“The facts get ever worse about the Microsoft Windows Phone strategy for Nokia and its Lumia line of smartphones,” Tomi Ahonen writes for Communities Dominate Brands. “We have just seen the brand new market share numbers from the UK by Kantar Worldpanel. And first, here is the ‘logic’ of the Windows Phone strategy for Nokia. The assumption was, that while Symbian sales saw a gradual erosion of market share (a couple of points of market share per year lost), if new CEO Stephen Elop stepped in while Nokia was still on top, and quickly changed the operating system away from the declining Symbian to another (could have been Nokia’s own Linux based and open source MeeGo or Google’s also Linux based and also open source Android or the proprietary and very closed Microsoft Windows Phone), he could stop the bleeding and stabilize the Nokia smartphone market share.”
“I wrote on this blog a year ago, that I expect[ed] year 2012 to see a 1 to 1 conversion, as Symbian declines, the Windows Phone (ie Lumia) smartphones by Nokia will replace them. For every Symbian lost there will be 1 for 1 a Windows Phone gain by Nokia,” Ahonen writes. “That was a reasonable assumption. That is now proven not to be true. Nokia lost one third of its last remaining loyal customer base, when trying to force them to take Lumia smartphones over the past five months.”
Ahonen writes, “So also, we have very interesting views to Microsoft. Its not that Nokia somehow needed Microsoft to survive, clearly the Microsoft strategy is suffocating Nokia and killing its customer relationship. But look at Microsoft in the past year and a half, according to the Kantar numbers. Look how massively Microsoft is collapsing without Nokia. It really is true, that Nokia is Microsoft’s last gasp in mobile and without Nokia Microsoft would have been eliminated from the game by now.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dale S.” and “Wingsy” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Brutal truth about Lumia: Windows Phone strategy doomed for beleaguered Nokia – March 21, 2012
Beleaguered Nokia’s earnings take 73% dive, Windows Phones fail to dent iPhone dominance – January 26, 2012
IHS: Microsoft’s Windows Phone to bump iPhone for second place in 2015 market share – January 19, 2012
Microsoft missed every major new technology, innovation, and great idea of the last decade – January 11, 2012
InfoWorld: Without a doubt, the best smartphone for business and pro users is Apple’s iPhone 4S – January 4, 2012
Not even considering Android or Windows Phone devices – December 27, 2011
Apple iPhones crushing Nokia’s multi-million dollar efforts – December 19, 2011
Lumia a loser: Brokerage firm slashes sales estimates on Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone – December 16, 2011
Windows Phone exploit crashes devices, disables messaging – December 13, 2011
Beleaguered Nokia shares fall on anemic ‘Lumia’ Windows Phone sales – November 22, 2011
Apple’s iPhone took 55% of global profits on 5% of unit sales in Q111 – May 17, 2011
How Microsoft’s Windows Phone ’07 can beat Apple’s iPhone in market share – April 9, 2011
As Long As It Takes.
Don’t worry- it won’t take much longer to eliminate Microsoft from the game (they seem to be doing a grand job of eliminating themselves)…
My Goodness!
“….It really is true, that Nokia is Microsoft’s last gasp in mobile and without Nokia Microsoft would have been eliminated from the game by now.”
THAT is brutal reality. And so true.
The “Death Rattle” is almost here.
“…would have been…”?
I can’t wait to see the numbers, but I think it’s safe to say Windows on any phone is now a rounding error.
> “For every Symbian lost there will be 1 for 1 a Windows Phone gain by Nokia,” Ahonen writes. “That was a
reasonable assumption.”
How is that a reasonable assumption? If Nokia makes a drastic OS change to Windows Phone, there is nothing keeping the customer from making a drastic change to the well-established iPhone or Android. The Nokia Windows Phone becomes just another (less desirable) choice.
What Consumers Think When buying a Phone:
Cost of unit / Contracts / Terms of Use.
Functionality / Reliability / Flexibility / Security.
I believe those are the considerations in order of priorities for most who buy a phone.
However in Asia the game is completely different. These consumers hold a much larger and broader market potential. A phone in these areas is regarded as a higher necessity value to life to these people, more so then a a pair of running shoes. So long they can afford the phone. A phone is regarded as the ultimate freedom. Their is this true need for a cheaper cellphone option from Apple. Cheaper does not need to mean poor workmanship. Sadly, Android and Samsung’s low cost cheap useless junk fits this type of market. Does Apple wish to contend here? I am not sure.
