HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CASE STUDIES

Brainstorming

SYMBIAN'S STRATEGY

MOBILE INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN

• Network operators - MNOs offered wireless voice and data services as early of 2008. MNOs built and operated wireless network  and developed relationship with subscribers. 2007, MNOs served 27 percent of worldwide subscribers. Voice services and SMS provided 90 percent of revenues for most MNOs. Data and internet services take off in UK, Germany and other western european countries in 2002. Network operators in developed markets had strong incentive to encourage  the growth of data and faced a steady decline in voice  revenue per subscriber, but data services could help counter revenue loses due to increasing industry competition.
• Handset manufacturers - 2008, Nokia remained the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phone, followed by Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG. Handset sales were determined by the rate at which carriers added new subscribers and the rate at which existing subscribers replaced their handset. To retain market share in the developed world, handset manufactures focused their effort on smartphone. 2007, smartphone market had grown rapidly.
• Mobile operating system (OS) providers - Mobile market share was divided into high-end and lower-end. Lower-end phones supported text messaging and perhaps a simple home page with a few text-based content option. High-end smartphone offered a wider range of services including e-mail, mobile transactions, personal information management and rich content of services. This growing set of functions and applications required increasingly sophisticated operating system software.
• Content providers and aggregators - Mobile contents included news, entertainment and local information. Its also offered mobile access to materials already available on the web for example, mobile social networking let users access their facebook, myspace account, sometimes adding mobile-specific features.
• Application developers - Developers offered smartphone application for example, online banking, playing games, purchasing books, sending and receiving e-mail, reading news headlines ang managing travel itineraries. Many mobile applications were simplified versions of services already accessible through Internet-connected PCs. These application were increasingly being designed to take advantage of smartphone's capabilities. Developers preffered to develop for platforms with as many users as possible. With the growth of the smartphone market and the availability of software platforms such as Symbian and Windows Mobile, third party application became increasingly important. OS makers invested significant resources in software development tools, education and reference material, and developer support forums.
• Shifting balance of power - Apple's iPhone shifted power from network operators toward Apple, the platform provider. Content could be distributed through iTunes Stores, and Apple limited what kinds of content could be offered, for example disallowing sexually-explicit material. Google's approached also challenged the power of network operators. Its proposed an open source policy which would let users to any services they chose which mean its give the users maximum flexibility, but leaving less power for network operators.

SYMBIAN'S STRATEGY

• Symbian licensees manufactured over 75 percent of the world's mobile phones, providing Symbian with a major distribution advantage.
• Its ownership structure build relationship with handset manufacturer's product development teams. 
• Symbian could shorten its product development cycle and better integrate its code with licensees handset by involving manufacturers in the OS revision process as early as possible.
• Symbian also had strong relationship with its growing network of application developers and claimed that its programming interfaces were clearly documented and easy to master for those familiar with C++ programming language.
• Symbian gave developers access to source code and Application Programming Interfaces through Binary Access Kit that helped developers take advantage of new features on the handset and the OS.
• Symbian also provided extensive developer support in the form of education and reference material, development tools and support forums.

SYMBIAN'S COMPETITORS

• Microsoft.
• Palm
• RIMM
• Apple
• Google and open sources