Fluent Essays

I picked this topic and my topic is income inequality. My argument is that income inequality causes high rates of morbidity. For this assignment is to find out a company that has problems that you 1)      What is your research topic or the title of your project? (You might want to focus on issue/ problem aspects of marketing, information system, finance, or human resource of a company that you did your internship). If have not completed internship or have experience you can use a fortune 500 company that has problem and you are interested to fix. The title of your paper should be based on your problem statement or recommendations.   2)      What is the overall purpose, objective, goal of your project? These sections cover the problem statement or statements (most important part of your paper). This should be one complete sentence with 3 problems that you want to focus on your entire project.   3)      An overview of the company. (Keep this section short, no more than 5 sentences)   4)      What are your recommendations: You should have at least 3 recommendations to your problem statement (Most of your paper will cover the three recommendations and implementations)   5)      What are the 3 step by step implementation plans for your recommendation?  (Make sure each of your recommendation has 3 step by step implementations).   6)      What is the importance of the project to the company; provide projections and benefits for the company based on your recommendation. Why should the company implement your recommendations? Cyient Innovative Enhancements Submitted to Dr. Asila Sayedi Submitted By Name of Student Student ID California University of Management and Science Date: July 4, 2016 I. Research Topic My research topic is “Cyient Innovative Enhancements” for Cyient Ltd., which is an Indian Multinational corporation (MNC), focused on engineering and networks. This research proposal proposes a study of improvisations in the departments of recognition, project delivery and human resource management in the company. II. Overall purpose of the project Though Cyient is a fast growing MNC in industry it has some difficulties in different aspects. Few problems found with Cyient are with the following departments. · Lack of Recognition: No proper recognition is given to employee which may cause a negative impact · Project Delivery: Lack of awareness in the employees about the importance of the project delivery · Human Resource Management: Poor in bringing the amenities to the employee according to employee satisfaction. In order to overcome these difficulties it needs some innovative enhancements which will help in the company’s growth. III. An overview of the company Cyient (formerly InfoTech Enterprises) is an Indian Multinational corporation (MNC) which was founded by B.V.R Mohan Reddy in 1991. The company stands among the top 30 outsourcing companies in the world. It has more than 12000 employees across 38 worldwide locations. Cyient provides the rail, aerospace, oil & gas engineering solutions across the globe. Cyient has a global presence. It has its offices in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, UAE, UK, USA etc., with revenue of US $430 million. IV. Recommendations The recommendations which would help in enhancing the Cyient Ltd, are in the following aspects · Providing Proper Recognition to an employee Proper recognition to an employee can give him/her personal satisfaction which in turn helps the employee to work with the new thoughts · Importance of On-time Project delivery Creating awareness in the employee about the importance of delivering the project on time will create a positive impact on the growth of the company. · Human Resource Management services Management should maintain transparency. Transparency can avoid unnecessary risk taking. V. Importance of the project to the company with step by step implementation The project indicates the weakness and the difficulties, thereby providing step by step implementation. The company can use the recommendations to improve their services and customer satisfaction · Assuring the employee recognition: · Awarding the best employee with different recognition schemes · Planning a surprise achievement celebration for an employee · Passing on the praise · Creating awareness of On time project deliver: · Conducting status meetings and scheduling the tasks within the deadline · Gathering the proper requirements on time · Meetings with the client and associates. · Human Resource Management: · Maintaining the transparency · Healthy communication between Superior - Subordinate communication · Add one more implemenation VI. Projection and benefits for the company based on the recommendations Benefits for the company based on the 3 recommendations: Following the recommendations will help the company to deliver the projects on time, giving proper recognition to the employee creates the positive impact and HR services towards employee in turn increase the company’s growth. Based on the above implementations the revenue will increase by 25\% by 2016. Running head: IMPROVING MARKETING STRATEGIES 1 IMPROVING MARKETING STRATEGIES 27 Improving Marketing Strategies to Increase Microsoft’s Mobile Sales A Research Project Submitted To Asila Sayedi Submitted By Student Name: Karthik Chandra Peddi Student ID: 515490 California University of Management and Sciences Date: September 5, 2016 Table of Contents I. Abstract 4 II. Introduction 5 III. Company Overview 6 A. Mission 6 B. Vision 6 C. Products 7 D. Revenue and Head Count 7 IV. Analysis 8 V. SWOT Analysis 9 A. Strengths 9 i. Market leader in desktop Operating System. 