How HTC Vive Should Strengthen Its Competitive Advantage - Case Study Example

HTC VIVE VR GLASSES REPORT by Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor University City/Sate Date HTC Vive Vr Glasses report Industrial Five Forces The five force analysis is mainly pegged on evaluating the balance of business power comparative to competitors in the same industry pursuing the same market globally. It Assumes that the crucial sources dictates the competitive power in a business setup. A successful company is one that is able to identify these 5 forces and then adjust to these conditions. The five forces include the supplier capacity, the substitution effect, and purchasing power of buyers, competitive rivalry and threats of new entrants into the industry (Ireland, Hoskisson & Hitt, 2008, p 142). Supplier Capacity This force in the market assesses how suppliers influence the prices up or down. The price change is driven by the input each supplier keys in in terms of product uniqueness or service experienced by the product, control over customer, their strength and the cost of seeking alternative supplier. In this instance, HTC Vive product development brings simplicity as it has users of the game working on Vive steam and the target is made on one of user launch steam options (McGrew, 2002, p 3). The steam braces both vive handsets and Rift along with standing, sitting and room scale experiences incorporating blends of input devices. This provides a cutting edge in product incomparability. HTC Vive suppliers are well versed with virtual realities out of their specialist knowledge in developing products that meet the business needs as well as suiting customer demands by coming up with variety of tech gadgets such as HTC vive vr handsets that come with a view of captivating immersion, front facing camera merges the real virtual elements, with an adjustable headset straps that provide extended use of comfort, seamless interaction handheld controllers for precise motion tracking. More so, suppliers have embedded a technology protection strategy. Purchasing Power It analyzes the number buyers in the product market, the importance of individual purchaser to the business and the cost of swapping from one product or service to the other. If a business engages with few powerful buyers, there in a better position as a business to negotiate favorable terms. In this context HTC Vive has targeted VR devices to government entities and military use (Madigral, 2013, p 34). There have been attempts to have VR devices floated to consumer market, though there has been poor reception. Still there are true believers who have remained, and they have poised great market returns for the VR. The big problems comes with the competitors in the industry in that they have all re-engineered their devices for display in their stores starting next year and consumers will have variety to choose from as the virtual headsets hit shelves. Competitive Rivalry Competitive rivalry looks at the number of competitors operating in the industry as well as their capabilities. If there are many competitors and they offer equal attractive products and service, then the most likelihood is your business will have less competitive edge since suppliers and buyers have high substitutes that they can seek from the market. On the other hand, if there are no close competitors, then you have it smooth in the market due to the tremendous strength. The HTC Vive has a competitive edge that differentiates itself by allowing you to physically move around compartment of space. It’s easy to take a step forward to the virtual world by just taking a forward step to the real world. This opens up an absolutely a new class of experiences and games that are available for Vive. As much as the oculus rift comes with the sensors it does not beat the creativity of Vive that lets you move, explore freely and interact with virtual reality. It is disadvantageous for the Oculus Rift users who need not to worry for its stationery experience of either sitting or standing than worrying about the cables that links the Vive while gaming on the virtual world which takes away the full immersion that VR Offers. Substitution Threat The substitution threat looks at the competitive products that could work as well as the company’s product. The HTC glasses have a very unique aspect which is the ability of customers to move around uniquely, for instance allowing you to physically move around compartment of space. It’s easy to take a step forward to the virtual world by just taking a forward step to the real world (Wright, 2008). This open up an absolutely a new class of experiences and games that are available for Vive. Vive has come up with brain storming ideas of understanding customer values regarding products and services they offer. The company moves beyond common basics that suppliers in the industry are adopting and looks at the customer criteria that they use to make decision on what product to buy. Sometimes, this is depicted in their blog support where consumers make recommendations and raise various concerns about their products. To keep the notch high, HTC Vive has identified itself with top competitors to benchmark on the experience of the product they produce for the customers and the creativity it brings in the virtual reality tech in the world. It is by being objective that HTC came up with VR headsets that beats up oculus rift tech. New Entry Threat Competition is inevitable especially in free markets. This aspect of the market entails the ability of new competitors to enter the market. If it costs so much to enter the market it means less competition and high