Nokia loses sales, money, and market share in 2008 -- but not hope
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 22nd 2009 9:42AM
posted January 22nd 2009 9:42AM
[Warning: PDF read link]
posted January 22nd 2009 9:42AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
A certain smartphone eh? Didn't think the Storm would've had THAT much of an impact.
Haha that was funny!
I'm laughing so hard!
..
i was comin right here to ask which SMARTPHONE they were talking about !
@Patriks7
.... hard enough to dislocate your jaw and dropped it onto your space bar?
I guess the good people at Engadget are getting so sensitive from all the Apple hating criticism that now they have to speak of the iPhone in hushed tones, like Voldemort.
iPhone. The PHONE which must not be named!
So, according to your logic, just because Apple didn't sell as many in Q4 as it did in Q3, the fact that it sold around 14 million handsets in 2008 would have no impact on Nokia's market share for 2008, not Q4 2008?
And certainly no effect on lowering their average selling price by pushing them downmarket?
So a company's profits decreased during a financial crisis? Say it ain't so!
You see Apple cutting that many jobs? Losing so much money? Nope.
You can read? Doesn't seem so, moron...
Well well... I had a short look at the 5800 recently, and I turned away disgusted. This phone is so ugly, and the S60 V.5 is simply BAD. And this TWO YEARS after the iPhone. Did you really think you could hit the bullseye with such a product? Poor Nokia, really. It's HIGH time to abandon S60 and produce something completely new. Otherwise you might soon be history. Like Palm was to be before the Pre.
Rollo, while I have no discussion about the quality of 5800, it is still interesting that that it manages to sell 1 million being released _after_ Christmas.
Dear Tim Stevens:
Since the iPhone is largely popular only in the United States -- and Nokia's territory is mostly the world outside of the 50 and 1 (DC) -- the likelihood of the iPhone impacting Nokia's sales is nil. How about looking at the growing market shares of Samsung (No. 2 in the world and biggest cellphone maker in the US) and LG (No. 3 in the world and a big player in the US), along with the growth of HTC (has large European market with which its offerings compete with Nokia's N-Series) for the decline in growth. Oh, and how about an overall decline in cellphone sales due to a) market saturation in mature economies and b) a global economic recession.
This post needs series re-write.
Sincerely yours:
Mack Simmons and the rest of the Engadget Readership.
Rejoyce, it's gone!
Good job, Tim. Moving on.
And it should be "serious", not "series." Time for my own re-write.
Nokia needs to "strike back" like the empire if they want to maintain market share. They kept their eye of the ball and let a bunch of fruit n00b interlopers pwn them by taking the next technological step in mobile devices. This also inevitability lead to a greater loss in global mind share, something not mentioned in the article. Shame on Nokia! Hopefully they learned a hard lesson. The mobile device market is all about "oneupmanship". Just APE'ing the fruit's creation is NOT ENOUGH! And stop with the concept devices already. WE NEED TO SEE SOMETHING NEW, INNOVATIVE AND BREATHTAKING! Now get to work!
PS There is certainly an abundance of raw base material out there like "moldable display tech" (i.e. flexible, OLED ). So wow us and go make something "NEW"!
@sevenmack
"And it should be "serious", not "series." Time for my own re-write."
nokia n-serious???
As long as carriers need something to offer as a "FREE" phones... there will always be Nokia's, so I wouldn't worry about it.
As long as carriers outside the US offer free phones instead of making people pay on top of a contract, there will still be Nokias.
iPhone is very impressive all-around considering that Apple only released one model...
Actually, iKurt, Apple released the 2G and 3G versions. So it's two models, not one.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is cutting 5,000 jobs. Shocker. A typical response to today's economic doldrums.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/technology/companies/23soft.html?hp
ok sevensmack, 2 phones in 2 year.
"While Nokia doesn't exactly see any bright light at the end of this economic tunnel just yet, it does at least think it won't lose any further ground in terms of market share. We'd love to hear what the good folks at Palm have to say about that."
Palm will have very little impact on Nokia's market share for two reasons:
1) Smartphones account for less than 10% of the overall market.
2) No-one gives a crap about Palm outside of North America and North America is the least significant market for Nokia.
If I was Nokia, I'd be worried about their loss of sales in China. What the hell is going on there?
Motorola is probably one problem. It's the main competitor to Nokia in that part of the world.
What? We Europeans are dying for the Pre.
Aaron is right.
It is obvious that the pre is a productivity device at heart, that also does music. Sort of like the Storm or the g1. Did you see them spend much time on the music and movie playback app? Its competitor is the blackberry. The whole iphone competition thing is just for the engadget power users.
At least that is the way things are going to be like during palm pre's first year.
The pre and android share a very similar vision: All your data on your phone.
Better yet, Read all about the Nokia Tune from a website that isn't spammed by some asshole trying to earn pointless numbers on Alexis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_tune
Utahnkid, never mind the fact that Nokia didn't lose money but actually still made profit. And only news thus far of work force being reduced was when Nokia offered wage of one full year to those who are willing to go. Facts are overrated.
It's funny how much theirs profits dropped, yet they still make more profit than for example Apple. It doesn't really sound like much of a catastrophe..
It's crazy a company would hold 40% of the entire mobile phone market. Nokia really has no way to go but down in this regard. If they managed to keep their market share, it would be a miracle.
Nokia losing market share? Not surprising. Nokia somehow thinks people want phones that do less than the competition, rely on proprietary standards but still cost more. Way more. After years of happy ownership through five Nokia phones, I have jumped ship.