2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Comparative Study of Development and Marketing in Japanese and Chinese Mobile Handset Industries
| Project/Area Number |
17530173
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Applied economics
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
MURAKAWA Tomoo The University of Tokyo, Institute of Social Science, Associate Professor, 社会科学研究所, 助教授 (40334263)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
YUAN Zhijia Rissho University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (00308123)
YASUMOTO Masanori Aoyama Gakuin University, School of Business, Associate Professor, 経営学部, 助教授 (40293526)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2006
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| Keywords | Mobile phone handsets / Mobile communication / Product development / Marketing / China / Vertical division of labor |
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| Research Abstract |
Japanese and Chinese mobile handset industries are very different in their structure. In China, handset manufacturers concentrate on product planning and sales, while outsourcing development and design to independent design houses, and production to electronic manufacturing services. Design houses, in turn, rely much of their circuit design on the "platforms" which they buy from IC vendors. The supply relationship between handset manufacturers and design houses changes quite often. In Japan, handset manufacturers produce specialized handsets for a specific service operator. Most of the tasks of development and production are conducted within the handset manufacturer. Handset components are often customized for a specific handset, and the supply relationship between the handset manufacturer and component supplier is stable.
Such difference is based on the difference in the relationship between handset manufacturers and service operators. In Japan, handsets serve as a medium to provide se
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rvices for the operators, who always try to introduce new services which do not exist elsewhere in the world. Handsets are always sold as a part of a package which includes service and handset. In China, on the other hand, most of the handsets are sold independently by the manufacturer, without the involvement of the operators.
The advantage of the Japanese-style handset industry is that the manufacturer can concentrate on product development, while leaving the task of planning and marketing to the operators. But as Japanese manufacturers do not need to learn how to sell their products directly to consumers and their handsets are customized for a specific operator in Japan, they performed poorly in overseas market. Chinese handset manufacturers, on the other hand, rapidly built up their capability to sell directly to Chinese customers. Chinese manufacturers, however, suffer from severe competition with their rivals, because it is difficult to differentiate their products from those of their rivals. Less
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