Comments on: Nokia sees bottom to mobile market malaise

Despite taking a beating, both Nokia and Sony Ericsson saw glimmers of hope in their latest results. Could the worst actually be over?

[seven7dust]

one thing I find funny is that nokia sells 100+ million phones per quarter and make less profit than Apple's iPhone buisness !

[toosday]

No, the thing I find funny is that the accompanying photo for this article shows a Samsung phone, not a Nokia :)

[codynews]

As much as I don't like Internet meme's....

Nokia = Old and Busted
Apple = New Hotness

[pendevous27]

Ladies and gentlemen, props to Apple's fans who treat the iPhone as the best phone in the world, yet there are phones which were much better than it 5 years ago, with more functionalities to boot.

[AlphaVirus2g]

This was a very well written article but I must point out that cell phones are not what they used to be and that people are more protective of them. The market is becoming more saturated because people hold on to their phones for much longer than before.

Also Nokia may have posted a loss in profit but it still did not lose any market share, this is all do to all markets excluding USA. In the US no major cell phone provider subsidized the top tier Nokia phones which blow everything out of the water. The US market is not as fond of Nokia as the other more developed, in the cell phone industry, markets and this is why we in the US don't know what a GOOD cell phone really is. The Nokia 5800 sold for $250 unsubsidized and yet nobody would know because of the way the US populous thinks, they don't know anything about the unsubsidized benefits and this is once again why we are so far behind others with telecoms.

Nice article, it was unbiased.

[Nos1959]

Interestingly, you are correct. I'm from the UK (moved to the US last year, I also worked for a multi-national cell carrier), Nokia is the main brand in Europe & many other parts of the globe. The prime thing for Nokia, is that they aimed at all sectors of the market not just one.

In the UK Nokia & Sony-Ericsson aimed highly at the pre-pay market...which is way ahead of the equivalent here in the US (by at least 4 years). Including 3G, tethering, multi-media to name a few. An expensive way of doing it, but it allows those who cannot afford or are unable to get a contract to access those areas once open to the few.

Now if carriers in the US could see their way to allow pre-pay customers to access all that the contract customers have, then the likes of Apple, Samsung, RIM, etc, would be able to play catch up with Nokia to gain world-wide dominance.

The pre-pay market may be aimed at the teens & younger, but, as they have found out in the UK & in Europe, this group are the future to going on to contracts & therefore more long term business & financial rewards!!!!

[killkrazy]

"Nokia's revenue and profits improved slightly compared to the first quarter of this year."

Reported 2nd Quarter Operating profit was up 676.4% from Q1!

[stale_pancake]

This is indeed a well written article. Something sort of rare around this site as of late. As soon as I saw the headline I was ready to jump to the conclusion that the author thought Nokia was the leader in handsets. They may have the most sales, but they are not the leader. And just because they are selling less phones I wouldn't say that the market as a whole is going down. And I think the author is saying the same.

Nokia can blame the current recession if they like, but Nokia's true problem is being blinded by the next wave of technologies. As the author wrote, people demand more from their phones today than ever before. Social Networking is the new norm. Hundreds of millions of people are linked into social networks. Phones with cameras, location based images, texting, and web experiences will lead this market. Not your basic hand-set. And not those extremely expensive almost computer like phones that Nokia makes.

You can buy a Blackberry Tour for as little as $199. Verizon has the Storm for $99. Apple has their baseline iPhone for $99. The Palm Pre is $199. And you have plenty of Android phones for $199. And all of these will outsell the Nokia N series phones. They cost less, offer more and are more accepted by the mass population. Blackberries sell close to 7 million phones per quarter now. Apple sells between 4 and 6 million iPhones per quarter, and that's without China, which will soon be in Apple's future. Palm is getting good reviews with it's Pre. And Android has a strong future build-out. What is missing is anything near as promising for Nokia. No where is there excitement for their products.

If the rumors are correct, RIM sold 300,000 Tour phones in the first day. I myself upgrade from a Curve to the Tour and I am extremely happy with the phone. A new Storm 2 is said to be around the corner which will address the touch screen.

New HTC phones are getting fantastic press. Even the lagging Windows Mobile looks more promising than what Nokia is releasing.

I would not expect to Nokia improve the financial outlook at all. As an avid investor, I can honestly tell you that no one is betting on Nokia regaining any marketshare. Every financial news program commentator has also said as much. We all feel Nokia is the horse and buggy company in denial about the coming of the automobile. They are yesterday. While I am not shorting the company, I am holding investments in Apple as I view them as the leader. RIM is strong contender as well. There stock has more than doubled from a few months ago, and many of us were able to buy in at $38 and watch the common jump to over $80 for a while. It's in the $72.38 right now. On November 5, 2007 Nokia was a high of $42. Today they are at $13.39. I wouldn't even count on a dead-cat-bounce for those guys.

[codynews]

Totally agree. Nice post.

[MonTemplar]

I recently bought an INQ1 phone (made by INQ Mobile, whom you mention in the article) on a contract from 3 here in the UK. I would have loved to get an iPhone, but couldn't justify the cost, as I don't make that many calls or send that many texts. The INQ1 is very cheap (and, to be honest, this is reflected somewhat in the build quality) but lets me get online to check e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Helps that 3 offered a really good deal with unlimited Internet, and because Skype is on the phone as well you can potentially make free calls to your friends and save even more. :)

My previous two mobiles were Nokias, and I like the brand, but I do find the range of phones they offer now to be confusing - they seem to be obsessed with trying to hit every conceivable demographic, and there is no rhyme or reason to their product names.

Just my two-penny-worth...