9 ii. Productivity in cloud business. 10 iii. Diversified portfolio. 10 B. Weakness 11 i. Lack of innovativeness. 11 ii. Dependence on hardware manufacturers. 11 C. Opportunities 11 i. Focusing on Smartphone segment. 11 ii. Mobile Advertisement. 12 D. Threats 12 i. Competition. 12 ii. Losing out on new markets. 12 VI. PESTEL Analysis 12 A. Political 13 B. Economic Factors 13 C. Social Factors 13 D. Technical 14 E. Environmental 14 F. Legal 14 VII. Recommendations and implementations 15 A. Adopt to rapidly changing mobile ecosystem 16 i. Extracting insights from real time data to see patterns fast and adopt plans. 16 ii. Making unified applications that run on all windows devices. 17 iii. Working on high-end flag ship windows phones. 18 B. Reviewing marketing strategy for brand establishment 18 i. Strategic market planning to penetrate world market. 19 ii. Marketing and creating hype to Microsoft products on social media platforms. 20 iii. Creating brand with positive consumer perception in innovation. 21 C. Partnering with third party technology and hardware companies 21 i. Partnering with hardware manufactures. 22 ii. Preparing a platform for developers to migrate their applications from Android and IOS to Windows. 22 iii. Redesign and innovate their phone models. 23 VIII. Projections and Benefits 24 IX. Conclusion 24 References 26 I. Abstract This paper discusses how Microsoft being a top performer in the PC world, and once predicted company by Gartner to become a force in mobile market was unable to capitalize the smartphone revolution which was started in 2007 and fall behind Apple’s iPhone and Googles Android and how Microsoft’s late entry to mobile market, lack of innovation, inability to develop a flagship phone, app-gap in Microsoft’s windows store and the lack of partnerships with mobile manufacturers to launch phones with windows operating system hurt Microsoft. A thorough analysis of Microsoft Corporation was done using SWOT and PESTEL tools to develop some methodologies and strategies it needs to implement to capture the mobile market which is leading by Apple and Google. This paper also discusses some of the predictions and forecasts for smartphone market share by the year 2018 and how Microsoft can increase its windows mobile sales and market share by that year. II. Introduction In this age of technology and communication, we are seeing drastic technological changes and advancements in the way in which we communicate and the devices we use to connect with people. Smartphones have become a basic norm nowadays to stay connected, and become a billion-dollar industry. Companies are always trying to bring out new features and to stay up to date with their competitors to stay competitive, since the start of smartphone revolution in the year 2007, smartphone business has a two-digit growth rate every year and became a multibillion-dollar industry. The companies like Samsung, Google, and Apple who placed their bets on this trend gained the most from this Smartphone revolution. Since then smartphones have become an integral part of one’s day to day life and the number of smartphone users has reached more than two billion in the year 2016 this signifies the importance of the mobile industry. Companies not only earn money by selling their devices but they earn a significant amount of money from their App Stores and mobile advertising. So smartphones have become a real money garners in this generation with the amount of money and users involved in this business. It is true that Microsoft being a top software company with billions of dollars in its pocket, and market leader in PC sector was unable to cash-in in smartphone sector when the revolution started. By the time they entered the market it was too late for them to make a significant mark in the industry which was already leading by Google, Apple, and Samsung. Microsoft’s lack of manufacturing partner for windows phones, a large gap in apps in Windows compared to IOS and Android, and lack of innovation in designing hardware models are the main problems that held Microsoft back in toppling the market players like Apple and Samsung. III. Company Overview Microsoft was founded in 1975, and went public in the year 1986. Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft is best known for its windows line of operating systems and Xbox game consoles and Microsoft surface tablets. As of June 30, 2016 Microsoft has subsidiaries in 122 countries with a net revenue of $85.32 billion U.S dollars and head count of 114,074. Mission The mission of Microsoft is “At Microsoft, our mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. We consider our mission statement a commitment to our customers. We deliver on that commitment by striving to create technology that is accessible to everyone—of all ages and abilities. Microsoft is one of the industry leaders in accessibility innovation and in building products that are safer and easier to use.” (Microsoft, n.d.) Vision The vision of Microsoft is Our vision is to create innovative technology that is accessible to everyone and that adapts to each persons needs. Accessible technology eliminates barriers for