Abstract
The evolution of mobile devices representing by Smartphone is dividing business model of IT manufacturers. The divide is occurring at two areas. One is to select which business model “vertical integration” or “horizontal specialization”. Another is to select which strategy “platform player” or “product supplier”. Apple is company built the origin of mobile business model as “platform player” based on “vertical integration” and made great success by getting network effectiveness at multi sided market. On the other hand, most of IT manufacturers select the strategy to be “product supplier” based on PC business expertise. Those “product supplier” produce mobile devices to fit the specification of “platform player”, who built the platform on “horizontal specialization” such as Google, and concentrate the position as the device supplier to “platform player”. Recently, in the situation of mobile device booming, many IT manufacturers are trying to get into the mobile device business. I define the difference of strategy of Apple and other IT manufacturers as “Apple model” and “Dell Model” and analyze the deference. Finally I consider the future direction of mobile device business for Japanese IT manufacturers.
