A third approach is an improvement in sales and marketing, including introducing innovation or increasing efficiency in pricing and promotion.

The reason that Samsung stood out was largely due to its product improvements. A sustained ability to launch fashionable models was once the core competence of Samsung.

Yet fashion aside, many users found that Samsung's phones did not perform significantly better than even Siemens, which eventually sold its mobile phone business to BenQ. The failure of Siemens can also be a good lesson to Samsung.

Product improvements can be easily copied and followed, and after efforts from other phone makers, Samsung has lost some of its edge.

In fact its lag behind second- ranked Motorola has actually widened and its No 3 position is facing a serious challenge from Sony Ericsson. Financial results in the second quarter for Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson showed Samsung was the only one to see a decline in profits.

Obviously, Samsung needs to find a way out other than solely product improvement.

1

2

3

4

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)