protection of key technologies. This is the case with HTC Vive. This is seen by the inability of the company to build headphones in the handsets until the developers realize improved model games and experiences. This limits even the new competitors trying to conceptualize their ideas of getting into the virtual reality world. With their Vive Optimized Pcs, HTC Vive Tested these systems and it emerged as the industry leading manufacturers for PCs, making the PCs Vive compatible featuring graphic capabilities that are jaw dropping and an audio output that is breathtaking for an experience that is outstanding to the competitors and to the new entry firms that ought to catch up with the exemplary technology HTC Vive developers come with (Wright, 2008). Generic Strategies HTC Vive adopts Differentiation Strategy Differentiation entails making a product or service in forms that is more attractive compared to those produced by competitors. This depends on the industry nature of the products and services, their features, durability, functionality and support. For HTC Vive, they have invested heavily on product development and innovation by coming up with VR that differentiates itself by allowing users to physically move around room making it easy to take a step forward to the virtual world by just taking a forward step to the real world. This opens up an absolutely new class of experiences and games that are available for Vive. It is through the above business creativity that fresh findings and innovative solutions come up so as to better customer experience as HTC Vive developers have niched by assessing profitable business needs and consumer demands. Focus Strategy HTC Vive focuses on particular niche markets and brought about by understanding the various dynamics of the market and the customer unique needs. This led to customizing products such as making the PCs Vive compatible featuring graphic capabilities to match the customer demands. This has enabled the tech firm to build a strong brand with government entities and security firms segmenting its customer loyalty to viable potential customers who make the HTC Vive products a great success (Koprowski, 2011, p 234). This strategy ensured that HTC Vive added something more than the norm to serve a strong market niche and the risk contesting against better resourced extensive market. HTC says it takes around thirty minutes to set up the Vive, which we find to be a good estimate. The box comes with all hardware packed safely in single compartments. The mini-poster which has details of everything that ought to be present in the box, the instruction bit, is omitted. Instead, you are linked directly to download HTC's setup application, which takes the user through the process of assembling each device linking the full Vive VR, this made it user friendly once a customer purchased the product. Recommendation on how to strengthen its competitive advantage HTC Vive firm should adopt a reverse brain storming strategy that solves or oversees a problem. For instance, it is worrying to come across the daggling cables linked to the Vive around the virtual world of users which takes away the entire immersion VR Offers. That’s a problem that can be well brainstormed and a solution furnished to by dressing cables up the ceiling to provide the its worth for the virtual stage to move in a most user comfortable way. Creation of brand relevance was also a proposal we think the firm would have adopted from its core competence by giving customers a thought that strongly influences customer demands so as to impact their core competence and competitive position. In this instance, HTC should design a less bulky VR design that does not include headphones cables. This can be overcome by integrating headphones into the Vive. HTC Vive have also fall short of being a cost leader for smaller consumer segments this has made the product unavailable to most smaller markets that would otherwise be so viable commercially. The tech insider 2015 deduced that consumers were less willing to purchase the device due to the high cost it was being offered compared to its competitors device. If the price was cut down it would really do well to the gaming user market segment. It is of great idea that HTC Vive capitalizes on SWOT that is particularly powerful. It can help HTC Vive uncover opportunities that are well-placed to exploit. It is by not understanding all the potential weaknesses of HTC Vive, which makes them unable to eliminate and manage threats and problems that would otherwise affect the optimum performance of the tech firm in a bid to be more profitable than competitors (McGrew, 2002). If HTC Vive had utilized all SWOT frameworks as supposed especially on the cost bit, it would appear best Virtual reality tech firm. More so, benchmarking yourself with competitors through use of SWOT framework enables HTC Vive craft strategies that help the firm distinguish itself from its competitors, so that the firm can successful compete in the available markets present. References Madigral, Alexis (2013). Toward a Complex, Realistic, and Moral Tech Criticism. The Atlantic, p 33-37 Wright, R.T. (2008). Technology. Goodheart-Wilcox Company, 5th edition McGrew, W. C (2002). Chimpanzee Material Culture. HTC gaming decisions. Cambridge u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press, p 3-14 Koprowski, Gene (2011). Tech Intelligence Revival? Making progress in HTC vive glasses. Commerce May Model on DIA's Project Socrates". Washington Technology, p 234. Ireland, R. D., Hoskisson, R., & Hitt, M. (2008). Understanding business strategy: Concepts and cases. Cengage Learning, p 140-43 Read More