Vendor matrix

Friday, August 17th 2007 - 15:01 CEST - Comments: 0

N okia has been ranked at the top of the latest Smartphone Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Motorola and RIM (Research in Motion) claimed the second and third spots in the company’s most recent evaluation of worldwide smartphone vendors. The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. ABI Research evaluates vendors on the basis of Innovation and Implementation by selecting multiple criteria related to product/company characteristics. Upon evaluation, vendors are assigned numerical scores that are aggregated and analyzed to provide overall rankings.

 

Smartphone vendor matrix

According to industry analyst Shailendra Pandey, "Nokia leads the global smartphone market, enjoying a market share of over 56% share in 2006. Nokia's strength also ensures the leading position of Symbian in the mobile OS market. Motorola, RIM, and Sony Ericsson match Nokia in terms of product innovation, but lag behind with respect to implementation, for example on parameters such as total shipments, and extensive distribution networks. In North America, however, Nokia trails Palm and RIM which together hold more than two-thirds of the market through their sales of Treo and BlackBerry devices."

 

Smartphone market share

For this particular matrix, under "innovation," ABI Research examined user interface customization, patent portfolio, handset differentiation, battery life, handset size, support for third party application developers, common and concise API, and OS source code licenses. Under "implementation," ABI Research scrutinized the following criteria: smartphone shipments brand equity, choice of OS, number of smartphone models, whether the vendor was first to market, distribution network, smartphone market share, smartphone ASP, operator relationships, ODM partnerships, manufacturing facilities, overall handset ASP, and overall handset market share.

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