Mobile phones are a must-have item in almost every country, and here in the UAE they are often an expensive fashion accessory. So, it would be easy to assume that manufacturing and selling these devices is a bit like owning a money tree. But that’s not the case.
Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, has suffered a 24 per cent drop in operating income based on reduced demand for its products. Samsung is a diversified company that still earns about Dh26.7 billion a quarter, so it is in no imminent danger, but it is tempting to suggest that the mobile phone business is somehow cursed.
Many of the once-dominant players – Qualcomm, Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Sony, BlackBerry – have either left the business altogether or are struggling to survive. The exception to this has been Apple – though even the great innovator has been forced to play catch-up, with its upcoming iPhone 6 range rumoured to include the larger screens that have been available on Samsung's Galaxy series for more than a year.
With Chinese brands like Huawei and Lenovo now offering similarly featured devices at cheaper prices, we may well be celebrating their own inexorable rise and, perhaps, their decline too in future years.