people with disabilities and it enables individuals to take full advantage of their capabilities. (Microsoft, n.d.) Products Microsoft has different products that range from software & services to hardware devices, some of the popular Microsoft products from each category are i. Software & Services: Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Skype, Bing OneDrive, OneNote etc. ii. Devices & Xbox: Microsoft Surface, Microsoft Lumia, Microsoft band, All Windows Phones, Windows PC’s & tablets etc. iii. For Business: Cloud platform, Microsoft Azure, Skype for Business, Enterprise Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics etc. iv. For Developers & IT Pros: Visual Studio, MSDN, TechNet etc. Revenue and Head Count Microsoft’s revenue and headcount from June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2016 has increased from year to year, where headcount in 2007 was increased from 78,567 to 114,074 and their revenue has showed great growth over the years and increased from $51.12 billion in 2007 to $85.32 billion in 2016, a detailed increase in revenue and headcount increase from 2007 to 2016 yearly is as shown below Microsoft’s revenue and head count from June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2016. IV. Analysis Any company before proceeding with their strategic planning, they need to do some internal and external analysis to know who are they and what do they want to do, and where are they in terms of their business, revenue, and competitors and where do they want to go from there. To do an internal and external analysis of Microsoft use SWOT analysis to know their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Which will give the organization a competitive analysis of itself and to know the external factors affecting the company use PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal) analysis to know the different conditions in which the company is operating, which can be taken into account for further analysis of the company and planning process (Microsoft, 2006). V. SWOT Analysis To identify and categorize internal and external analysis of any company SWOT analysis can be used, which can help them in their strategic planning. SWOT analysis entails the information of a company’s weakness and strengths which are the internal factors that impact an organization. External factors like threats and opportunities can be derived using SWOT analysis that can impact the organization (Pestleanalysis, 2014). 1. Strengths i. Market leader in desktop Operating System. Over the years Microsoft is leading the market share of desktop Operating System, Microsoft has a share of more than 85\% in desktop Operating System, they reached this position through their brand loyalty (Dudovskiy, 2015a). Here you can see the desktop Operating System market share in the below image which was leading by Microsoft. Desktop Operating System Market Share (Netmarketshare, 2016). ii. Productivity in the cloud business. Cloud-based services like Bing, Skype, Microsoft Dynamics Online CRM, Yammer, OneDrive, Xbox Live, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Office 365 were offered by Microsoft and is expected to earn more than $20 billion from these cloud-based services by the year 2018. Because of Microsoft’s financial position, it is more protected from a crisis and external shocks compared to its competitors (Dudovskiy, 2015a). iii. Diversified portfolio. Compared to Microsoft competitors like Apple and Samsung, Microsoft was placed in a better position in terms of product portfolio and services. Where its services in Operating Systems, Mobile Phones, Gaming consoles, Servers, Management tools, advertising, Tablets, Laptops and cloud services protect Microsoft when there is a slump in one of their other services (Dudovskiy, 2015a). Weakness 1. Lack of innovativeness. Compared to Microsoft’s rivals like Apple, and Samsung Microsoft always falls behind in innovation and bringing imaginative products to the market and innovative features to its products, while Samsung and Apple are busy with introducing the next gen products like Apple smart watch, and Samsung Smart TV. Microsoft’s lack of innovation is visible when we look a few years back, where we don’t find any such products from Microsoft (Dudovskiy, 2015a). v. Dependence on hardware manufacturers. Microsoft is very much dependent on hardware manufacturers to run its windows OS, even it is dependent on hardware manufacturers for its mobile platform. If there is any alternate OS which is cheaply appears in the market, then there is a chance that manufacturers choose other alternatives which would place Microsoft in a very difficult situation (Jurevicius, 2013). Opportunities 1. Focusing on Smartphone segment. Smartphone and tablet industry is growing steadily for the next few years which have a lot of opportunities, Microsoft could simply exploit these opportunities by launching few innovative products in this segment which can compete with industry leaders like Google and Apple (Dudovskiy, 2015a). vii. Mobile Advertisement. It is expected that mobile advertising growth will be in double digits over the coming years, it is the right time for Microsoft to tap this market with their OS if they can convert their customer base into their smartphone users (Dudovskiy, 2015a). Threats 1. Competition. There is a lot of competition for Microsoft products at this