全球智慧型手機產業與宏達電競爭策略分析

Abstract

智慧型手機產業於2010年進入了產業成長期，隨著需求的成長，以及產品的同質性日益增加，智慧型手機的舊勢力不斷被瓦解，新勢力則日益強大，而智慧型手機市場也漸漸成為寡佔市場。智慧型手機的新勢力，包括領先的手機廠商（Samsung, Apple, HTC）、平台廠商（Google, Microsoft, Apple）、潛在進入廠商（Amazon, Facebook）、主要買家為電信業者; 以及包括了內容供應商、服務供應商、以及應用程式開發商在內的互補廠商。 其中，主要的平台廠商皆耗費鉅資投資在擴張他們平台的生態版圖，除了花費鉅資不斷更新作業系統外，更不斷將內容，服務，以及應用程式融入其版圖中，一方面讓智慧型手機使用者的手機使用經驗更豐富更多元化，增加其對該平台生態系統的黏著度，另一方面，讓平台廠商有更多機會在該平台生態系統裡，贏得更多的營收與獲利。 全球第一大的線上零售商Amazon，在去年九月進入平板電腦的市場，在短短三個月中，成功地挑戰了領導廠商Apple, 破壞了Apple原本獨佔的平板電腦市場。雖然Amazon所採用的是Google的Android作業系統，但是Amazon以自己強大的的內容服務生態版圖，完全不需要倚賴Google。同時，採用了全新的商業模式，以極低的價格販售硬體，將營收與獲利目標擺在使用者透過硬體到Amazon 的線上服務去消費所產生的營收。我們預期，Amazon極可能複製其在平板電腦的商業模式，進入智慧型手機市場，產生對智慧型手機市場結構的破壞。 另一個潛在進入者，Facebook，已擁有八億四千五百萬使用者，但尚未發展出一套在手機行動裝置上的應用模式，預期也將會是影響智慧型手機產業的巨大因素。 隨著越來越多的平台廠商進入智慧型手機市場，傳統的智慧型手機純製造商正不斷遭受到高價高性能的平台廠商，以及來自中國的低價廠商的兩面壓力。HTC正處於這樣的競爭劣勢當中。面對未來全新的戰局，HTC必須跨越產品創新，積極思考商業模式的創新，方能繼續保有競爭優勢，繼續在這個高度競爭的產業裡獲利並永續成長。

Smartphone Industry has evolved into the growth stage in early 2010. Along with the rising demand and product commoditization, the old world of smartphone is falling apart and the new world of smartphone is gaining power. And the industry is becoming an oligopoly market. The new world of smartphone primarily comprises smartphone vendors, e.g., Samsung, Apple, HTC; platform companies, e.g., Google, Microsoft, and Apple; new entrants, e.g., Amazon and Facebook; mobile operators as key buyers; as well as contents/services providers and app developers, who play the role as complementors. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have been investing heavily in building their ecosystems. Other than continuously improving their operating systems, these platform companies have also incorporated more and more contents, services and applications into their ecosystem. This, on the one hand, enriches their phone users’ experience and increases their stickiness to the ecosystem. On the other hand, this helps solidify the ecosystem as these platform companies are monetizing their contents/services/apps through the ecosystem. Amazon, the world’s number one online retailer, has recently entered and disrupted the tablet market. Amazon uses the Android OS but completely bypasses Google’s contents and services as Amazon has its own strong ecosystem. By pricing its tablet at low price, with the aim of generating contents/services/app revenue throughout the tablet’s lifecycle, Amazon has swift taken a big chunk of market share from Apple within merely 3 months. With its success, we argue that Amazon has presented itself as a potential entrant into the smartphone company and is very likely to enter the smartphone market by replicating the tablet business model. Facebook will be another potential entrant. With 845 million monthly active users, Facebook is yet to develop a way to monetize its mobile Facebook usage. Given Amazon’s success, we argue that if Facebook decides to enter the smartphone market by introducing Facebook phone, this will be another disruptive force to the existing smartphone vendors. As more and more platform companies entering the smartphone hardware business and started selling smartphones, pure-play manufacturers got squeezed. From the top, there’s pressure from the platform companies. From the bottom, there’s competition from low-cost vendors from China. Such competitive landscape is where HTC is currently constrained and losing its competitive advantage in the new world of smartphone. It is imperative that HTC strives beyond product innovations and boldly makes new stride in business model innovations to enhance its positioning and to propel further growth.