I came across this study which shows students don’t care what country a cellphone comes from and I think in an increasingly global world this trend will continue. In the US, players like Nortel (yes they are officially Canadian but may as well be American), Cisco and Avaya have no problem taking the majority of communications spending.

 

I wonder how much of this spend in the US is due to corporate decision-makers identifying these companies as domestic.

 

Just as this is the case in the US, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Siemens enjoy similarly dominant positions in their home communications markets.

 

As these students who have less national loyalty enter the job market one can imagine the competitive pressures will only increase causing manufacturers to have a more difficult time competing in their home markets.

 

Thankfully this is a global trend and domestic companies should be able to make up for any lost share at home with increased share abroad.

 

One final thought. Would tech companies be better off branding themselves as American when they sell here? I think so.

 

Toyota who is not an American company has billboards in the San Francisco Airport touting how many people they employ in the US. By the way the number is north of $32k.

 

It seems to me that at least while there is some loyalty to country of origin, companies should play this card more.