moment of time, companies like Google and Apple are launching alternatives to Microsoft and focusing on advertising revenues, Google already launched chrome OS and Google Docs which are constantly gaining traction, this kind of competition is a great threat to Microsoft in the coming years (Sun, 2015). ix. Losing out on new markets. When companies like Apple and Google saw opportunities in mobile revolution Microsoft was the very last company to enter the market by then the market was captured by Google and Apple and capitalized on it. If Microsoft was not staying up to date with the current changes in technology, they will be pushed aside (Bush, 2016). VI. PESTEL Analysis PESTEL analysis is used to gauge the external factors that affect a company, these are the situations where a company is not able to influence but this analysis helps a company understand how a business is operating and helps to have a better strategic planning (Microsoft, 2006). 1. Political Governmental, regional and International level political factors affect Microsoft apart from the impact of lobbying groups, stability in the market and the government policies towards a corporation. Anti-trust related issues led government and political parties to pay attention to Microsoft. A recent example of China’s involvement in the way Microsoft distributes its software can be taken as an example of this political factor (Dudovskiy, 2015b). Economic Factors Economic factors such as economic growth or recession, changes in interest rates and currency exchange rates, inflation rates, changes in taxation rates and policies, changes in labor costs and costs of other resources and others can affect Microsoft revenues directly or indirectly, the global financial crisis in the year 2008 have a high impact on Microsoft which led to layoff around 5000 employees shows the effect of global economic factors on the company. The exchange rate also plays an important rate in determining the profits because of the company’s international presence and its revenues from those markets (Dudovskiy, 2015b). Social Factors The impact of social factors such as consumer attitude towards Microsoft’s products and their services and the positivity carried around Microsoft products in the media have an effect on Microsoft,]. It can be said that most of the social factors relating to Microsoft products are positive. For example, taking into consideration of recent increase in social media and debates in social media which uses a browser, or other medium increases the use of Microsoft products like internet explorer, skype, or its Windows mobile (Dudovskiy, 2015b). Technical The competition gets stronger as technology moves and innovation of updated technologies. As a result, technology has a short span. So Microsoft needs to very agile in updating the technologies often to reduce competition. In this aspect, Microsoft needs to invest a lot of amount to the Research and Product Development process. One of the advantage with is, Microsoft installs its own brand operating system, which increases its production cost Environmental Factors include all those that are influenced or determined by the surrounding climatic conditions created by global warming, could disrupt transoceanic shipping and Microsoft’s supply chain. Energy use and other effects from data centers may lead to increased regulation and costs. Microsoft is highly vulnerable to increases in electricity costs because of its dependence on data centers and other Internet infrastructure. Legal Legal factors are very important for Microsoft corporation, because of the standards and policies that need to be followed and respected by the company when it comes to marketing. This accounts for the regulations, audit and legal limitations of the firm as legal factors are barriers to entry plus firms are answerable to regulatory bodies if laws are not followed. Legal policies regarding marketing rules and laws of safety and quality as well as consumer laws are barriers to firms when marketing products and services. Labor laws are important because they ensure the safety and rights of the employees. VII. Recommendations and implementations Microsoft is one of the world’s most valuable company and largest software maker but failed to grab the opportunities in mobile industry and always played a catch up with Apple’s IOS and Google’s Android, and the main reasons for this catch up are lack of manufacturing partner for windows phones, a large gap in apps in Windows compared to IOS and Android, and lack of innovation in designing hardware models. The recommendations and Implementations that will help Microsoft to become a force in mobile industry are listed below A. Adopt to rapidly changing mobile ecosystem i. Extracting insights from real-time data to see patterns fast and adopt plans. ii. Making unified applications that run on all windows devices. iii. Working on high-end flag ship windows phones. B. Reviewing marketing strategy for brand establishment i. Strategic market planning to penetrate world market. ii. Marketing and creating hype to Microsoft products on social media platforms. iii. Creating brand with positive consumer perception in innovation. C. Partnering with third party technology and hardware companies i. Partnering with hardware manufacturers. ii. Preparing a platform for developers to migrate their applications from Android and IOS to