Nokia, Motorola Race Against Apple, Article Review Example

An article in WSJ reflects upon the intensely competitive smartphone industry which is led by Apple’s iPhone product line. Apple’s rivals Nokia and Motorola introduced their latest smartphone models ahead of Apple’s expected iPhone 5 launch in order to gain promotional edge but the strategy has backfired. This is because they could not provide all the necessary information to the consumers at their launch events such as prices and launch dates since they didn’t have the time to make all marketing-related decisions (Grundber and Stoll).

The article touches upon several marketing concepts including 4Ps and product life cycles. Consumers make decisions after taking into account different types of information including price and distribution channels and Apple’s rivals failed to realize the information needs of their targeted markets. The article also reminds us that the product life cycles in the smartphone industry are getting increasingly shorter which puts pressure on Apple’s rivals to introduce new products more frequently in order to catch up to Apple’s technological innovations.

This article has made me realized that the competition does play in consumers’ favor because it increases innovation. But at the same time, greater number of choices also mean consumers have greater information needs and marketers cannot afford to ignore the informational aspect of their products.

This event will force Apple’s rivals to increase their marketing research activities in order to better understand their consumers. This event has taught them that being first may have more disadvantages than advantages if the things are not done in the right manner. I chose this article because it touched upon some of the most important marketing concepts whose application is seen in almost every industry. Thus, the lessons mentioned in this article can also be learned by marketers in other industries.

Reference

Grundber, Spencer E. Ante Sven and John D. Stoll. Nokia, Motorola Race Against Apple. 6 September 2012. 6 September 2012 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443819404577633352198554784.html?mod=WSJ_business_LeadStoryCollection>.