Nokia Case Study

Nokia Case Study 1

Nokia Case Study

February 27, 2011

Nokia Case Study 2

I. Introduction

This case study will examine the development and implementation of corporate

strategy of the Nokia Corporation. This case study will examine in particular recent

events involving Nokia’s cellular phone business.

Nokia is a Finnish company that is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile

devices. In addition, Nokia offers communication services, software, as well as, phone

and internet based content. Nokia includes a network management segment called Nokia

Siemens Networks which offers network based products and services. This case study

will focus primarily on the mobile device market.

II. Porter Five Force Analysis

Rivalry Among Existing Competitors

Nokia has the largest piece of the mobile device market but has seen very strong

challenges by RIM’s Blackberry, Apple’s iPhone and a myriad of smartphones running Google’s

Android. Nokia’s Symbian operating system is showing its age compared to these newer

smartphone offerings. During 2010 Nokia went from 36.6% of the mobile phone market to

27.1%. In the fourth quarter of 2010 Nokia’s Symbian OS was replaced by Android as the most

widespread platform (Nagamine, 2011). The top three competitors to Symbian are beginning to

take a serious bite of Nokia’s smartphone market share. Table 1 below shows a comparison of

2009 vs. 2010 smartphone OS market sales. Nokia took a big hit to its market dominance to due

increased competition from Android and Apple (iOS) sales (Sandstrom, 2011).

Nokia Case Study 3

Table 1: 2010 smartphone sales by Operating System, units in thousands

OS 2010 2010 Mkt Shr 2009 2009 Mkt Shr Chg

Symbian 111,577 37.6% 80,878 46.9% -9.3%

Android 67,225 22.7% 6,798 3.9% 18.8%

RIM 47,452 16.0% 34,347 19.9% -3.9%

iOS 46,598 15.7% 24,890 14.4% 1.3%

Microsoft 12,378