Nokia cuts smartphone prices

Nokia has cut prices of smartphones across its portfoliofrom early July in an attempt to slow the dcline of its share in the higher-end of the cellphone market, two industry sources said.

 

One of the sources with direct knowledge of Nokia's pricing said the company's flagship model, the N8, the multimedia phone C7, as well as the business user-targeted E6, saw the steepest cuts of around 15 percent. 

Other price cuts were smaller, both sources said. "There are no very big cuts per model, but the scale -- across the portfolio -- is unseen for a very, very long time," said one of the sources, who works at a European telecom operator. 

A Nokia spokesman declined to comment on specific prices and said changes were part of its normal business. "It's business as usual," he said. 

The Finnish company is expected to report losses for the second and third quarters this year as its aging smartphone lineup is rapidly losing market share against phones running on Google'sAndroid platform. 

Nokia's share of smartphone market fell to 25.5 percent in the first quarter from 39 percent a year earlier, according to research firm Gartner, and many analysts expect the share to fall further during 2011. 

Nokia Unveils N9 Smartphone Using MeeGo

Nokia unveiled Tuesday its new N9 smartphone that runs the MeeGo operating system, and is being marketed as a "pure touch screen" device without buttons.
The N9 will launch later this year, and the company will release later the device's pricing and availability in various markets, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said at a company event in Singapore.
Nokia said in February that it would establish a future smartphone strategy around Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, to help the company compete against Apple's iPhone and handsets using Google's Android operating system.
The company said it would still put out during the year a smartphone with MeeGo, a Linux-based OS developed in collaboration with Intel.
The Windows-based product is scheduled to ship later this year, Elop said. Nokia had earlier said the product would ship by the fourth quarter.
Nokia also restated its commitment to the Symbian operating system at the event. The company said it will start shipping Nokia N8s, E7s, C7s and C6-01s with the new Symbian Anna software update in July. By the end of August, existing owners of these devices can also download Symbian Anna. Over the next 12 months Nokia plans to bring up to 10 new Symbian-based smartphones to market.

Nokia designed the N9 as an "all screen" phone with a 3.9 inch display that covers most of the front side of the device. No home button is built on to it. Instead, users navigate back to the home view by simply swiping across the edge of the phone's screen.
People want more screen on their phone, and want to be able to use their phones when on the move, said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's senior vice president for design. That requires the phone to offer better one-handed use, and the ability to view all information at a glance of the phone, he added.
The N9 features an 8-megapixel camera. It also uses near-field communication technology. During Tuesday's demo Ahtisaari showed that the device can easily synchronize with a Bluetooth headset, simply by having the phone touch the earphones.
The phone will come in three colors: black, cyan and magenta. There will be two versions available with storage at 16GB and 64GB.
The design of the N9 will be carried forward to other smartphones from Nokia, Elop said.

Samsung to Lead Smartphone Market leaving Nokia behind

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will become the world's largest smartphone maker this quarter, overtaking struggling Nokia Oyj which has lead the market since 1996, Nomura said.

In the next quarter Nomura also sees also Apple Inc overtaking Nokia and pushing it to No. 3 in rankings.

"In 1996 Nokia launched the Communicator and the smartphone market that it has led in unit terms ever since. After about 14 years at the top, Nokia looks set to relinquish its smartphone crown," Nomura analysts said in a research note.

Nokia has lost initiative in the smartphone market to Apple's iPhone and Google Inc's Android devices, and at the lower end, to more nimble Asian rivals.

Overall, Nokia still makes more cellphones than Samsung due to its strong position in basic cellphones and its wider distribution network in emerging countries.

The company is switching to Microsoft Corp's software from its own Symbian platform as part of an overhaul of its phone business set out in February by new Chief Executive Stephen Elop.

On May 31 Nokia abandoned hope of meeting key targets just weeks after setting them, raising questions over whether its new boss can deliver on the turnaround he promised.