Market share and margins matter in this industry and in recent years, from many sources these have been under pressure. As technology platforms are co-developed, shared and licensed through the likes of Symbian and Qualcomm, technical leadership no longer holds the sway it did in the past. Within the innovation portfolio, design has become the key differentiating factor and is the primary area where competing companies are continuously looking to gain an edge over their rivals. Nokia has a design process that looks for ‘remarkable similarities in what global consumers want and need in their mobile devices’. While Motorola, LG and Samsung use design to focus on the medium priced segments with the RazR, the Viewty phone and the G800 respectively, Nokia has placed bets on both high-end smart-phones such as the N-95 on the one hand and low-end models to grow and maintain its market share in countries such as India and China on the other.

Alongside design and technology, collaboration with other sectors is the other major area of innovation focus right now. Because it is the networks and not the device manufacturers that own the consumer relationship, both parties are keen to innovate in new ways with new partners. Google’s initial teaming up with Orange to provide a phone capable of delivering Google’s services on a mobile platform was eclipsed by the November 2007 release of Android, an open source software platform for mobile devices developed in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance. At the same time, Google is also busy cooperating with the likes of Nokia in delivering location-based advertising, and Nokia is itself leading a change into services through the 2007 launch of Nokia Music Store and a host of new developments.

Having experienced massive technology convergence within the device as handsets simultaneously act as phone, camera, computer and internet access, this sector is moving fast into a second generation of product and service convergence. For many consumers, their phone is the key item they carry around with them all the time. It is the first thing they use when they wake up and the last thing they touch before they go to sleep. With such global consumer acceptance, more and more companies are seeking to leverage this ubiquitous device to deliver an increasingly wide range of innovations from healthcare through to entertainment.