Nokia Case

On this part, I will provide you a suggested strategy along with the problem definition that Nokia had faced. This will be my opinion toward Nokia Company.

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Respectively, this will answer to the question if I were Nokia what would I do differently.

Years ago, Nokia was by some distance, the leader in the mobile phone market. However, the company gradually lost its market share to emerging competitors. What made Nokia a fallen leader in the current mobile phone market?

One of the main reasons is Nokia’s failure to adapt to the emerging market trends. In the past, cell phones were mainly used as voice-communication devices with very limited added features. But with the emergence of the so-called smart phones, firstly introduced by Apple, Nokia was left far behind. The iPhone gave consumers excitement and exposed them to a completely new mobile device and cell phones became more than it used to be. The innovation Apple introduced to the market set new standards to the mobile device industry. Customers were satisfied with the capabilities iPhone provided. Famously, there have been comparisons made between three main companies in the mobile market, stating that Apple is the creator, Samsung is the stealer, and Nokia has no idea what’s going on. Thus, Nokia’s main problem was its inability to stay innovative. As the market leader, Nokia should have done better to come up with innovative products, especially with the amount they had invested in research and development. Instead, Nokia failed to compete with new competitors in the market.

Figure 2: Apple - Samsung - Nokia

The main problem is what should Nokia do to re-establish its presence in the mobile phone market. Currently, the market is full of established companies, namely Apple, Samsung, Blackberry, Sony, and HTC. These companies adapt only 2

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operating systems, Apple’s iOS and Android. Nokia, instead, chose to adapt the windows operating system. The result hasn’t been impressive as the system failed to gain significant recognition from users. By June 2013, Android covered 69% of all smartphones, Apple’s IOS had 20%, while Windows Phone had only 6% market share. Thus, it could be really difficult for Nokia to penetrate the smartphones market with the current operating system. Therefore, if Nokia were still to compete for shares in this smartphones market, I would suggest Nokia the first thing they have to do is to switch their operating system to android. By doing so, Nokia would have a higher chance of attracting android users, but would still have to compete with numerous other competitors.

Figure 3: Operating Profit Share By Vender 2007-2012

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