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While Asia and North America have been making large strides in the mobile industry, Europe has been falling behind, even though it previously had a large competitive advantage over other regions. This is mainly due to lack of focus on emerging products, less advanced software, and lack of government support.
In the early 90’s Europe was a strong player in the mobile industry mainly due to its cooperative take on the market. The European countries worked together to coordinate an infrastructure that worked through out the continent. In North America, multiple different standards and products that made it more complex and expensive for customers. This structure forced the North American cell phone producers to step up their game and look into a more structured format.
With the cell phone industry constantly evolving, software and new devices have become the main source of success for mobile companies. The most important source of competitive advantage is coming from smartphones and tablets. The market is demanding more of these advanced devices, and companies that are focused on these have experienced the most recent success – those companies are primarily in North America and Asia.
Many Asian companies have experienced success due to their low cost operations. Both Asian and North American companies have excelled due to innovation and superior service. With fourth generation connection speeds now emerging, Europe is falling farther behind. European governments have also focused more on making money rather than stimulating the economy. In order for Europe to regain its share of the market, it will have to work on aligning governments, vendors, and operators to become a strong player again.
Currently the top players in the mobile industry are (only two are European):
1. Nokia
2. Korea’s Samsung
3. LG Electronics
4. Apple
5. Research in Motion
6. ZTE
7. HTC
8. Motorola
9. Sony Ericsson
10. Huawei
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