Apple Must Re-Establish Its Market Share With iPhone 5

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will certainly look to make the most out of its upcoming event, whereby it is expected to announce the roll-out dates for iPhone 5, as well as iPad mini. The world’s market leader in smartphones and tablets manufacturing is facing a stiff challenge from its long-term rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, along with other up and coming competitors, despite that waning competitive muscle of some of them.

Apple Must Re-Establish Its Market Share With iPhone 5

Last week, three mobile gadget makers with global presence, just like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), announced the launch of their 2012 devices, and although some of them failed to release all the important details, Apple must ensure that its upcoming iPhone 5 is way above the rest in terms of class and value for investment.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) and Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE:MSI) held their events on the same day, with both of them failing to release some key information regarding their gadgets. While this could easily have limited a company that relies much on competitor information in developing their strategy, I do not think Apple will baffled by that at all.

Two days later, it was Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s turn, and unlike Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) and Motorola, Amazon.com laid out every detail as per customer expectations. The pricing and release dates were well mentioned. In our article, we actually, tried to assess how Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 9″ tablet could pose competition to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s primed Tablet with the same specifications, but trading at $200 dollars higher.

Amazon is yet another new competitor joining the tablet market, not forgetting, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Surface Tablet, as well as Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Nexus 7. It is only a matter of time before these new competitors start manufacturing smartphones to build more competition in the industry currently dominated by Apple and Samsung.

The smartphones industry has proved that companies’ ability to maintain a continuous competitive edge against peers is unsustainable, as exhibited by Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TOT:RIM) BlackBerry, and Nokia Corporation’s high end devices. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been the Market leader for the last couple of years, especially in the U.S.

However, according to the most recent statistics collected from the U.S markets, the most valuable technology company seems tohave lost that priviledge to its fierce rival Samsung. The Korean-based electronics maker outstaged Apple at its home ground during the month of August, in terms of units sold, a post in The Globe and Mail noted.

Additionally, more companies are embracing Google’s Android O.S, as statistics show that more than 50% of high-end telecommunications devices now run on Android O.S. Furthermore, Microsoft Corporation’s Windows 8 has already started gaining some advantage, as Nokia has already launched it in its new Lumia  phones. This therefore leaves Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with no option but to ensure that its perfectly timed iPhone 5 launch fulfills its ambitions.

Someone could argue that last week was the best time to make the announcements, because of the timing for monthly income earners. However, in my opinion, last week was the week when mandatory things, such as bills eat on our pockets, thereby assuming a priority position in our budgets.  Those who go on a shopping spree would likely preserve the exercise until after covering the basics, and hence, this week would be the perfect timing for the launch.

Apple must make iPhone 5 a brand to reckon with if its is to regain its lost market share from Samsung Electronics. The device, as expected, must be different from what we know of iPhone 4, otherwise, why have we waited for so long, clinging on to cash that we could have otherwise used to buy the old version, albeit at a cheaper price?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock last week closed at $680.44 per share, $4.17 up from the previous close of 676.27, or approximately 0.6% increase. At the time of this writing, it was trading (pre-market) at $680.59, $0.15 up or 0.02% rise.

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