If Apple cares enough to enter this sector of the market; it needs to keep that promise, “the computer for the rest of us” yet in terms of a phone for the rest of us the iPhone is not really it – not for them. Unless an iPhone4s is sold for 1000 yen.
Apple can not expect that market to buy old discounted phones at such high prices. The iPhone3Gs is not the answer here, it is seen as a soon to be obsolete phone lacking upgradability and support from Apple. And it does not fit the situations for the carriers in Asia either without modifications adding cost to the phone..
Nor can Apple hope to wait it out for the the iPhone4s to arrive to the same status the iPhone3s is in now. Supply discounted older models or refurbished products is no solution. This market is different and Apple does need to offer a different phone.
I could see Apple solving this with a high quality-simplified-phone.
Basic functionality of a Smartphone – a camera, open sim and open terms of use, no contracts. Perhaps with basic Siri services, like on board voice controls to set alarms and calendars, saving and calling contacts – perhaps voice texting to win it over all. They love texting.
The question is will Apple enter this arena?
And if so, will we see a new super-simlified-smart phone.
I agree mostly with your comment, however, you forget one important thing….
Many people here do not have the means to buy a smartphone. Take Thailand as an example. Average worker-income is 6000 baht/month while an iPhone 4 cost around 22000 Baht without contract.
Now, many people do have an expensive smartphone, but how do they pay for that?
The answer is: Trade-in, 2nd hand phone business is a very large market here. People trade in their old phone, pay some extra and go up the next level.
So there is a very large market for the last-year model. People will buy it. They trade in their old Nokia, pay extra and want to get into the Apple game.
The phones are typically loaded with games and other stuff that’s installed at the shop, they do not (mostly) even have an apple id…all they care about is to have that iPhone and the applications on it.
If they want something new or different, they will go back to that shop and ask for it.
So you can imagine that there’s a very different market here when it comes to applications. Illegal in most cases and/or jailbroken at the store..
Microsoft won’t be eliminated any time soon, because Microsoft makes too much money from Windows and Office to drop out of the mobile game yet.
But Microsoft will simply be completely irrelevant, with such low sales numbers that no developers will want to waste their time developing apps for the platform. So no consumers will buy it, because they can’t get any apps for it.
Sound familiar, Microsoft?
A super-simplified, low-cost, top quality, all Siri cellphone is a top secret weapon of Apples.
To be sold in India and China. Prepare to be blown away MS.
That does not quite make sense. A phone that uses Siri would need higher performance hardware, not “low-cost.” And Apple is marketing Siri as a high-end feature of the best iPhone. Putting it on a low-end phone would cheapen its value. Eventually, every computing device from Apple may have a form of Siri, but that’s not going to happen in the “Windows 8” timeframe.
I previously thought Apple would create a separate low-end phone, that has a “fixed” set of features. It would be the ultimate “feature phone.” It would have a set of built-in apps (for things most people do with phones these days), but would NOT be expandable with additional Apple and third-party apps from the App Store. So what the phone has when you buy it is what it will have for its lifetime. It would have a touchscreen (perhaps a smaller one), and act kind of like a “real” iPhone, in the same way an iPod nano uses its touchscreen to act kind of like an iOS device (without being an iOS device).
By limiting its functionality to a known set of features, Apple can optimize hardware performance and use lower-cost components. An Apple TV costs only $99 because what it can be asked to do is known and limited, so Apple can use lower-cost hardware components that precisely matches (and not exceed) those performance needs. To support third-party apps and software upgrades, Apple must use higher-cost components (including higher storage capacity), because the performance requirements are not precisely defined and limited.
But now (after the iPhone 3GS continued as the “free” option), I think Apple will just continue previous generation models as the lower-cost options, instead of creating a separate low-end phone. The iPhone 4 is a great phone, and could continue in the line-up for many years.
And I like this part of the article which also touches on deal breaker bugs in the Windows Phone OS causing people to lose everything to reset and the loss of Bluetooth as a way to transfer files. Meaning they did not understand their user base:
“Last year, it was possible to see a path where the Nokia and Microsoft partnership might, against all odds, succeed in the long run. That was hoping against hope. But since then, Nokia and Microsoft have both torpedoed any conceivable path to success on this strategy. Now the facts are irrefutable, from the design, to the severe limitations of the operating system itself, to the badly destroyed carrier relationships and poisoned reseller channel, to now the facts and stats. The Microsoft strategy for Nokia is a certain road to death. The Lumia smartphones will doom Nokia. The Windows Phone OS is never going to be the third ecosystem. The sooner the Nokia Board see the facts, and make the right decision, the sooner Nokia can start onto the road to recovery. But before that – obviously – CEO Stephen Elop must be fired, now!”