Windows. iii. Redesign and innovate their phone models The detailed discussion of each recommendation and its implementations are done below A. Adapt to rapidly changing mobile ecosystem Microsoft’s one of the biggest problem is its market disconnect, for example it took more than 3 years for Microsoft to launch its first Smartphone after the release of Apple’s iPhone, and it took another 2 years to launch a Tablet after the release of iPad, and overpricing of its key products led to the fall of Microsoft in mobile computing (Rettinger, 2014). This shows how Microsoft always lagged behind its competitors in adapting to changing trends, so there is a definite need for Microsoft to adapt to the new marketing trends to stay competitive and this can be done by implementing the following strategies: i. Extracting insights from real time data to see patterns fast and adapt plans. These are the days where data is gold to companies who can mine it and use it accordingly, and cell phones have become a navigator, camera and one’s personal shopping device to shop, and the geolocation feature is enabling companies to find their target markets, and trends in their field of business, these data help companies to zero on its customers, to know what people are liking these days, to find the emerging trends, what a person is searching for when he wants to buy something, companies like Verizon with customers around 100 million and IBM are using these data to improve its services (Rieland, 2013). A company like Microsoft can use this data to know what people are looking for, and can see patterns, adopt their plans accordingly to innovate its mobile design and windows software, it will also help them to know what range devices customers are interested in a particular area or geographical location and market their phones accordingly to increase its market share. This can be followed by providing a platform for developers to make unified applications that can run on all Windows devices. ii. Making unified applications that run on all windows devices. When compared to Android and IOS windows ecosystem faces a deficit of apps, which held back Microsoft in making a mark in the mobile ecosystem. Windows only boost about one-third of apps compared to play store and app store which makes it an issue to be addressed as soon as possible. For years many developers abandoned Windows platform citing the investment of creating and maintaining applications on windows is too much for little Return On Investment (ROI) (Ward, 2016a). Creating Microsoft Universal Windows Platform(UWP) which allows users to develop applications for this UWP, which can be downloaded and used on all the windows devices alike, which will give Microsoft an edge in decreasing its app gap, it’s a right move towards a convergence platform, where the developers cannot ignore Microsoft as it has more than a billion devices that run on UWP. Microsoft’s purchase of Xamarin is the correct move in becoming a platform for mobile developers, which will help them to change the perception of developers treating windows as a secondary option after IOS and Android (Ward, 2016a). This will help Microsoft in decreasing the app gap situation for its Windows mobile. And to meet the present day demands of consumers of developed nations Microsoft need to work on building high-end smartphones which are discussed in next implementation. iii. Working on high-end flag ship windows phones. According to (Burnham, 2015) Microsoft has been focusing on low-end and mid-range devices over the years, which resulted in shipping only 4.2 percent compared to the main OSes who had a market average of 27.7\%, despite having these miserable numbers Microsoft continued to focus on low-end devices and launched a $70 Lumia 430 in 2014. Focusing on growing high-end market will help Microsoft to focus and compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung, this helps Microsoft to cover all the bases of the spectrum by having mobile that ranges from low-end to high-end, this strategy will bring attention to all the Microsoft’s products, which will also help fill the gaps. Implementing this strategy not only increase Microsoft’s sales in developed countries but also increase its market in developing countries. B. Reviewing marketing strategy for brand establishment Apple is always ahead of Microsoft in portable computing with their iPhone, iPad, and MacBook but people always wanted Microsoft to come up with their own devices to challenge the dominance of Apple in portable computing, they responded with much better options with Surface pro and Surface book which are entirely different from iPad and MacBook and ahead of time, even when people wanted Microsoft to launch their own smart watch they responded with band series which beats Apple’s and Android’s, but when coming to mobile Microsoft was unable to find their foothold in this area, Microsoft launches their Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL which are good phones but nowhere near the flagship phones of Android and iPhone, people don’t want Microsoft to create another hardware, they want something different like Apple did in 2007 with their iPhones (Rubino, 2015). So there is a need for Microsoft to develop new devices and a better strategic planning to establish its mobile brand and to penetrate the global market. i. Strategic market planning to penetrate world