Discussion on Iridium

1210 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Advantage and disadvantage of technology revolution

Competitive Attribute Program ¡V Iridium Mobile Satellite System Project The ability to capture values along the Technology Adoption Lifecycle determines not just how successful a firm will be, but whether it will create competitive advantage through technology. Businesses with large fixed costs, capital-intensive business plans, and specialized asset bases will face the challenge to maintain its strategic continuity because it is generally prohibitively expensive to change direction to response to any conceivable structural change. Iridium, a satellite mobile system which cost $5 billion to build, began to provide commercial telephone service on November 1 1998. This paper aims to use the Iridium Project, which I have participated at Motorola before, to illustrate the incremental benefits and the pitfalls from creating competitive advantage through technology and activity system. Discussion of incremental benefits & industry analysis by using five force model Competitor ¡V Mobile Satellite System (MSS) companies The largest competitor from MSS companies is Globalstar. Globalstar¡¦s communication system is supported by low cost satellites which enhance the possibility for Globalstar to implement a comparatively lower pricing strategy than Iridium. Although Globalstar has simpler and cheaper satellites than Iridium owns, it requires ground switching systems for effective connections. In return, the coverage of Globalstar system was restricted to land locations. This form of benchmarking activities within Iridium helps to formulate the strategic position and get to know a better reinforcement of strategic fit. Substitutes ¡V Ground-Based Wireless Services In 1990s, ground-based wireless phone service grew rapidly around the world. A key factor in the growth of wireless phones was the adoption of a single standard, known as GSM, in Europe and parts of Asia. There were 480 million cellular subscribers worldwide by January 2000 and it reached more than billions before 2005. The economy of scale that introduced will provide the extent of competitive pressure in the business environment. It helps to stimulate Iridium to consider price-performance tradeoff that offered by the substitutes and the need of product differentiation alternatives in advance. Customers/Buyers ¡V Global business travelers Major customer consists of the businessman who is willing to travel around the world as well as staying in touch with the office and home. In account of the industries that operate in remote areas, the competitive positioning option of Iridium tends to be access-based to reach differently accessible customer with the similar need in terms of communication. Iridium designed a set of activities to make tradeoffs in competing, for instance, reduce marketing campaign in urban areas and brand name development for large corporations.

Show More
Related

  • Verizon Wireless - Price Of Demand

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    Verizon Wireless cellular service is inelastic because the products and services it offers makes them the dominant leader in the wireless industry; therefore, a 10% change in calling plan prices (monthly access fees) would not affect the quantity demanded. Verizon Wireless can depend on this inelasticity in their pricing model because of the strength of its brand and the wealth of products and services it offers. Verizon Wireless' competitive advantage comes from its ultra-low churn rate (the percentage of customers who disconnect their service is less than one percent of its 60 million customer base). This indicator suggests that customers are satisfied with the service Verizon Wireless offers and a slight price increase probably would not drive its customers to the competition. This data also suggests that customers probably stay with Verizon Wireless because of its continued expansion of new technologies and services such as its all-digital nationwide CDMA network, ‘EVDO' or its advanced data network (used to wireless send and receive email and other data almost anywhere in the US), and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) that they use for their Push to Talk products. Verizon Wireless markets to a nearly all demographics nationwide and most of its services are offered in the smaller rural markets as a direct result of the one billion dollars per quarter it spends on improving its network as well as acquiring smaller wireless networks to make their nationwide network stronger and larger.

    Read More

  • How Does Whole Food Build Human And Social Capital?

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    Technology will continue to improve therefore each organization has the opportunity to advance and take advantage of the new techniques and methods that are being used by successful organization that has proven themselves by continuing to provide excellent services for the community and each employee. Now when you see an organization that didn 't make it you ask yourself the question were they ready did they do all that could have been done to save the business, did they hire the correct people, was training offered to all employees, The factors that were stated will make and break an organization if these steps aren 't followed it could lead to failure in the organization.

