Abstract
The outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 and the European debt crisis in 2011 have driven down worldwide economic growth. While emerging markets have seen high economic growth rates, per capita incomes in these markets have remained low. Therefore, low-priced consumer electronics have been particularly popular in emerging markets. In addition, the large population in emerging markets also provides a significant boost to the sales of low-priced consumer electronics, as is evidenced by the Smartphone market. This case study will focus on the development of M company, a leading chip vendor for low-priced mobile phones. After kicking off mobile phone development in 2001, M company's full-year revenue peaked between 2009 and 2010. Due to the overwhelming success of 2G mobile phones, the company has concentrated all of their R&D resources in this market. As 3G Smartphones rapidly picked up in 2010, M company failed to transform its business in time and was compelled to delay the launch of 3G chips. 3G has become a mainstream technology nowadays. While the technology has heralded tremendous market opportunities, it has also heated up industry competition. This study will focus on how M company have set their market goals in the past two years, and how they have prepared themselves strategically through their technology strength and differentiation advantages in the value-line and mid-range Smartphone market amid intense competition.