Clearly, Nokia is; has and continues to get hammered within the global smartphone market as firms such as Apple (obviously) Samsung and HTC, etc. (due to the rise of the Android OS) erode their (now former) market dominance. Yet; the Finnish firm finished in the top spot globally for this past quarter with Samsung and LG taking the second and third positions respectively. That said; perhaps all the ‘gloom and doom’ reports of Nokia’s imminent demise are slightly premature? Perhaps; if they’re not… the company has to be due for a spectacular collapse, right? Moreover, if the Microsoft / Nokia partnership does actually pay-off (a big ‘if’ at this juncture) it’s also possible for them to still be a serious player within the market (thereby, extension, changing Redmond’s mobile fortunes in fairly short order… which is something that they were not able to accomplish solo that’s for sure). Whatever the end result… the Symbian OS is / will soon be obsolete as Nokia moves to Windows Phone 7 as their choice.
As far as Samsung and LG; these two S. Korean juggernauts are boosted by the sense of national loyalty; savvy marketing; timing and the Android OS (with Samsung being the clear-cut favorite between the two due to the popularity of their Galaxy Galaxy smartphone). Conversely, LG has yet to really hit a home-run in the OECD-markets with a handset that’s generated as much attention as Samsung. Nevertheless, this is not to say that they’re unable to release a big-hit. It could simply be the fact that they’ve yet to do so and/or capitalize on all of the aforementioned variables that their Korean breathan have / has capitalized on.
Finally, there’s Apple’s iOS and the entire iPhone experience which both continues to lead the firm’s success as well as in all probability will expand it via the 5G launch this coming September. It’s Apple that spearheaded and blew their competition away via being the first market entrant (that fully harnessed / utilized the smartphone application developer community) and it is still essentially their game to lose… In sum; if this company has shown anything it is that they are not going to stand pat.
Lots to consider as this space always presents many variables for all parties therein. Who knows what’ll ensue next? And, if anyone does… they could certainly achieve massive success via predicting and/or even better yet defining the smartphone segment moving forward (hint, hint; Apple, Samsung, Nokia, HTC, etc. are clearly all trying to do so as it now stands). Time will tell who’ll stand and who’ll go by the way-side…
From ZDNet Asia: http://goo.gl/C61Td