First country have more cell phones than people!!!

Glenn Smith, a technology writer from the Taiwan Review, stated in his article that “Taiwan’s love affair with the cell phone continues unabated since it became the first country in the world to have more handsets than people.” Taiwan is a relatively small island and is located in the south eastern part of Asia. There is approximately 20 million people resides in Taiwan. With so many people living in a small island, cell phone companies can offer better plans to the citizens of Taiwan than any other countries in the world; they don’t even need to worry about demand.
On Dec. 18, 2006 a survey conducted by a government-sponsored Institute, each person in Taiwan possessed an average of 1.4 cell phone numbers. So, the question are what cell phone users do with their phones and why cell phone is so popular in Taiwan? Some people see cell phones as an absolute necessity in their daily life. In extreme case, one can feel insecure by not having a cell phone in hand. However, unlike Japanese and Korean cell phone owners, Taiwanese spend most of their time talking on their phone rather than sending text massages. In 2006, Taiwanese only sent out 3.7 billion messages, which is about one message per every other day per user. As 3G (Third-generation) mobile services becoming available, the competition between each service providers is getting more intense every day. In 2005, Chungwa Telecom and Far Easton became the leading 3G service providing companies in Taiwan. Yet the majority of cell phone users have preference in the price and functionality of the phone. In order to promote 3G mobile service, Chungwa made a commercial to deliver the message on the life differences by having 3G services. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJOElw_UYUA . Basically, it demonstrates that if people’s reason for owning cell phone is to communicate with others, then they are outdated. People should also be integrating and learning new things as soon as new technologies are introduced to the market.
Mr. Smith further explains why SMS, 3G services and mobile social networking are more accepted in Japan than in Taiwan in his article. The leaders’ strategies of advertising more phones are by adding features, which is tied to the culture of the cell phone. People’s social behaviors are relatively shaped by their culture and marketing strategies. For instance, Taiwan is too convenience, anyone can easily find a wifi hotspot to access the internet and watch News or soccer game in anywhere. Also, Taiwanese mostly travel by cars or motorcycles; their time to use the 3G functions with their phone is very limited while they are on the road. In contrast, Japanese and South Koreans can maximize their time to access the internet with their 3G phones while taking public transports, as most Japanese and Koreans don’t own private cars.
Despite the drawback of introducing 3G services, cell phone companies can still market their products to a desirable way to attract potential clients. “Besides selling phone numbers and handsets, cell phone distributors serve consumers by teaching how to use latest models, repairing broken ones and offering consultation services,” said Bruce Chiu, executive vice president of Senao international Co. Ltd. (Taiwan Today). By providing extensive warranty services, consumers are more likely and willing to adopt new technology. Chiu further states “We sometimes communicate consumers’ needs to cell phone manufactures and telecom operators so that they can create more user friendly design.” These kinds of communication are crucial to cell phone companies to find out their customers’ preferences because Taiwan’s cell phone users replace their phone at least every six months. The estimation of handsets sales in 2001 was 4.5 million. (The Mobile life)
Though Mr. Smith and Mr. Chiu have some good arguments and evidences on Taiwan’s mobile market, I feel there is still some market potential for Taiwan’s mobile segment. Taiwan is already considered as a developed country. Recently a report that was done by European Business School shows Taiwan ranked second in Asia in the Innovative Capacity Index. This index evaluated individual country on various policy-oriented dialogue, innovation and quantitative tools as well as on national development stage and the nature of the regime. Geographically, the size of Taiwan is cheaper and easier for an operating company to build cell base stations to achieve wide area of coverage. I believe the 3G phone and service will become gradually more popular and increasingly in demand. Now, Taiwan cell phone users are at a transition stage. The situation will improve when (1) the price of 3G phone and accessing fee reduce to a reasonable amount, (2) alternative internet webpage is available for small screen devices instead of normal webpage. The mobile phone segment will be profitable again if the companies look into these recommendations.
http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=24079&CtNode=429
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