market. One of the privileged insights of Apples marketing strategy is based on learning that individuals buy what they consider well known. It is simpler, for example, to buy what other individuals own as opposed to offering the items uniqueness. The showcasing of the iPod on TV ads has less fixation on its outline and concentrates more on the headphones and the way of life experience connected with the gadget. As such, the marketing is somewhat open welcome to join the individuals who are getting a charge out of the products features. The second marketing technique by Apple is enhancing existing items instead of thinking of new creations. Apple has thus strived not to convey new items but rather to bring new experience on the items as of now in the business sector. Another perception is that early adopters of the items are helpful with promoting the item further. Advertising at Apple has concentrated on making the message significant. It is simpler to go on a short, precise marketing message for the individuals who will be seeing it for the first time. At last, the advertising should concentrate on delighting and surprising the customers. Pleasure ought to be made right from the packing of the items that makes the customers anticipate the product. Apples promoting henceforth has more to do with the items request as opposed to the item itself (Chazin, 2007). Samsung gained significant market in U.S to overtake Apple in the smartphone market. They are one of the top most company who has a keen eye on its competitors and learn from them. Samsung always follow the products and features that’re gaining traction and innovates that in their own version, they are good at producing a large variety of products that covers the whole band of consumer spectrum, they spend around 5.7\% of their revenue on research and development compared to 2.4\% of Apple, which resulted in bringing new features to Samsung which are not adopted by then market leader Apple and spent a whooping amount of money on advertisements which is more than Apple, and gained a significant points ahead of apple. Samsung is one of the largest chip maker and manufacturer which produces almost all the components of its mobile which gives Samsung cost advantage and flexibility in terms of its production, this kind of supply chain management and distribution allowed Samsung to bring a wide variety of designs, and products at the pace at which they wanted them (Nisen, 2013) Microsoft is already a household name in the PC arena around the globe, but it is important for them to reach consumers around the world using the marketing and advertising strategies implemented by Apple and the strategies implemented by Samsung to penetrate US market by launching wide variety of designs and products at a greater pace to reach consumers in the mobile sector, these strategies will help Microsoft in penetrating the world market in the Mobile arena. ii. Marketing and creating hype to Microsoft products on social media platforms. Apple was always the front runner in creating hype for its products before launching them compared to its competitors, Apple strategy for creating buzz is phenomenal for its consumer products. Their strategy for creating buzz around its products is based on creating an air of secrecy around its products, which gives rise to speculations and buzz around its products, then weeks after this free advertisement they hire paid media to continue the momentum. Apple also creates an illusion of scarcity around its products to increase demand and desirability among consumers, they made sure that all the small details matters from designing its products to designing and packing the products which created their brand visibility among customers. All these strategies made Apple a market leader in smart phone business (Kaputa, 2012). Microsoft should take a cue from these strategies in building hype and buzz around its products using social media platforms and implement them in promoting their windows devices to be successful. iii. Creating brand with positive consumer perception in innovation. Microsoft has perception issues in the eyes of consumer from the day Apple, the main rival of Microsoft launched its original iPod, Apple became a favorite and considered forward-looking organization in tech industry, whether this argument is right or not, consumer always backed Apple as an innovative company which provides excitement and better offerings from its products, which made Apple an instant success in youth with their iPhones and computers, in a survey conducted in 2010 47\% of the students surveyed are planning to buy Mac, which is a staggering percent when the PC world is dominated by windows at that time (Tosie, 2012). People are watching out for Microsoft to make a cool product again from years, but they are focused mainly on software and services while Apple is innovating in music players, tablets and mobiles. Microsoft also has a problem of overpromising or not being able to entertain people with its products because of which it lacked interest in consumers. So, Microsoft needs to start innovating new devices and create a brand out of it which will change this age old perception of consumers to become a market leader in the mobile platform. C. Partnering with third party technology and hardware companies Microsoft ruled PC market is mainly to its partnership with third party