Business Case Studies, Leadership Case Study, Tata Group,Ratan Tata

Code : COM0004

Year : 2003

Industry : Telecommunications

Region : China

Teaching Note:Not Available

Structured Assignment :Not Available

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Introduction:In 2002, China emerged as the largest mobile handset market in the world1 and by the end of August 2003, there were about 250 million mobile phone users in China. The industry was expected to grow at a rate of 9% in the year 2003 with projections showing that the total number of mobile phone users in China would rise to around 500 million by 2005. The large number of subscribers attracted the world's major mobile handset manufacturers and around forty mobile handset companies including Motorola, Nokia and Samsung were competing for a larger share of the Chinese mobile handset market.

Motorola, which has been present in China since 1987, had the largest share in the mobile handset market by the end of 2002. Though the company was the market leader, its market share had declined from 32% in 1999 to 28% in 2002. Competitors started eating into the company's market share by providing cutting-edge designs at competitive prices. The local players, whose share was just about 1% at the end of 19985, garnered a market share of 26% by the end of 2002. Motorola geared up its efforts to win back the market by launching products that were not only in tune with market requirements but also reached the markets at a faster rate.