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makers like Samsung and Apple soon to push the once formidable mobile phone maker down the ladder a situation which Nokia is hoping will not happen soon after engaging Microsoft.
Reports say Samsung will become the world’s largest smartphone maker this quarter, overtaking the struggling Nokia, which has led the market since 1996. At the same time analysts forecast that Apple will outpace the Finnish phone maker in the top end of the mobile market in the third quarter of this year, adding to its woes, which include dramatic cuts in its profit forecast and a downgrading of its credit rating.
Nokia has lost initiative in the smartphone market to Apple’s iPhone with its proprietary iOS operating system and Google’s Android devices, and at the lower end to more nimble Asian rivals such as ZTE. Samsung already rules the roost in Western Europe.
Samsung, the Korean company which makes a broad range of electronic equipment, including smartphones running Google’s Android mobile operating system, Microsoft’s Windows Phone, and its own bada software has its prospects looking bullish. But Nokia remains the best selling phone in Zimbabwe as well as in other developing countries because of its strong position in basic cellphones and its wider distribution network in emerging countries
In the first quarter of this year Nokia sold just over 24 million smartphones worldwide, but it has since said that its mobile division is coming under pricing and sales pressure from rivals. Apple sold 18,7 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2011, while Samsung sold 12,6 million. But Samsung has been ramping up its production and shifting its focus to smartphones, which are more profitable than low-end handsets.
“Nokia looks set to relinquish its smartphone crown to Samsung and Apple,” Nomura analysts said in a research note. “Further emphasising the shift in power to Asia is our forecast for HTC to almost match Nokia during 2012.”
Analysts are confident that Nokia, which created the smartphone market with its 1996 launch of the Communicator model – losing smartphone volume leadership later this year. Forecasts claim that Nokia will ship fewer than 100 million phones a quarter this year for the first time since the beginning of 2009, and for only the second time since the end of 2006, as “white label” rivals begin to cut into its share of the wider business.
Having realised the threat that is coming from the East, Nokia is now abandoning its Symbian platform for smartphones over the next 18 months and switching to Microsoft’s software as part of an overhaul of its phone business. Symbian has finally lost the battle like this column predicted a few months ago. Enter Microsoft, Bill Gates’ company showed off the next version of its smartphone operating system, code-named Mango, last month.
The presentation came seven months after the release of Windows Phone 7, when it became clear that Microsoft was finally going to stop trying to cram Windows PC software onto a cellphone. The Mango upgrade takes the simplified user interface of Windows Phone 7, with its big tile-like icons, and pushes things further with some neat features (500, Microsoft claims).
But more important, the show-and-tell pointed to the strategy and tactics Microsoft will count on to catch the leaders in smartphone operating systems, Apple and Google. Microsoft is moving fast for a change, and betting on its computer science, deep pockets and partnerships.
Mango links location data, information about a subject and shopping options. The results are presented to the user as related views on the screen, instead of links to Web sites as in conventional search.
Microsoft is claiming Mango will be fast and responsive. The new Mango phone would feature many advantages like message threading, social media network and technologically developed tools for browsing.
Another interesting feature of this Nokia Windows phone is that the users do not have to use their hands for messaging, which is highly beneficial for the users. At present, people want to stay connected with the world with their social media network and this specially developed mobile should fulfill their requirements.
Group thread network helps the users of Mango phones to discuss with a group they are involved and with this feature, updating a social profile or sharing within the group will become very simple. The phone has the ability to provide fast and smart network connection and there will not be any delay to reach them. Linked email box is another feature with this latest Microsoft’s Mango Windows Phone 7, which is profitable for the users of this specialised mobile phone.
This system enables the users to look into the history of their files and to continue from there for their urgent purposes. Sending emails is very comfortable with this Mango phone and this is handy for the busy professionals, since they have the facility to carry on their job, wherever they stay and there is no need to use their laptops for these purposes.
App connectivity is a special feature and this facility has been provided to receive information from the app and the users do not have to open them the apps for this purpose. Multi-tasking facility to run apps on the background saves battery power and by this feature, the life of the battery is extended.
Nokia will hope that this new operating system will give them the giant leap they urgently require in the smartphone market.
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