Nokia/Microsoft partnership - Nokia Lumia
In today’s world dominated by smart phones, Nokia has been struggling to gain any market share. Due to the advent of Iphone and Android, Nokia has been gradually drifting towards the brink of non-existence. Android and Iphones have taken over and pushed the once mighty Nokia out of competition – Ovi (their Nokia Marketplace) quietly folded and no one even noticed it was gone.
Nokia’s huge challenge is to not only attract consumers but to open a portal for application downloads that every smartphone owner loves. Its too late to restructure Ovi. In the past they paired their smartphones with blackberry technology – perhaps a partnership with android is in the future? Apps allow users to communicate, collaborate at a very interactive level. Nokia’s research and development team must also make continue to develop phones that are not bulky and appeal to an under 30 young customer base.
The next-generation phones should be powerful and compatible with many types of software. If Nokia does not penetrate the channels of e-commerce and appeal to consumers, it will be difficult for them to gain market share. Nokia has made some decent phones in the past such as the N95 which made a big splash in the market. A good phone with a fast core processor, the N95 had some solid market presence. The E71 was another phone that inspired users. Equipped with a full-keyboard, the E business series (61, 61i, 71) phone packed a lot of punch. But, that was then, Nokia failed to change with the consumer demand for sleek ‘sexy’ phones, and at the moment Nokia’s share price has fallen to under $3.
The upside is finally the company has realized that change needs to happen and fast or they’ll go the way of motorola, sony ericsson and (it seems like) blackberry. Their foray into the US market and subsequent partnership with Microsoft hasn’t been a complete failure. Nokia continues to make some solid gains in Asia, and holds some market share in Africa but has lost ground in Europe and needs new channels for the North American market. Through social media and networking, Nokia can truly once again try to compete with other prominent manufacturers.
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