Innovation Strategies - Assignment Example

Assignment Intel has been the leading manufacturer of microprocessors for many of years. Their products are the heart and soul of desktop computers, cell phones, laptops and other electronic products. The “Moore’s Law” popularized by Intel founder Gordon Moore has become the virtue of the company and catapulted Intel to the top. The driving force behind Intel’s success is not only the Moore’s Law but the company wide strategies that they implement especially in research, development, marketing and manufacturing. These strategies are being implemented in every country Intel is situated. It is imperative for the success of the company to implement exactly the same strategies, policies and standards in all of its sites to ensure quality is intact and not compromised. Intel strives to protect the company name and its position in the market by producing only top quality products. The use of different strategies in their research and development keeps Intel on top of their competitors. Intel uses market and product development as well as combination of both to be able to identify and produce products that are user centric. These are products that not only innovate but also answer the need of customers. Market oriented development is the type of development wherein Intel research what the customer need and design a product that match that need. While product oriented development is where Intel innovate and introduce a new product to the market. The Intel Centrino and dual-core processors are examples of products produced using these development approaches respectively. And in 2007 Intel launched a new material that will be used for manufacturing smaller, faster and more reliable microprocessors. These new product not only is an innovation by itself but also answer the demand of consumers for faster, smaller and high capacity computers. This just illustrates the ability of Intel to combine development approaches to maintain market lead. Vertical integration is what sets Intel apart from its competitors. This strategy means that Intel does its own research and development then manufactures the product. For other companies research and development or manufacturing is outsourced. It can be very risky and it open opportunity for other companies to copy ideas. To avoid this incident Intel uses vertical integration to not only protect ideas and product but also to guarantee that manufactured products are of high quality. Also vertical integration ensures that development is within specified timetable thus product delivery is on time. Assignment 2 Saudi Arabia’s telecommunication market is said to be one of the fastest growing markets in the Middle East. The Kingdom had invested a substantial amount of money to update its Information, Technology and Communication or ICT infrastructures. This is to be at par with other countries and to answer the growing need of Saudis for modernization. Known for its conservative ways, the Kingdom first embraces telecommunication technology with the use of fixed phone lines or landlines. This technology is the primary tool used in businesses, government and social communications. However, with the emergence of mobile technology in early 1997 the once reliable landlines are declining in popularity as Saudis rapidly adapted mobile phones (Shoult 2006). To put into perspective of how big mobile phones are in Saudi Arabia. According to the annual report of the Communications and Information Technology Commission (2007) or CITC there is a 116% penetration growth of mobile subscribers by the end of 2007, from 19.7 million in 2006 to 28.4 million in 2007. While there is a decline in fixed phone service from 69% in 2006 to 66% in 2007 this is due to the popularity of mobile service. These figures are a testament of the changing lifestyle of Saudis. Figure 1 shows the evolution of mobile subscription in the country. The CITC is the regulating body that supervises the ICT sector of the Kingdom. In the same report 83% of the current mobile users are prepaid subscribers. This kind of trend can be seen in other countries as well. Previously the telecommunication market is monopolized by the Saudi Telecom Company. Currently there is an existing second provider which is Mobility and based from the 2007 annual report a third provider will come into play, Saudi MTC. One reason for this influx of subscription is the high-end lifestyle of Saudis. Being one of the major providers of oil in the world, there is no surprise if people welcome mobile phones because it is a sign of opulence. The device is very popular especially to the younger generation because of its usability in their social lives. This kind of trend is not only seen in Saudi Arabia but to other Middle Eastern countries as well. According to a report the Middle East is the second–fasting growing mobile market in the world. It was mentioned that Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the leading countries with the most mobile users (Castells et al 2007). According to the United Nations Human Development Report (2008) there are 305 cellular subscribers for every 1000 people in Turkey, 106 per 1000 people in Iran and 575 subscribers per 1000 people in Saudi Arabia. As shown even a conservative country like Saudi Arabia cannot escape the changing landscape of technology. Mobile phones are really handy devices that make communication easier and portable but along with it are changes that might be too radical for Saudis. Traditionally, women in Saudi are not allowed to choose the man they will date. Families usually arrange the meeting hoping that the pair will eventually decide to marry. The couple is allowed to decline the marriage but they cannot choose partners freely. Women cannot also buy their own mobile phones unless approved by a