After losing a sizeable chunk of its smartphone market share in North America, Nokia is planning to regain some of it by expanding its existing deals with carriers in USA, like AT&T and T-Mobile. This statement was released by a regional executive for the Finnish company. Nokia abandoned its much criticised Symbian OS to pave way for Microsoft’s all new Windows Phone platform.
The company is currently selling its Lumia handsets utilizing the services of AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. The President of Nokia in North America announced that this move is just a start towards Nokia’s expansion as a major smartphone player in the North American continent.
Nokia decided to switch to the Windows platform after its Symbian OS’s share fell to 6.8% from a massive 26%, losing share to both Apple and Google. Nokia hopes that the switch will help them in regaining lost ground. Nokia have even gone to the extent of aggressive pricing and marketing of its latest phone, the Lumia 900 – whose launch AT&T calls even bigger than the original iPhone. Priced at just under $100, AT&T has already run out of stocks.
The North American region was the only area where Nokia experienced an increase in number of handset shipments. This was attributed to the release of the Nokia 710 on T-Mobile. Despite shipping 600,000 units, this was still a 50% drop from last year. The Lumia 900 started shipping right after the first quarter i.e. in April and therefore does not get reflected in market share estimates yet.
Nokia believes that the key to getting the Lumia 900 into the hands of more consumers is by providing a carrier with a “unique proposition” which will help it promoting the phone against handsets like the iPhone and other top Android handsets. The rising sales numbers of the Lumia 900 has prompted Verizon Wireless in developing an interest to market the platform in the US.
The iPhone was the major contributor in AT&T’s handset sales last quarter accounting for 78% of the total smartphone sales. With Verizon Wireless, the iPhone accounted for 51% of the sales as the company is a little more inclined towards Android handsets. IDC has predicted an increase in the years to come for Windows Phone. There are predictions that suggest it will overtake Apple’s iOS as the number two smartphone software by 2016. Looking at the short term perspective, however, things don’t look encouraging for Nokia as analysts predict Apple and Samsung sweeping most sales numbers.
