and Apple continue with legal battles on patent infringement, open lawsuits on a planetary scale, part of the apparent technological symbiosis, since the IPhone, Ipad, Ipod, are assembled with essential components produced by Samsung, processors, memory chips and displays.
In the 2000s, these companies were inseparable allies, the balance was broken when Samsung began to compete with smartphones against Apple, the latter responded in 2008 with the reduction of orders for screens, Apple dismissed screens produced by Samsung in the Iphone 4, displays are crucial components to recognize the critical path for launching new innovations.
Apple's paradox is that it needs Samsung to continue producing the usual technological components; Samsung is the world's largest producer of these components. The technology sector is a mature industry with few options of companies that can produce these components for Apple.
On the part of Samsung should continue the relationship with Apple is its main customer, the estimated orders in 2012 reached $ 10,000 million; the most important strength of the South Korean company is that it can be self-sufficient; But an abrupt break with Apple would reflect a substantial decline in earnings. How much is left to the Apple-Samsung alliance? Who will win the battle of the tech industry? The decade to come will be in charge of providing the answers, with the strategic actions implemented, by these two titans of the technology industry.
