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Samsung overtakes Nokia in handset sales

by Mark Tyson on 12 April 2012, 12:37

Tags: Samsung (005935.KS), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Windows Phone

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Nokia is suffering from a triple whammy of bad news as new figures came to light showing competitor Samsung is probably outselling Nokia for the first time, becoming the top handset maker in the world. Yesterday Nokia issued a profits warning saying it would probably lose money in the first half of the year and the day before we had the news about the Nokia Lumia 900 internet bug.

Nokia was, for 14 years, the most popular mobile phone brand in the world. However the advent of smartphones has seen it struggle to respond to Apple’s iPhone and smartphones running Google’s Android OS. Nokia’s smartphones were focussed on the Symbian OS which has now been further marginalised. Nokia partnered with Microsoft about a year ago, to try and get back in the race for smartphone pole position using the Windows Phone OS. Incidentally Samsung used to concentrate on their bada OS smartphones but refocused on Android in 2009. It’s a strategy that has paid off.

Analyst estimates of the Q1 2012 sales figures are as follows:

  • Samsung 92 million units (estimated 44 million were smartphones)
  • Nokia 83 million units (12 million smartphones and 71 million low end models)

This year while Samsung’s stock has increased in value by 20 per cent, Nokia has been on the other end of the see-saw, losing 20 per cent. Looking at the figures above it appears that Nokia has had to reply more and more on the cheaper end of the market for sales. Kim Young Chan from Shinhan Investment Corp., Korea said “Nokia is slower than expected in responding to the smartphone market, whereas Samsung is doing better with models like the Galaxy Note. The net result is Samsung edging out Nokia faster than expected.”

Samsung Galaxy Note, in the pink

 

Another analyst, Thomas Langer at West LB, explaining the Nokia slump, said “Shipments of Symbian devices are declining faster than we anticipated and I think that was maybe the single most important risk with regard to the Nokia model: that the ramp-up of Lumia devices is not fast enough to compensate for the shortfall in Symbian shipments.”

Nokia shareholders hope that the challenging transition that the company is in can be completed successfully. Is this what Nokia’s CEO talked about when he said the company has to jump off the burning oil platform into the icy water to survive? Yesterdays shareholder reaction makes you think the burning platform was at a greater height or the chunks of ice were bigger than expected. An interesting article at The Times of India suggests several paths which could get Nokia back into growth.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Nokia should have taken its high/mid end 2011 phones and modified them to take windows OS, then they would have had a more up to date OS on the market on their devices. The roll out was to slow for the new phones.

I do wonder if Microsoft is doing it on purpose to de-value Nokia before buying them out completely.
As as has been said many, many times before - Nokia stayed with the corpse of Symbian long after it was obvious that consumers didn't want it.

Hopefully the move to WP7 hasn't been taken too late to save them, as I don't think it would be beneficial if they (Nokia) either fails or gets taken over.

Still would have been happier if they'd gone Android though…
I said in the last nokia story I think Microsoft are out to buy Nokia and this seems like the perfect was of getting them cheap. Still think they are both way to late to the game.

BTW I Love my new Samsung note and can see why they are doing so well.
Im very much liking my Nokia N8 with Belle on, I think its far better than Android.
crossy
As as has been said many, many times before - Nokia stayed with the corpse of Symbian long after it was obvious that consumers didn't want it.

Hopefully the move to WP7 hasn't been taken too late to save them, as I don't think it would be beneficial if they (Nokia) either fails or gets taken over.

Still would have been happier if they'd gone Android though…


I know quite a few hard core Nokia fans who are very disappointed with the Lumia series and are moving to other brands as they feel WP7 is a downgrade compared to symbia.

For example

No Bluetooth file transfers
Inferior camera's
No micro SD card slot
No multitasking
Pentile screen
Worse batery life
No physical qwerty keyboard model

I'm just hoping the 808 PureView gets a UK release for my next phone.