Seems things are not going to well for Nokia at the moment. Switching from Symbian and Meego to Windows Phone 7 seemed controversial at the time it was announced and even though that has died down somewhat, without a flagship phone nearing release there seems to be little buzz around Nokia at the moment. Seems that same lack of buzz is also trickling down consumers as well.
Speaking on a conference call CEO Stephen Elop said that China was a big disappointment citing mismanagement and high inventory as major concerns. Seems no one wants their products in China and they seem unable to shift them. In Europe where Nokia has always been huge it seems the influx of Android phones is causing them major problems. This new trendy OS (compared to Symbian) seems to be winning over consumers who want a Smartphone experience without going to Apple. Seems Nokia cannot catch a break and that they cannot wait until they can put a Windows 7 phone in the hands of consumers. Europe is Nokia territory and they are being invaded by little Androids intent on taking over, without Europe Nokia becomes a bit part player. At present it seems that they are getting by through its cheap candy bar phones which old people and techno phobes a like love so much simply due to the fact that is what they grew up with and know.
Here is what Elop said on China and Europe respectively.
“As it relates to competitive challenges, it is the case that certain competitive forces, particularly Android, are really gaining momentum in certain regions. For example in China, there’s an indication of some very substantial movement in the growth of market share for Android, particularly in some technology areas where Nokia today with our current portfolio doesn’t compete. A good example of this is the CDMA technology in China, where that technology has seen quite an increase in market share in China. And as you know, we don’t currently have CDMA products, but clearly, that’s something that we’d be considering in the future. So there’s some dynamics like that we have to deal with. In Europe, that’s not the case on the management perspective. It’s very much about competitive pressures. We’re seeing, for example, a large volume of Android devices really coming into the market. They’re largely undifferentiated from one another, which is putting pricing pressure thereupon, which in turn affects the overall ranging decisions of the operators; so there’s definitely pricing pressure going on.”
Tough times a head. Will they regret not choosing Android, or going exclusive with Microsoft? Time will tell. They certainly need a major phone out asap. But will that even matter? With the speed of Androids development by the time Christmas roles around and the first Nokia/Windows phones are rolling out we could be seeing quad-core phones being released running 4.0 Ice Cream offering a more refined UI, Software and Hardware experience that keeps Android steamrolling through the competition.
What do you guys think? Hit the comments to air your views.