panies under stand the need for continuing service after the purchase and all scored the same.Market position- Toshiba has the market position in Europe as well as Philips but when discussing Italy they are all some what well established in that area except Italians are a few years behind in their demand for cutting edge products. However, Toshiba is making the move.Advertising- All these companies spend millions on advertising a year and once they decide to enter Italy with WEB TV or an alternate they will be ready to go.Cultural Competence- Philips and Toshiba ranked one point higher in this factor only because Philips is a European company and Toshiba actually has a plan for entering Europe and then Italy.Product in working form- None of the licensees has a WEB TV product that will work in Europe. Only Toshiba has actually started manufacturing next generation digital set-top-boxes for the UK and Italy.COMPETITOR PROFILESThere are two ways to divide the competitors. The reasons are that competition over the TV involves different industries that are now converging on the individual viewing the TV. They are able to combine technologies to provide these different services such as online banking and smart card technology, email, web surfing, e-commerce and a like. So to say, that the only competitors to Philips are WEB TV licensees is not a very wise decision especially when referring to the European and Italian markets. The three main competitors are 1. Cable Companies like Canal+ (the huge French Euro wide cable company with 2 million subscribers in Italy alone). 2. ISP’s like AOL (the worlds largest Internet Service Provider with multiple services for the home user) 3. Telephone Companies like Telecomm Italia (Italy’s largest telephone, cellular provider). Each one of these competitors has a huge advantage in part of the product chain. They each can be a major player by providing an essential function to compete wit...