    Read More

  • Marketing Strategy and Company Analysis – Optus

    2250 Words  | 5 Pages

    In a competitive environment where market is changing instantly, organizations are in a fix to design a strategy that could market their products enticing the consumers to buy their products and services. Market is the arena for business gladiators who fight out for maximum share and profitability and this is possible only through effective marketing strategy. Competing in present economy means finding ways to break out of commodity status to meet customers’ needs better than competing firms (Ferrell and Hartline, 2010). The intensity of competition has increased after the introduction of media and internet where the companies present their product in the best way through advertisements, product reviews, blog entries, etc. With the advancement in technological innovations, companies have found various ways of providing services to the consumers in a cheaper and effective way and this has resulted in communication revolution in late 1990’s as the cellular technology was unfold in most of the regions. Singtel Optus Pty Limited (Optus) is one such company that has evolved during this period as a leader in integrated communications and this paper is assumed to make an analysis of the company’s marketing strategy and its financial position in the market industry.

    Read More

  • Strategic Drift of WRSX

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moreover, Ansoff suggested some main direction that companies should follow to develop market and product conditions. The market development and differentiation strategies suggest that in order to increase sales, WRSX have to offer their services in new developing markets such as China or India. The strategy for market development gives the opportunity to expand their service in order to attract competitors' clients and to expand in unreached markets (Barry, Witcher and Chau, 2010). Potential solution could be acquisition of UK agency competitor to assist WRSX to enter new market quicker and smoother go through the barriers of entry such as government regulations and different culture.

    Read More

  • External Environment in AT&T

    1814 Words  | 4 Pages

    The changes in the technological can influence many part of societies. When the AT&T Company introduce their new product and services which is wireless and wire line technology will effects occur primarily through the new products, processes, and materials. Thus, changes in technological also often can achieve higher market share and earn higher return because, newly emerging technology from AT&T could derive competitive advantages. For example, internet today becoming more remarkable capability to provide information easily, quickly, effectively, and also can create more value for customer in the future and to anticipate future trends.

    Read More

  • Xm Satellite Radio Case Study

    1765 Words  | 4 Pages

    Satellite radio is a technology that provides a radically new way to listen to radio. XM’s service makes use of advanced satellite capabilities and elaborates terrestrial receiver architecture to deliver a wide array of high quality radio programming nationwide. In early 1998, Robert Acker, director of strategic planning at XM, needs to develop a marketing strategy for this new radio service. There are several decisions that need to be made by the company in order to finalize the business plan. At fist XM needs to decide which of two business models to pursue, whether emphasis should be placed on charging customers a monthly subscription fee, or whether to rely more on earning revenue through advertising. In addressing this problem, management must consider the value that XM radio could propose for different consumer segments as compared with existing modes of radio (AM, FM) and in relation to its sole competitor in satellite radio – SIRIUS. Besides choosing a business model there is also a need to explore how best to approach and leverage manufacturer and channel partners, considering high unknown and high-risk technology. The purpose of this report is to analyze possibilities and outline possible recommendation on strategies for XM Radio. The following areas will be examined:

    Read More

  • International Joint Ventures (IJVs)

    2462 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sigurdson, J. (2004), ‘The Sony-Ericsson Endeavour: Part 1’, Institute of Innovation Research of Hitotsubashi Unniversity, Working Paper, (Tokyo: Japan).

    Read More

  • Cellular Phones

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cellular phones carry a diverse group of users. In June 1985, there were about 203,000 cellular phone service subscribers. By June 1989, the number had exploded to 2.7 million subscribers, and by June 1995 there were mire than 26 million subscribers. When cell phones were first introduce, only people with a lot of money had them and the service was very expensive. It was a lot cheaper to stop and use the pay phone than it was to use a cell phone. Now, it is almost as cheap to use a cell phone to make a long distance call as it is to make a long distance call using AT&T.

    Read More

  • Position of Vodafone in International Markets

    2887 Words  | 6 Pages

    Telecommunications gained mainstream attention in the early 90’s; however the initial key market was business men and women, who used their phones whilst being on the move and so allowing them to communicate with their companies with ease. Though in the modern era, telecommunication went through segmentation in the market trends, and now in this day and age it would be difficult to find someone who does not own some form of mobile technology. Many phone providers battle to provide the best service for their customers (Figure 1).