My free advice to struggling corporations:
When your ship is sinking, DO NOT fasten yourself to an anchor.
Poor Nokia! They may last longer than RIM, but only if Microsoft keeps throwing money at them in a futile attempt to duplicate their XBox strategy.
And except rolling-over and leaving the field to your sacred Apple, what is your advice to Nokia?
Kinda sad to read this.
For once, Microsoft did something original with their software. I’d like to see that rewarded. Definitely much more palatable than the copycat known as Android.
You mean, like Palm did with theirs? Having something original is only a fraction of what’s needed.
Microsoft’s messing around with multiple phone OSs cost them years, and this was the too-late result. Desperation is not a sound business strategy.
Well, unlike Palm, Microsoft isn’t on their death bed. From what I’ve read, Windows Phone 7 is mush more polished than WebOS, and the hardware is decent. WebOS never had decent hardware, so it never had a chance.
M$ will be successful. They’ll sell thousands of phones to their own employees who MUST buy them and use them at work. Stevie B will probably purchase thousands more to give away to the needy (certainly not nerdy) people. 🙂
But they’ll only sell them on via eBay and thereby create a glut of unwanted iPhone wannabe devices like there isn’t one already.
I can’t wait for the next Microsoft store grand opening. They’ll be giving out concert tickets and free phones! WOO!
” …clearly the Microsoft strategy is suffocating Nokia and killing its customer relationship.”
– Jeepers Cracky, reality doesn’t get anymore pointed than that.
really beat me to it. I was going to say the will start giving them away at the store openings…
Microsoft is just fine, and no they don’t need nokia, microsoft had to get there mobile os togethere which they have done. I am waiting for a new nokia lumina phone to come to the united states. Microsoft window phone will kill android in the usa,,the only problem they are taking too long. When windows 8 come out ms will have an all out blitz pc. tablet, and phone.
How is Microsft “just fine” when Windows Phone, their make-or-break bid to enter the smartphone market, is one of the worst flops in the history of technology?
How are they “just fine” when Windows 8 is a laughingstock even among many Windows users?
How are they “just fine” when Macs and iPads are decimating the entire PC market?
How are they “just fine” when the future is mobile and they’re indelibly stuck in the desktop era with no prospects of moving forward?
They don’t need Nokia? THEY DON’T NEED NOKIA? Windows Phone is so awful that the only handset manufacturer willing to throw their weight behind it was the desperate and critically wounded Nokia. And that was after being paid a billion dollars to do it. MS absolutely need them, because the other manufacturers duly treat WP like a leper.
As for WP killing Android in the USA, were you making a joke? Because WP is just as deceased in the USA as it is everywhere else. And Windows 8? Well, let’s see. The Metro interface is widely reviled and it’s been historically proven nobody wants a tablet running full-blown Windows.
In summation, want to know what Microsoft’s future looks like? Take a nice, long look at a flushing toilet.
Now REALITY,
Don’t hold back…… Tell us what you really think. 🙂
en
The Brutal thruth for the promoters of Apple’s domination: people dont want to have only one brand of computers, tablets, phones, and soon TVs, cereals and cars. Some cellular providers realise that they are becoming an unfashionable extension of Apple stores, specializing mainly on cheap and nasty “made forr iThing” accessories. So, to your dismay, Mr Journalist, some market players refuse to roll-over and die when Apple enters it, and please, don’t make a “wishful analysis” on how “resistance to Apple is futile”.
What a remarkably silly comment. The “brutal truth” lies in hard data about the significant shortfall in sales of Nokia’s Windows Phone models. The author hardly even mentions Apple in his article.
You really should read articles before criticizing them. It might keep you from sounding so stupid in a public forum.
@imppaul – stupid is what stupid does…
I did read the article above, and tried to read the linked tirade. Can i use a pasted word from there? “disasterous” is the word.
Tedious, hysterically mocking (“turkeys”, “turtles”) and recycling data as much as it may be, the article rejoices at the seeming loss of market share, but ignores the fact that WP is doing quite well with Nokia and therefore looking at the market share of Symbian and WinMo is irrelevant. There is a lot of “wishful schadenfreude” in the article, and a lot of irrelevant pseudo-fact wishful analysis.
But finally, pls honestly answer whether you enjoy reading articles about setbacks of all Apple competitors? If yes, then this was exactly my point in the repsonse that you so brutally criticised.
I was referring to the original source article by Toni Ahonen, dimwit.
