Nokia at its peak controlled about 41% of the entire market for cell phones. However, with the rise of Apple’s iPhone and Android, the ubiquitous Symbian platform has nosedived and Nokia has lost its top spot to Samsung.
Currently, Nokia is placed second in total market share at 19.1%, slightly behind Samsung. In order to cut losses, the company hired a former Microsoft executive, Stephen Elop, who decided to change Nokia’s smartphone strategy by planning the eventual retirement of the Symbian platform and paving way for the promising Meego program and also forged a strategic alliance between Nokia and Microsoft.
Now, a year later, the Meego platform has been completely abandoned after the N9. Despite all the initial excitement about Nokia’s Windows Phone push, early results have proved luke warm at best. The first two Lumia series phones, the Lumia 710 and 800, did not see much popularity in the US due to lack of carrier support but the latest release, the Lumia 900, is seeing considerable interest though it is still too early to say whether it will be able to hold up against top Android devices as well as Apple. Nokia has said that it is committed to the Windows Phone platform and has shown interest in getting into the tablet market with the introduction of the Nokia Slate running Windows 8 by June.
What many critics find interesting is that Stephen Elop had indicated that the company would be eventually phasing out its ageing Symbian OS, yet Nokia continues to release new handsets under the platform despite suffering a sharp drop in sales. These phones, however, are usually targeted at the lower-end of the mobile market.
Nokia continues to try to create a formidable base at both the high end of the market by challenging Apple and Android through its Lumia series and also the low end segment by releasing feature phones based on Symbian and Series 40 OS. It is not advisable to write-off Nokia just as yet and if future projections of the Windows Phone’s market are anything to go by, Nokia’s share price is capable of tripling within 18 months.
In comparison to Research in Motion, who is struggling to crystallize its future smartphone strategy, Nokia has established a definitive platform for the future by securing the support of Windows Phone. It’s gone all in, which is certainly a better position to be in than having no plan of action at all (like RIM).
One of the biggest risks for Nokia remains that its rival companies in the firm of Android manufacturers like Samsung and HTC release multiple new models every year. In contrast, Nokia has taken more than a year from the adoption of the Windows Phone platform to release the Lumia 900 in the United States.
