Nokia-Losing Ground?

Recently one of my friends wanted to purchase a low end phone, so I went with him to the one of the mobile stores in my locality. My friend, like many of us, has great faith in Nokia as a brand. So he straight away asked the shop keeper to show only Nokia models. You know what was the shopkeeper’s reply?-he said, “Arrey sir, No one buys Nokia now, have a look at Micromax, Karbonn & Samsung mobiles, they are value for money, with so many features at such a low price” At first I thought he might get some sort of commission by selling the cell phones of the above mentioned brands. But keeping the commission part aside, there was definitely some truth in his statement. A research published recently confirms this. According to the data collated in the research about the performance of Telecom firms in India-Nokia has lost a big chunk of market share from 2008-09 to this fiscal year [i.e. from 64%, its market share has slipped to 52.2%]. Nokia’s loss has been the gain of rival companies like Samsung and other local firms like Lava, Karbonn & Micromax. Other established players like Sony Ericsson and Motorola have also severely lost out on market share.

Other way of looking at the results of the research is that no telecom firm can boast of holding the majority of market share for such a long time. Also Nokia can be accredited for "introducing" mobiles in the Indian market back in the late 90’s and the early 2000’s. After all who can forget the 5110-brick model with the antenna sticking out! In those days 'a cell phone' and 'Nokia' were almost used synonymously. It brings alive those nostalgic memories...!

The major problem that Nokia is facing now is that it is facing severe competition from the low-end and high-end segment; it is squeezed like a sandwich in between. As far as the economical segment is concerned, local players give the customers value-for-money as many of them import cheap parts from China [In this way they can give more features at a lower price]. So many, local companies have emulated Blackberry and QWERTY keypad model types now, which was previously available only at a high price. In the high end segment, a lot of customers prefer iPhone and top Blackberry models to its Finnish counterpart.

The second problem is that Nokia has not been able to come with a revolutionary product in recent times which would suit the pocket and would provide superior customer satisfaction. It has been taking cues from the market and following the trend. Take for example, Blackberry’s QWERTY keypad phones were a hit, then Nokia thought of coming with its own version of the phone.

Now let’s see what the future has in store for Nokia, will the co. be able to bounce back, what do you think?

Nokia's Cheapest 3G Phone Launched for just Rs.4499

Nokia has launched its most affordable 3G handset in the country earlier today with the launch of the Nokia 2730 Classic.
The phone, priced at just Rs. 4499, comes loaded with a host of features rarely seen on a device in is price range. The 2730 Classic packs in Ovi Mail, Nokia Messaging, Nokia Life Tools, and full HTML browsing as well. It also comes with Opera Mini preloaded.

The 2730 Classic has a 2-inch QVGA display that can display 262k colours. At just 88grams, the phone is quite light-weight. As expected, it runs Nokia's S40 interface. The 30 MB of internal memory can be augmented using a microSD card and the phone comes with a 1GB card - preloaded. It offers a maximum of 7.4 hours talk time and 16.5 days standby time. Music lovers on a budget can rejoice - thanks to the 3.5mm slot this one comes with. If that wasn't all, there is Bluetooth and microUSB support as well.

There is a decent 2 megapixel camera at the rear that should be good enough for casual imaging. Along with 3G, it also supports class 32 EDGE - making it a good device for browsing while on the move. There's FM Radio with RDS as well.

The 2730 Classic should make a decent buy for a feature packed, cheap first phone.