Nokia is looking to try something unprecedented in the smart phone market even though it is a strategy that several small time companies adopt i.e. give benefit to those who sell your products. The Finnish manufacturer is currently in negotiations with several European telephone carriers to give one of them an exclusive partnership for its soon to be released Windows 8 line of phones. Nokia will make a deal to offer carriers a share of the revenue for selling its devices. The end result of deals like this will be that the Nokia device will be available on select networks and carriers might just promote the phone aggressively for generating more finances.
If this change in strategy is implemented by Nokia, it will be a paradigm shift in the company’s methods to distribute its devices. So far, Nokia has released them across several networks at the same time with the belief that the greater the availability, the higher the sales. However, that strategy doesn’t appear to be working out for Nokia as it faces stiff competition from the likes of Android device manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung.
Nokia’s financial figures so far have been quite disappointing and perhaps this change in strategy is much needed for the company. Last week, the company reported $1.7bln loss over sales of $9.23bln. The company made the right move by acknowledging the results as poor and conceded the quarter to be difficult but went on to say that the Windows Phone 8 that is to be released on a new line of Lumia phones is going to turn things around.
If the deal between Nokia and the carriers go through, it might turn out to be pretty good for the company. After all, the carriers also have a vested interest in the deal, other than financial that is. So far, there has been no such offer from Apple and Google which allows both companies to dictate terms and speculation is rising that carriers will want to see a rise in the market share of Windows Phone which will lower both the California giant’s leverage over the mobile phone market. For Nokia, the marketing for the next line of devices will be more than what it had at hand with the original Lumia line-up and sales just might improve.