“WP is doing quite well with Nokia ”
It sure is, if your definition of “doing quite well” is “doesn’t have a pulse”.
Are you a Microsoft employee by any chance? Because your tragicomic degree of delusion would suggest this.
@REALITY – I am not at all connected to the industry, what I find comic is the level of religious zeal of Apple supporters – every attempt to compete with Apple, however feeble (and I admit that Apple has won the market) is met with attempts to put it down, as if nothing short of total iPodization of the mobile phone market (and tablets, etc) is not enough. This is a sign of a cult, not economic/consumer attitude.
And if you call the sales of Nokia Lumia range “doesnt have a pulse”, then your alias doesnt refect your real self.
MDN is famous for its Forum comments by iZealots and former Mac evangelistas. Not many here are forgiving towards other platforms and companies, because we have been through the trenches during the mid-to-late 1990’s and saw the sun rise again when the man in the mock turtleneck return. We all held in there and we deserve a sound measure of retribution. Doe we really want Apple to take over the world? Not really, but we’ve been on a hell of a ride! Did you mean to infer that there was something wrong with Cult’s ? Did you not think to drink the Kool-Aid?
“And if you call the sales of Nokia Lumia range “doesnt have a pulse”, then your alias doesnt refect your real self.”
Sales?
“Although Nokia is the top dog when it comes to selling Windows Phone handsets that honour loses some of its shine when raw figures are considered. According to Strategy Analytics, Nokia shipped just 900,000 Lumia devices worldwide during the lucrative holiday period”
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2155102/nokia-ships-million-lumia-phones
“Last figures from Nokia showed that it sold 1 million handsets since the launch of the first Lumia device until late-January – hardly a breath taking number.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Nokia-Lumia-sales-growth-very-very-steady_id27597
The last known sales figures say that the Nokia Lumia range hit the ground with a messy splat. There’s nothing cultish about pointing out that a failed product is a failed product. There is, however, something remarkably cultish about denying that a failed product is failed, and insisting that it’s actually a triumphant success – facts be damned.
And speaking of cult, who staged the funeral of a competing smartphone platform, again?
Apparently if I only had an “economic/consumer attitude”, I could be appropriately detatched from reality to see things your way. I bet I’d even drink Stephen Elop’s kool-aid about the Nokia WP handsets doing awesome even though they’re, you know, actually doing the opposite of that. But alas.
@REALITY
“speaking of cult, who staged the funeral of a competing smartphone platform”…
This is precisely what I mean. The “funeral” was staged by EMPLOYEES of Microsoft, people whose livelyhood is threatened by Apple, while Apple “fans” que for days then emerge for photos holding the “religious object” high, beaming like Moonies to be photographed. Who are the people that line Apple annual meeting? “the faithful”; How do you call a person that bought a Mac – a “convert”. Enough said.
from How to avoid sounding dumb when you write about Apple:
Seriously, it’s 2012, and Apple has rocketed past Exxon Mobil as the most valuable corporation on the planet. You don’t get to that level of success driven along by a handful of dedicated, froth-flecked fans, nor do you achieve what Apple’s achieved by having a “cult” of people who will buy what Apple sells no matter what. Think logically for just half a second: Apple sold 37 million iPhones in 3 months. 37 million. If that’s a cult, it’s one damned huge cult.
How many posts do we see about Exxon Mobil “fanboys” or cultlike people mindlessly lining up their cars at Exxon stations and worshipping at the altar of the almighty unleaded octane 92? Exactly none. Because that would be stupid.
Whether you like the company and its products or not, Apple is now thoroughly mainstream. Maybe in 2002 you could’ve gotten away with painting Apple’s users with the “cult” brush, but doing so today just makes you sound brainwashed yourself.
A Meego/openWebOS hybrid would be an interesting development for Linux based open mobile software. Then Nokia can offer OS choices during phone purchase
the situation is like chicken and egg
if no apps then no more customers n developers n if no developers then no more apps
since apple app store started in 2008, it took 4 years to come to this respectable stage of heaviest app environment, then v should give atleast 3 years for wp7 marketplace to grow
android took 3 years to grow its marketplace till somewhere less than apple app store, since its launch, so v should give atleast 2 years for wp7 to grow
its a bitter truth that though an OS is best among the others, only few identify it but most of them judge on the number of useless apps it contains with it
just w8 4 few more months n watch how rapidly wp7 marketplace apps grow (its the fastest growing marketplace ever with 37% of other market developers wanting to develop apps for it) simultaneously acquiring much further of market grounds
Force 3g on Nokia Lumia
Watch solution at following youtube video: