Japan Handsets Technology Isn’t Everything

Japanese companies have a technology edge derived from digital media expertise, and particularly long experience with displays and cameras; experience in multimedia applications, from i-mode in the domestic market, has led to software and application expertise. Japanese companies have a technology edge derived from digital media expertise, and particularly long experience with displays and cameras; experience in multimedia applications, from i-mode in the domestic market, has led to software and application expertise.

Japan has an obvious technology lead, but the gap is narrowing. We estimate the technology lead Japan enjoys over Korea has shortened to 3-6 months. It’s lead over Europe is probably longer - about 9 months. We believe Japanese handset makers are unlikely to gain share in 2003-04; we expect market share to remain stable around 16%, with modest room for growth and upside due to increased use of outsourcing partners.

COMMENTARY: Eric Wen and colleagues at Morgan Stanley’s Singapore office have released the latest in a series of excellent reports examining Japan’s handset makers in the context of the wider Asian and global markets. In the current report, the authors point to the Japanese makers’ inability to achieve economies of scale in the export markets, and they allege “too much focus on the proprietary domestic PDC standard” as reason why costs are still so high (of course, Japanese carriers eat a big part of that cost, so handsets end up being cheap at retail - at least after an initial couple of months on the market).

They also point out that due to slow progress on business model-related issues and a delay in the take-up of data-intensive 3G services (read: DoCoMo’s 3G services), “Japanese handset makers’ technology edge is likely to be chipped away as other competitors narrow the gap.” Look out Japan: Korea’s gonna eat your mobile lunch! This report is a must read for anyone seriously studying handset issues.

Eric has kindly consented to respond to requests for copies:
Eric Wen
+65 6834 6754