Michael Porter's Five Forces Analysis Essay

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Using a five forces analysis to understand how external factors drive innovation in the mobile phone industry
Michael Porter puts forward a model of analysis of industry structure called "Five Forces Model" in his book Competitive Strategy. He thinks that supplier bargaining power, buyer bargaining power, potential new entrants, threat substitute product and the rivalry competing sellers determined the profitability of enterprises. The profitability which significantly important to a firm is the fundamental element of existence and development. Moreover, whether a business can improve their profitability depends on whether they can respond to external environmental factors.
In mobile phone industry, the profitability closely related to the …show more content…

There are always possible threats of new entrants in the mobile phone industry, not necessarily a threat to a new phone company but of new products from established companies. So the company might have less danger of further new entrants, but it has to be focused on the existing enemies.
What 's more, the new competitors always can drive innovation in the mobile phone industry. Because if the new competitors want to success in the industry, it has to have something different with other brands to attract the consumers, and this different thing symbolizes innovation in the mobile phone industry. Xiaomi, as a successful new entrant in mobile phone market in 2011, is a good example. According to IDC, in October 2014, Xiaomi was the third largest smartphone maker in the world, following Samsung and Apple Inc. and followed by Lenovo and LG. The smartphone that Xiaomi release is much cheaper than other smartphones, which contain high configuration as Xiaomi did. What Xiaomi has done, is to substantially eliminate the significant 20 percent to 25 percent cut retailers or distributors typically get, and pair that with the vision of earning profits from accessories and web applications within its eco-system (MIUI) instead. Because of the new consciousness of forging greater margins from the phones itself, they carve out a substantial market in a short time and become an effective competitor for the existing

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