Nokia’s comeback
Nokia launched their highly anticipated Lumia 800 smartphone in South Africa – the company’s first Windows Phone 7 device to be launched in South Africa.
To date the feedback about the new Nokia device and Microsoft’s mobile operating system has been positive, but the jury is still out as to whether it will pack a big enough punch to win market share from iPhone and Android devices.
Over the last few years companies like Apple and Samsung have strengthened their position in the high end mobile phone market, and it will not be easy for Nokia to wrestle market share away from them.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck explains that Nokia continues to do well in the low end handset market in South Africa, but has lost ground in the smartphone market.
Arthur Goldstuck
“Nokia’s market share has been holding fairly steady in South Africa due to its strength at the low end of the market. It is only in the smartphone market that they have lost ground, mainly to BlackBerry, but there is no question the Lumia will be a significant contender in that market, especially given the 100MB per month of data that comes with it,” says Goldstuck.
Goldstuck is bullish on the future of Nokia in the local smartphone market. “Having met Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and watched him interact with developers, what struck me most forcibly was his recognition of the importance of local solutions for local markets,” says Goldstuck.
“The old Nokia had a one-size-fits-all solution at a time when the world all wanted just a phone. Nokia was left behind with the advent of the smartphone, didn’t listen to their customers, and found themselves, as Elop put it so aptly, on a burning platform.”
Goldstuck added that the deal with Microsoft to build Windows Phone into their smartphones was in effect the fire engine that came to douse the flames.
“The engineering and usability of the Lumia range is the beginning of rebuilding the top of the pyramid, and the Asha range – which bridges the feature phone and the smart phone – is designed to shore up the bottom of the pyramid,” says Goldstuck.
Ryan Smit
BMI-T Analyst Ryan Smit believes that Nokia can win market share in the local smartphone market because of their loyal followers in South Africa.
“Their success will come down to the ability to market themselves effectively (as Samsung have done very well recently) and to price their products competitively to handsets with comparable hardware specifications and avoiding any temptation to price their products as ‘premium’ handsets as they have sometimes done in the past,” says Smit.
“Another challenge will be to convince consumers that, while they have fewer applications available to them through the Microsoft Marketplace than Apple’s App Store or the Android Market, that the quality is very high and that all of the key applications (Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp) are all available and integrate well into their system of ‘Hubs’ and ‘Live Tiles’.”
Smit added that Microsoft’s brand is also very strong in South Africa, and Nokia may be able to leverage on that by highlighting the benefits of having devices in the same ecosystem, as Apple have done with their iPhone, iPad and Mac products.
Whilst Nokia have a tough sell in the smartphone market, having neglected this side of business for some time, there is no doubt that they still have value to add and it will be interesting to see how their latest device, the Lumia 800, fares.
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