The key firms competing in this new market have each been a market leader in their original industry, and therefore bring previously successful firm recipes and particular core competencies to their smartphone efforts. Information and communications technology (ICT) firms whose locus of competitive strength was centered in only one of these sectors are entering a new competitive landscape that is redefining and eroding the boundaries between software, hardware, and services. The convergence of mobile telephony, Internet services, and personal computing is resulting in the emergence of the smartphone and the “mobile Internet” (Ishii 2004 Funk 2001). We examine how the dynamics of this convergence may lead to a reconsideration of certain tenets of platform theory. Our analysis suggests that currently some competitors are following traditional platform strategies, but that Google and Apple appear to have adopted strategies at odds with platform literature. We analyze in detail the actions and strategies of four major competitors, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and, more briefly, Research in Motion and HP/Palm, from the framework of technological platform theory. We test theories of industry architecture and technological platforms regarding their ability to explain the strategies of key entrants in navigating the transition.
As these sectors merge into a single device, formerly separate industry architectures and their constituent firms are being forced into direct competition. With the launch of the original iPhone, Apple redefined the “smartphone” product category and accelerated the convergence of traditional mobile telephony, Internet services, and personal computing into a new industry.
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