The Leaders Of The Telecoms Market, Apple Inc. And AT&T, Are Focusing On Investments To Expand Business

Telecommunication includes the application of communication hardware equipment for the transmission of voice, data, text and video. The global telecommunications market was valued at $2,693.4 billion in 2018. The competitive landscape of the telecoms market is fairly fragmented. Though a small number of players register significant market share, large number of small players constitute nearly three-fifths of the market. However, this is expected to change during the forecast period to 2022, as majority of the players are trying to grow inorganically by acquiring smaller companies to expand their geographical outreach. The top ten competitors in the market made up 37.5% of the total market share in 2018. Apple was the largest competitor with 6.9% of the market, followed by AT&T with 6%. Other major players in the market are Verizon Communications, China Mobile, Samsung, Huawei, Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corp, Deutsche Telekom AG, Softbank Group Corp., and Telefonica SA.

Apple Inc. was the largest competitor in the global telecoms market in 2018, with a 6.9% share of the market. Its products include phones, tablets, music players, laptops, desktops and TVs. Its consumer and professional software applications include the IOS and OS X operating systems, iCloud, and accessories, service and support offerings. The company also has iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Mac App Store, through which it sells its digital content and applications. The company was formed in 1976 and is headquartered in California, the USA.

Apple’s growth strategy aims increasing its business by investing in expanding its retail stores, and increasing the number of data centers and manufacturing facilities. For instance, in December 2018, it invested $1 billion to expand its operations in Austin, the USA. Also, in 2015, the company announced an investment of $15 billion to improve infrastructure, and increase the number of data centers and manufacturing facilities.

AT&T was the second largest competitor in the telecoms market in 2018, with a 6.0% share of the market. It provides telecoms services and products including wired communications, local exchange services, long-distance services, data/broadband and Internet services, video services, telecoms equipment, managed networking, and wholesale services. AT&T’s growth strategy aims at investing to improve its offerings. For instance, from 2013 to 2017, the company invested an amount of $135 billion in the USA to improve its wireless telecommunications operations and in various acquisitions to strengthen its other businesses.

Samsung Electronics, which is another major player in the telecoms market, also aims at increasing investments to drive its businesses. For instance, in October 2018, Samsung invested to acquire Zhilabs, an artificial intelligence-based network and service provider to support its 5G offerings. Also, in August 2018, it announced an investment of KRW 25 trillion over a period of three years to support its businesses, including 5G service offerings.

The global telecoms market can be segmented by product/service type into wired telecommunication carriers, wireless telecommunication carriers, satellite and telecommunication resellers, and communications hardware.