Staying Competive in the Wireless Industry

Cellphone companies are constantly brainstorming on how to stay competitive and appeal to consumers. The speed of innovation is making it more difficult to stay in the game. A mere decade ago, there weren't many choices. Wireless carriers could thrive with the introduction of a few new phones every year. Those days are over. With hundreds of devices available to the majority of users, a phone's popularity (and company's success) can change in a blink. There are different strategies to understanding consumer tastes and cultural trends. Whatever the course, however, "if a new phone does not catch on quickly, it is not likely to catch on at all."

Hoping to Make Phone Buyers Flip
By: Laura M. Holson
New York Times
Published: February 29, 2008

These days, designing a new mobile phone can seem like something out of an episode of “Dr. Phil.”
LG Electronics, the maker of the Chocolate and Voyager phones, begins by asking focus groups to keep a journal, jotting down feelings about features they like most. Participants can call a toll-free number to share their emotions about the phone they are testing. And sometimes they are asked to draw pictures that represent their mood when they hold the phone.
“Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president for product strategy and marketing. “We constantly have to be reminding ourselves that we tend to be geek types and our customers are not.”
Executives and industry analysts say it has become more important than ever to understand the psyche of consumers and why they pick one phone over another. That’s because LG, Motorola, Nokia and others are in a fierce battle to please finicky customers as new entrants like Apple, with its popular iPhone, seek to upend the traditional mobile phone business.
At stake are millions of dollars in profits and the fortunes of entire companies. Like fashion or entertainment, the cellphone industry is increasingly hit-driven, and new models that do not fly off the shelves within weeks of their debut are considered duds. The most gadget-conscious shoppers buy new phones every nine months, twice as fast as they did a few years ago. And teenagers, one of the fastest-growing markets, are especially quick to dump a brand if it loses popular appeal....http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/business/29cell.html?ref=technology

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