Rivalry Getting Hot in China's Wind Market

The global wind turbine market is made up of a few big fish in a relatively confined pond - calling for some pretty fierce rivalries. Ten companies account for 80% of the market, with Vestas, from Denmark, leading the pack with 12.8% of the total market share (based on installed capacity). Following closely behind is GE, which controls 12% of the market.

However, Vestas' market share has decreased considerably in the past few years because of an expanding international market for wind. China, for instance, is the fastest growing wind market in the world. Its growing capacity has not only helped domestic wind farmers, but also international players expand to new markets as well. Chinese companies such as Sinovel, Dongfang, and Goldwind face stiff competition from their international counterparts - GE Energy, Vestas, and Suzlon - who have also begun to harvest wind in China. After China is India, whose future is also promising.

Now, when considering the forces that shape and determine an industry, namely the threat of substitutions, barriers to entry, power of suppliers and buyers, and rivalry, one might think that this is a fairly safe sandbox in which to play. Traditional energy sources are depleting at astronomical rates (not to mention how expensive they are), barriers to entry are high, keeping others from entering the market, and suppliers and buyers don't have much influence on prices - at least not yet. But somewhere along the line, somebody left the flood gates open long enough to let ten big fish in the pond - fish that are about equal in size and are all equally hungry. Only time will tell which one will come out on top.

T-Mobile Expanding their Target Market

While T-Mobile has historically focused on value conscious families and individuals for their revenue, they have just launched a massive plan to acquire a large share of an unfamiliar market - businesses. The No. 4 U.S. carrier plans to acquire some $3 billion in new sales from the business sector over the next three years. While their current B2B share is relatively small to its competitors (4%, compared to Verizon's 41%, AT&T's 35% and Sprint's 14%), it hopes to take a large portion of that in the upcoming years.

Executives blame T-Mobile's weak past U.S. performance with underfunding and poor sales efforts. They are confident that with increased funding and a more aggressive effort they can see a turnaround. To take away market share from their competitors, they either have to differentiate their service or be prepared to battle it out on the price field. Executives agree that they'll do the latter.

When considering Porter's Five Forces (barriers to entry, substitution threats, buyer power, supplier power, and rivalry among competitors), it seems as though they may need a little more to compete than just slightly lower prices. In an industry with extremely intense rivalries, high buyer power, and great threats to substitution, maybe T-Mobile should think about doing something different. Perhaps they should find a unique value-add, eliminating some of the threat of substitutions. Or incentivize businesses in a unique way to undercut their buying leverage. Whatever it ends up being, they're playing a risky game. They need to realize that they are vying for a position in a market in which they have essentially no current share, and their competitors are equipped as well, if not better, for the price war.