Barely 12 hours since i posted my article on North Amercia (NA) being the Achilles Heal for Nokia, my observations stand vindicated by Fortune the magazine. Here are the excerpts:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/12/technology/hempel_nokia.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009011209
To revise the first lot of observations:
1. Over the last 2 years, Nokia has conceeded 50% of its market share in NA to competition. A fall from 15% to 8% to the Blackberry's and iPhones of the world says it all. To cut it short: Nokia has not been able to get its act together in the NA market.
2. Nokia's hopes of being recognized as a technology leader would underfall if it is not able to place the right bets in the NA market. Afterall the NA is the world's fastest growing smartphone market. Moreover, by being a marginal player in this market, it is loosing the attention of software and application developers.
3. Nokia's venture across the Atlantic had a false start in terms of getting the design element right which is where Razr stole the show.
4. Nokia's pre disposition of being directly in touch and controlling its consumers doesnot go well with the NA market dynamics where operatos bundle device with services and lead the launch. Thus operators dont carry any of the Nokia smart phones in North America even though N 95 and E 71 are one of the smartest devices these days.
5. Presently Nokia seems to be missing the technology bus where i Phone and Blackberry are driving off smartly. A latecomer to the "touch technology", even after 1.5 years of iPhone Nokia doesnot boast of a multitouch phone (The 5800 is not a multi touch phone)
The N 97 as a device and Ovi as a service looks to break the NA jinx and this is one front that could well decide Nokia's future. If Nokia's products in NA fail in 2009, it should probably focus on the developing markets more and cream them as a mass player instead of playing as a technology player.
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