    Read More

  • Iridium Case Study

    529 Words  | 2 Pages

    Iridium, like any other successful business venture, had a strategic vision that acted as the man motive pushing its development. Apparently, there were a lot of inconveniences at the time when it came to using telephones and mobile phones across the borders of two countries. Each country had its own localized network operators. However, there was an ever growing need for the services to reach out across borders and connect people with partners, families and services in different countries. The military was also finding it extremely difficult to communicate when it involved international duties. The vision of Iridium was therefore setting up a mobile phone network that could provide services worldwide. The intention here was to ensure that people could have more freedom to communicate regardless of their location around the world. Iridium was supposed to enhance links especially to governments and businessmen by ensuring that communication could be facilitated even from the remotest of places. This included sea tra...

    Read More

  • Nokia Business Strategy

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1990, Nokia Mobile Phones (NMP) was the smallest of the five business divisions of Nokia, with annual sales of $500 million and 3,051 employees. Jorma Olilla, the new president of NMP, in the same year led the division to become the world's second largest manufacturer of mobile telephones after Motorola in just a year and half later. Motorola and NEC, the close third competitor, were the dominant players with a combined 33 percent global market share, compared with NMP's share of 13 percent. During this period, the main customers of mobile phones were business users who could afford the high prices. The everyday consumers were not overly attracted by these high prices and limited functional phones. Despite these limitations, the cellular market was growing rapidly, which brought more Asian producers into the competition. To make the matter worse, there was much proprietary technology and equipment required for analog standards around the globe. The emergence of digital technology provided a hope for a uniform communication standard. As a result, NMP had to make a difficult decision regarding which technology to commit significant resources to.

    Read More

  • Vodafone

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is a slowdown in sales of mobile handsets, in some markets like the UK, as the mature part of the product lifecycle is reached. Customers are exposed to a barrage of different images and messages by mobile phone companies, as the competition gets tougher. Vodafone appeals to new customers and aims to keep its existing ones by emphasising the uniqueness of the brand.

    Read More

  • Unilever Supply Chain Case Study

    1134 Words  | 3 Pages

    Covering sixty-three nations, the vital union will see Vodafone Global Enterprise supply about 50,000 Unilever workers with gadgets, network and Managed Mobile Services, which will enhance the conventional path and direction of Unilever's portable interchanges spend, upgrading cost efficiency and effectiveness in relation to the delivering of products and services. Vodafone Global Enterprise deals with the correspondence demands and needs of its clients in relation to the agreement, Vodafone will likewise supply services to Unilever with important information on the most proficient method to increase more prominent upper hand through conveying inventive versatile arrangements. Likewise, Vodafone will give key guidance on new patterns, for example, the successful administration of purchaser gadgets and applications in the working environment. Vodafone and Unilever will work a graduate learner trade project to empower further versatile development in the work environment. To rearrange the administration of Unilever's versatile interchanges, Vodafone will send a variety of arrangements including Vodafone Telecoms Management, a completely facilitated and oversaw administration intended to eliminate various operational issues. Supported by Vodafone's worldwide backing and administration level understandings, Vodafone Telecoms Management will give Unilever more prominent perceivability and administration control over its telecoms consumption, and additionally enhance the nature of administration conveyed to representatives. (Technology Marketing Corporation,

    Read More

  • Nokia Case Study

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    We intend to exploit our leadership role by continuing to target and enter segments of the communications market that we believe will experience rapid growth or grow faster than the industry as a whole....

    Read More

  • Challenges of Management in the 21st Century

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    Keeping up with technology is difficult, tiresome, and firms find it very costly to keep at pace with it. Technology rapidly and constantly keeps on changing. Being at par technologically requires extensive research and strategic analysis of acquiring new innovation. Enforcing new technology requires staff retraining and in some cases making employees redundant.

    Read More

More about Discussion on Iridium

Open Document