male (Coughlin 2006). According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle this tradition is now being challenged by the younger generation. When a mobile phone is acquired together with are services and features that are now being used by Saudis for courtship. Since conventional dating of walking, eating or going to the movies together do not apply in Saudi Arabia. Young Saudis uses the Bluetooth technology of their phones to be able to communicate with the other sex (Sullivan 2006). Bluetooth is a technology that allows devices to communicate with each other for examples a mobile phone to another mobile phone or a mobile phone to a computer without the need for complicated processes. In the case of mobile phones the user do not need to know the mobile number of the other user, as long as the other user have the Bluetooth feature on, the users can send messages back and forth. These feature works wirelessly so unlike the old infrared feature of mobile phones the users do not need to be face to face. The range of reach of the Bluetooth device depends on the mobile phone. This feature is now being used by the young Saudis to communicate with the one another even if they are separated by walls. This is because public places in the Kingdom are segregated where the single men are separated from single women and families. With the use of Bluetooth young Saudi men just need to scan the vicinity for other mobile users who have their own Bluetooth device on. Based from the screen name or device name they would know who the female counterpart is. All they need to do now is send a message and wait for a response. Some of them even risk of going to some public places. This is a risk since Saudi women are not allowed to be together alone with a non-relative man. As incidents like these rise, the Saudi government grows increasingly concerned and in 2004, prohibited the selling of mobile phones with cameras. This is a response to the increasing number Saudi women pictures on the internet whose faces are not covered. The government feels that mobile phones are being used as a tool to harass and exploit their women. However, the ban was eventually lifted since almost all mobile phones now are equipped with cameras (Sullivan 2006). Social scenery is not the only sector being affected by mobiles phones but the health sector as well. Al-Drees & Meo (2005) reported that their study has shown that mobile phones prove to be health risks to its users. They have studied 873 participants composed of 57.04% males and 39.86% females. Based from the results of their study, 34.59% of the participants complained of hearing problems while 5.04% are inflicted with vision problems. Thus the investigators have concluded that the devices are of risk to the health of the Saudi population .They recommend that the public should be informed about the health risk of the devices to minimize these incidents. Also the study found out that the root of the problem is from the excessive use of the device. Concern about the safety of mobile phones has always been a question not only Saudi Arabia but also to other parts of the world. That is why mobile phones are not also allowed near gas stations, since there have been reports of people getting incinerated while pumping gas and using their phones at the same time. The study of Al-Drees & Meo (2005) just shows that the excessive use of a device does not bring any benefit at all. Devices like mobile phones should be respected and used properly so that full benefits of it could be derived. Technologies like these are born from inventions and innovations of our forefathers; therefore they should be used properly. Mobile phones and other advanced technologies that we are enjoying at the moment are the fruits of the labor of great inventors and creative innovators. These two concepts are usually interchanged but there is a thin line separating the two. Invention is the process of coming up with something totally new, like the computer when the only available counting device is the calculator. On the other hand, innovation is the process of adding usefulness to an already existing idea or device (Buxton 2005). Taking the computer as an example, an innovation came in the form of the introduction of Microsoft Windows. Computers already have operating systems; what Bill Gates did is tweak it to be more user friendly. To relate this with mobile phones, the best example is the iPhone. There is no new technology introduced when the iPhone was launched. The touch screen feature has been around for a long time. Old mobile phone models before the iPhone already have this feature, like the Sony Ericsson P900 which was introduced in 2003 where the screen can be navigated using a pointer. Innovation of the iPhone comes in the feature where the keypad is totally eliminated and the phone is entirely navigated by the user’s finger (Buxton 2005). References Al-Drees, AM & Meo, SA 2005, ‘Mobile phone related-hazards and subjective hearing and vision symptoms in the Saudi population ’, International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 53-57 Buxton, W 2005, ‘Innovation vs. Invention’, Roman Magazine, Fall 2005, pp. 52-53 Castells, M, Fernandez-Ardevol, M, Qiu, JL & Sey, A 2007, Mobile Communication and Society, MIT Press, USA Communications and Information Technology Commission 2007, Annual Report Facts and Figures, Communications and Information Technology Commission, Saudi Arabia Coughlin, K 2006, Muslim Cultures Today, Greenwood Publishing Group, Connecticut ‘Human Development Reports 2007/2008’, United Nations Development Programme, viewed 17 November 2008, Shoult, A 2006, Doing Business with Saudi Arabia, GMB Publishing Ltd, London Sullivan, K 2006, ‘How cell phones changed courting in Saudi Arabia’, San Francisco Chronicle, p. A-2 Read More