Introduction
The cellular phone technology has evolved tremendously compared to the old phone technology. It is however important to acknowledge the significant role the old cell phone technology has played as it has been the basis for the development of the new technology.In 1886, a Canadian named Reginald Fessenden together with Thomas Edison invented wireless communication that used radio waves for transmission.
Their first successful audio transmission was established in December 23, 1900 and the transmissions only covered a radius of 1.6 kilometers. The end of World War 2 in 1945 marked the beginning of the cell phone era. The cell phones were highly effective and could cover a large area because they were operated from cell phone base stations.
The laboratory technicians at AT&T Company helped to make the first cells for cell phone base stations. In 1966, the first Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) was developed by Gene Roddenberry. The innovation meant a change from paper and pencils to a more sophisticated digital processing on portable electronic tablets. The electronic tablets were sizeable and used pen based input.
The idea was a major milestone as far as technology was concerned in those days because it meant a relief from paper work. Many companies including Apple, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, the GO Corporation, EO Inc and Momenta started to produce PDAs in the 1990s and analysts predicted huge sales.
The move was necessitated by the fact that the PDA user interface was supported by advanced software like modems, handwriting recognition, power and memory applications.
PDA companies
The PDA technology turned out to be a short lived venture. After a successful invention of the PDA that had earlier been seen as successful, operational shortcomings saw the need for better inventions that would address customers’ needs satisfactorily. The companies did not know the features that customers wanted integrated into new technological innovations and the extent to which the customers were willing to pay for them.
This development was probably because they did not have a clear definition of the kind of market they wanted to serve. Even after launching their products, the PDA companies did not use customer feedback to rectify the problems that emerged. The PDA developers used technology whose market trends were not effectively researched. The handwriting recognition software, for instance, was only 95% accurate.
The power of the processor, the lifespan of the battery and the memory that was required to enhance the PDA performance were not well developed. This idea meant that the earlier use of pencil and paper could have been more accurate and reliable than the PDA but reverting back to the pencil and paper would not have been a proper alternative.
The PDA companies did not have efficient supply and distribution channels and appropriate suppliers and distributors. The said challenges led to lack of market awareness about the basic functions of the pen-based PDAs. Lack of proper promotion led to confusion in the market about the exact users intended for those gadgets.
The other reason that led to the collapse of the PDA companies was because the profits they made could not sustain the higher research and development costs, the expenses of developing supply and distribution channels and the cost of marketing. Only a small portion of the market bought their accessories and hence their use was not widespread.
How the PDA companies could have avoided failure
The PDA companies should have developed innovations with accurate and efficiently researched complementary technologies like the handwriting recognition software. The device memories and batteries of their gadgets should have been designed to hold larger amounts of data and their life spans should have been improved.
These inventions would have influenced optimal acceptance of the PDA gadgets by the customers. Secondly, these companies should have used adequate advertisements to accelerate market growth. Adequate resources would have enabled them invest in aggressive promotions and marketing.
Finally, the companies should have researched on the preferences of their customers and used public relations effectively to boost their understanding of the technological device and the role it would have played in the lives of their clients. Palm Company was successful in implementing the said recommendations though for a short period of time. The technology business for Palm Company later collapsed.
The collapse was occasioned by Palm’s late entry into the market after most of the other PDA companies had failed. The technology that Palm adopted was simple and the clients would have embraced it compared to that of the earlier PDAs. That fact coupled with its low price made it easily accessible and users found it reliable because it was fast.
The rate of Palm’s sales was accelerated and the success meant that it did not have to use huge amounts of resources to sustain itself because of the adequate profit it got. Palm had addressed what users wanted which was a fast processor with easy to use technology. The late entry of the smart phone into the market by the Apple Company did not have adverse consequences on its sales.
Apple’s sales were enhanced by the fact that it came up with a more advanced and user friendly technology. Apple had researched widely and was certain on the needs of the market owing to the shortcomings of the other smart phones. It came up with the “touch screen” which was different from previous smart phones that used “key pads”. Customers realized that Apple was a great improvement over the other smart phones.
Apple’s smart phone therefore had an instant acceptance in the market. Apple was also able to evade market failure initially because of the high sales that helped it increase its profits. The reputation of Apple made it easy for the brand to capture the market trends fast.
The profits accrued from the smart phones’ sales today are always increasing as new technology replaces the old one because the phones are continually being improved. At the end of the year 2007, the smart phones’ sales had reached $39 billion and are expected to increase to $65 billion by the end of 2013.
The increment will be equal to 16% which will be quite significant. The industry is however not likely to use a single operating system to be the dominant design because all the operating systems will be competing on one platform.
The phone industry will come up with many innovations that will eventually overuse the operating system and in the end; the clients will not realize any tangible value from the system. The need for new innovation has continued to be the core driver of the cellular phones’ market.
This fact has been promoted further by the inventions of multiple operating systems that are either open or close sourced. To ensure that developers remain competitive in the market, they have to constantly upgrade their software to fulfill the ever increasing clients’ needs.