Good for the customers, but difficult for the industry

When Google launched their mobile phone a shockwave went through the entire industry. It was not due to the fact that Google now started manufacturing mobile phones. No; it was the open source platform that made every mobile phone manufacturer in the world cry in disbelief. Every CEO saw their balance sheets shrink from one second to another and years and billion dollars of investments were of no value at all.

This is more than any industry can grasp in a short time. The new competitor’s reason to enter the market was not to be yet another manufacturer of mobile phones. Rather, they made a rational decision after tiring of waiting for the industry to make phones that could handle all the new services that were introduced. Without devices able to handle the services they were obviously not able to get them to the market. The worlds mobile phones makers were too slow!

And then this one stakeholder came from a totally new angle and did something about it. Good for the customers and users; good for the market, but difficult for the industry.

This is also very clear when we look at the Öresund Region and the telecom market here. It is three times stronger than its competitor in Barcelona, many times stronger than Stockholm, but still not acknowledged properly.

The answer to this wondering is probably because the market is divided between the two sides of Öresund. The integration is weak and both education, research, finance and business is segregated in a Swedish and Danish market. Shame, because together this could be a globally strong part that could make a difference for the good of both the Swedish and Danish economy and GDP.

The question is how far the industrial restructuring that is changing the rules for the industry all the time must go before the national levels react. And not to forget the industry itself must react.

We can do much more together than apart. The potential is there. On the regional level we have the will. The industry and the national levels have to wake up and see this.

Pia Kinhult
Regional County Commissioner
Region Skåne