manufacturers like Dell, Lenovo, Asus, HP, Samsung, Acer etc. but by buying Nokia to have control over mobile phones design, style and pricing Microsoft alienated its manufactures which proved a vital mistake in capturing mobile market (Rettinger, 2014). So there is a need for Microsoft to start partnering with manufacturers to develop new models and software allies to introduce new features. i. Partnering with hardware manufacturers. PC space was dominated by Microsoft for years with more than 90\% share, this is possible for Microsoft because of its partnerships. Microsoft needs to understand its old and proven formula of having partnerships with mobile hardware manufacturers to succeed in the smartphone industry. When Microsoft entered the smartphone space in 2010 it partnered with HTC, Samsung, and LG but a majority of its windows phones were manufactured by Nokia which is around 90\% of the markets share, but way to deal with working with partners is client centered. Microsoft understands that the whole Windows ecosystem system flourishes when customers adore the item (Ward, 2016b). So this to happen they need to work with more partners who can regularly release their phones on Windows platform and provide with regular updates, If Microsoft want to have a strong Windows mobile presence they need to realize the important of partnerships, and they can’t do it alone. In the next implementation, we study about the need to have a platform for developers to migrate their applications from Android and IOS to Windows. ii. Preparing a platform for developers to migrate their applications from Android and IOS to Windows. Microsoft has always struggled to get developers onboard because of their small market share compared to Apple and Samsung but with the introduction of Windows 10 things have changed for Microsoft, with the increased interest in entrepreneurs, developers, and businesses. So, there is a need for Microsoft to help developers to migrate to Windows with minimal effort, from the web, .net, Win32 and IOS platform to its windows by changing only a little or no code (Shead, 2015). This strategy will help Microsoft to attract more developers into building more applications in Windows which in turn attracts consumers to use Windows mobile. In the next implementation, we are going to study the need to redesign and innovation required for windows phones. iii. Redesign and innovate their phone models. Android leads the world like a boss in cell phone business, by selling the same number of cell phones in five days as Nokia sold Lumia cell phones in the most recent three months. Android has near one million applications accessible in its Google Play store while the Windows Phone Store still trying to work its way up, and the speed at which Microsoft innovates its windows Operating system for mobile held Microsoft back from the time it launched its first windows OS into Nokia in 2010. After that the inability of Microsoft to innovate widened the software between windows, IOS, and Android which posed a large challenge for both Microsoft and Nokia at that time. People and manufacturers have not seen windows as a viable platform from the beginning, which resulted in manufacturers reluctant to manufacture windows mobile, which led then Nokia the only partner to manufacture windows phones and now Microsoft itself after acquiring Nokia (Gilbert, 2013). Being a software company everyone expected windows to innovate and develop windows phones but it failed to do it right when it comes to phones so the final and most important step for Microsoft is to start innovating. VIII. Projections and Benefits According to (Statista, n.d.) smartphone users in 2015 is 190.5 million and reach 229.2 million by 2018. And Microsoft’s share as of Feb, 2016 is only 2.5\% of total smartphone subscribers which is far less than Android and IOS. Implementing the recommendations and findings mentioned above will help Microsoft in realizing the effectiveness of different marketing strategies and gives an insight of future operations regarding the sales and the brand establishment of the organization which in turn will help Microsoft to capture a market share of 15\% by 2018. IX. Conclusion This Research project mainly focuses on the marketing strategies of Microsoft that helps the company to improve their smartphone sales and brand establishment in the mobile segment. Microsoft being a top software company with billions of dollars in its pocket, and market leader in PC sector was unable to cash-in in smartphone sector because they entered the market when it was too late for them to make a significant mark in the industry which was already leading by Google, Apple and Samsung and their lack of vision and out of synch market strategies are also a reason for their failure in the smartphone business adding to that Microsoft’s lack of innovation, inability to develop a flagship phone, app-gap in Microsoft’s windows store and the lack of partnerships with mobile manufacturers to launch phones with windows operating system hurt Microsoft. Two different analyses such as SWOT analysis (which focuses on strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats of the company) and PESTEL analysis are used which estimates a clear idea of the internal and external factors that affect Microsoft globally and the recommendations were made. 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