A Study on the Co-opetition Strategy of Operating Systems for Smartphones
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chen, Kuan-Ting
Abstract
Smartphone, a mixed system product combining software, hardware, content, and service, has shown its great market potential. Being a system product, an operating system of a smartphone serves a significant role in determining the success of the system product. The present research applies the value net framework to study the co-opetition structure among existing operating systems in the smartphone market. Three major players, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux, are evaluated so that we could draw conclusions and suggestions for these players. Our research found that the likelihood of incurring significant switching costs and therefore lock-in effect is low in the smartphone operating system market. Due to low network externality, it is not easy to create a winer-take-all kind of monopoly in this market as well. Hence, we expect that major contenders in the operating system market will keep dividing the smartphone market in the short run. In addition, we expect that these major contenders will strengthen their collaboration with complementors within their value net to so that competitive advantages could enhance. Although Symbian leads in the operating system market, Windows Mobile and Linux follow it tightly. We foresee that Symbian and Windows Mobile will become two major competitors in the market since Linux lacks a strong sponsor. To maintain its market lead, Symbian should enhance its alliance management. With its existing installed base in the PC market, Microsoft would take advantage from the convenient synchronous connection to support the penetration of Windows Mobile. We therefore would expect that Windows Mobile may exceed Symbian to become the market leader in the long run.
Subjects
Smartphone
Operating System
Co-opetition
Value Net
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-97-R94741071-1.pdf
Size
23.32 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):b3b8792d19793994d70224158ce848aa