Apple ends Nokia’s 15-year reign as king of smartphone unit sales

“Nokia said it expected its struggling cellphone business to remain profitable in the third quarter, bringing some relief to investors after it lost its lead in the smartphone market to rival Apple,” Tarmo Virki reports for Reuters.

“Nokia reported a second-quarter underlying operating profit of 391 million euros ($555.1 million), above all analysts’ forecasts, which ranged from a loss of 35 million to profit of 285 million in a Reuters poll, boosted by royalty revenues of 430 million euros in the quarter,” Virki reports. “Nokia had forecast a 150 million royalty boost in April, and analysts said most of the remaining 280 million likely came from settling a legal dispute with Apple.”

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“Nokia’s quarterly phone sales volume dropped 20 percent from a year ago, missing analysts’ forecasts, and losing market share at a time when the overall market grew around 10 percent,” Virki reports. “Nokia said it sold 16.7 million smartphones in the quarter, falling behind Apple’s sales of 20.3 million iPhones. The Finnish company created the smartphone market in 1996 with its first Communicator model, but has failed in recent years to find an answer to the success of the iPhone..”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It’s good to be the king.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Kristian” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Apple’s iOS passes Nokia in Europe mobile ads; surges as Android declines in North America in Q211 – July 18, 2011
Beleaguered Nokia to shutter operations in Japan by August – July 5, 2011
IDC: Apple becomes Australia’s number one mobile brand as Nokia plummets – June 27, 2011

23 Comments

  1. In 2009, Apple laid out its aspiration to capture 1% of the smartphone market. Never has this dream being fulfilled so spectacularly than to dethrone the king of smartphone, Nokia.

    1. 2007, but you are right on. An astounding rise to dominance. It’s been a blitzkrieg on Apple’s part. The established mobile phone companies still don’t know what hit them.

    2. It was 2007 and 1% of the mobile phone market by the end of 2008, which is where the 10 million unit number came from; at the time the mobile phone market had annual sales of a billion units.

  2. What was that quote made by a smartphone manufacturer back when the iPhone first debuted? It was something like, “It’s tough to design a good smartphone. Apple’s not going to just waltz in and make a good smartphone. It’s hard work.” If anyone can post the original quote and source I’d be grateful.

    Thanks!

    1. Thanks, Ken C.

      According to what I found, the original quote was, “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

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