I have a bit of background in sales & marketing,hence trying to use my experience to analyse the current market position and future opportunities and threats for Nokia in this article.
Strengths of Nokia:
Great phone designing capability (Shining example N9) and great product quality reputation
Great price point coverage(Very low to Very High)
Supply chain and distribution experience
Two very competitive in-house software platforms in Belle and Meego
Weaknesses of Nokia:
Poor marketing skills (excluding few markets like India)
Could not use its global presence to create a viable ecosystem.
Not able to leverage production and software knowledge to create other product families(Camera and Tablets could have a natural choice)
Poor competitor and market analysis (Apple’s iphone and USA market)
Threats:
Android ecosystem covers all the bases from low to high-end price points and has a booming ecosystem.
Apple’s iphone is still a big threat in high-end market
Very bad press coverage and poor image projection by tech media
Oppurtunities:
Nokia has a great market disruption with N9 and it has a great chance of creating a unique winning product category.(Example is iphone’s own small but disruptive start).
Symbian belle and upcoming versions of the OS.If nokia keeps the new product introduction fast paced,chances are that Symbian can make a turnaround.
QT can help to create a unique app ecosystem for Nokia for Meego,Symbian,Meltemi (upcoming).
Windows phone platform has already got all the ingredients for a powerful ecosystem.
Path ahead:
Nokia has a great market disruption with N9 and if continued with a slightly lower end and a higher end product with same or enhanced swipe UI and OS,then it has a great chance of creating a unique winning product category.(Example is iphone’s own small but disruptive start in initial years).
Windows phone is the platform on which Nokia is betting heavily.Here also if Nokia can go ahead and get some tweaks in the UI aesthetics,then there stands a chance of quick acceptance by users.Ecosystem wise this platform already has got all the ingredients.
Symbian still has major mind share as shown by StatCounter’s analysis that its share has gone up by the end of 2011.That might be due to introduction of anna and belle.Here also if Nokia keeps the new product introduction fast paced,chances are that Symbian can make a turnaround.
For the next billion customers, QT can help to create a unique app ecosystem for Nokia for Meego,Symbian,Meltemi (upcoming),which will be more beneficial to Nokia in the long run,because it owns all of them.
Q4 volume predictions:
Mobile phones: Q3 2011 -89 million units,Q4 2011 prediction -95 million units (Based on the reports of Nokia remaining top player in key markets like India,China etc)
Smart Phones:Q3 2011- 16.8 million units,Q4 2011 prediction -22 million units (Break up goes like this,Symbian 19 million based on recovery signs after belle phones introduction,Meego 1.8 million,mango 1.2 million)
Links:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mobile-shipments-to-india-up-138-pc-in-julysep/213045-11.html
