Posted by senninha
the following is an article from www.thefeature.com a website owned by nokia. it comes after a quarter where four major manufacturers ate into nokia's market share at the same time. mediocrity is finally being exposed...
Nokia Slips As Samsung Steals Share
By Carlo Longino, Fri Apr 16 14:00:00 GMT 2004
The two companies released first-quarter earnings today, but that's about all they've got in common: Samsung celebrated record profits while Nokia again warned on second-quarter sales.
This could be the fourth quarter in a row that revenue is down at the market leader, and the company said second-quarter profits will be well below analyst expectations. It's because of the same reasons given a few weeks back -- holes in the product line, slipping handset prices, and a weak US dollar. Nokia's own market share figures, which can be a bit optimistic when compared to outside analysts' numbers, show the company lost 3 points to 35%.
CEO Jorma Ollila told CNBC that the company didn't move as quickly as it should have, compared to changes in products made by competitors, and in a pretty forthcoming statement, said the company was wrong not to embrace flip designs sooner.
Samsung again makes an interesting comparison, as it's thriving everywhere Nokia is struggling. The overall handset market grew by 29% in the quarter to 128 million. Nokia's sales were up only 19 points, while Samsung's shot up 52% to 20.1 million. Those sales would give Samsung over 15% market share compared to about 10% in the fourth quarter of last year. And whereas Nokia's estimates are shrinking, Samsung recently raised its yearly sales forecast.
Strategically and design-wise, the company's opposite of Nokia. Flips are its forte, and it moves as quickly as anyone in adding new features in their devices. Some analyst numbers from last year say that 30 percent of Sony Ericsson's devices sold in 2003 and 18 percent of Samsung's had integrated cameras, compared to only 6 percent for Nokia.
It's clear that Nokia's got to move more quickly to fill in its product mix and be much more aggressive about adding new features to its handsets. The company's touted the fact that it will launch (which doesn't necessarily mean ship) 40 handsets this year. That may sound like a lot, but compare it to Samsung's 130. The Korean manufacturer is also continuing its aggressive rollout of features: 98% of its phones this year will have a color screen, and just over half will have cameras.
Posted by Flying Finn
Their CEO said the products they are going to introduce during the next 9 months will put their market share where it was and higher
Posted by Scally_cadet
130 new fones from Samsung? Thats ten a month! Flood thd market and hope people will buy. Nokia are depending on series 40 4,096 colour phones tn much. Thats old hat now.
Posted by bohdan
| Quote: |
Their CEO said the products they are going to introduce during the next 9 months will put their market share where it was and higher |
Maybe with 7700, 7610 and ngageqd :?: Don't be silly as they are. [ This Message was edited by: bohdan on 2004-04-17 12:01 ]
Posted by Matteus
Nokia is in a serious situation: old-looking brickets needing pricelowing! Equal situation as Motorola some years ago! Bad Moon Rising as CCR sings!
Posted by draak1
Nokia taste the other side of the reality.
[ This Message was edited by: draak1 on 2004-04-17 12:12 ]
Posted by mib1800
Nokia is losing market shares to Korean manufacturers. SE at the moment is not much of a threat to Nokia.
So why are the SE fans celebrating? SE may get clobbered in the fight between the Finns and Koreans. For all we know, SE products are overpriced, overspec'ed and overlooked by consumers. So if there is a price war, obviously SE will not stand a chance.
Somebody will have the last laugh but it will NOT be SE.
Posted by loonee
Blame on the odd-lookin nokia phones, they have been coming up with some strange design
Posted by draak1
Product from SE is overpriced,are you kidding.
Nokia product and Samsung product is far more overpriced.
Look at the E700,and the T630 who is cheaper?
[ This Message was edited by: draak1 on 2004-04-17 18:46 ]
Posted by Bianca
T630 is cheaper but the e700 looks better
Posted by bart
wow SE phones overpriced? haha thats a good one.
i'm not sure what to expect now from nokia, for years its been normal and easy to gues what they'll bring out, but now its time to listen to every rumor and hope they'll scruwe up even more.
as a big SE fan i would say that now's the time to push SE even more. Q2 should be a killerQ SE. for Q3 SE should hope on the succes from Q2 (in terms of people saying they've bought a great phone and the good branding) and the K700 that will be out here in europe and asia (and the Z500 lauching in the US regions). Q4 will remain a mistery for now, as only the S700 will be lauched and a continued sale of the K700.
so all of you that are going to buy a K700 make it Q2, and advise al your friends (again) to buy a new phone (K700 will be in stock but limited, it will be sold out very fast because of the high demand) so let them buy a nice T630/Z600/T230 or a superb P900.
thats what i think should be done, to get the nokia moral down and the SE moral up
Posted by draak1
Bianca Because you are a girl
Posted by Bianca
[ This Message was edited by: Bianca on 2004-04-17 19:43 ]
Posted by mib1800
SE is going the way of Sony believing its products are the best (design & functionality) and every consumers will clamour to buy. They believe that everyone is tech-savvy and willing buy its proprietary+price premiums products. Now you know why Sony products are losing ground very fast.
Only SE fans in this forum with their passion (bordering on fanaticism) cannot see what is happening, and they are the only ones that buy just because it is a SE.
Most other people just don't give a sh**. They just buy the ones that give them the best price overall and many of them just looking forward to buy the next new phone.
So that is why Samsung is doing well because they swamp the market with new phone model every few weeks.
How many new models are SE launching?
Posted by jomni1
That's true. I sold my P800 and replaced it with an obscure Taiwan-made Pocket PC phone which is half the price of the P900. P900's too overpriced for me and the Pocket PC phone does wonders.
What's good about samsung is that they release phones with all types of OS to cater to differet types of people.
(traditional OS, Symbian, Windows Pocket PC, Windows Smartphone, Palm)... Nokia and SE (Sad to say) are stubborn and use only proprietary OS.
[ This Message was edited by: jomni1 on 2004-04-20 02:04 ]
Posted by slattery69
Well i cant see se picking us much of nokia s market share . With only 1 phone due around june if on time. And maybe the s 700 maybe out before xmas but it wont be a massive seller ap it will be bu the higher price point and other makers will have similar spec phones out before. Its a shame that se could nt have brought some more phones out and earlier ap they could have made a mark
Posted by jomni1
It's a make-or-break opportunity for SE at this time whlie Nokia is still weak. They should do whatever it takes to win the market especially form the more competitive Koreans. If they fail, the Koreans will sure beat 'em (with regards to market share).
Posted by senninha
SE will not be no. 1 in market share for the forseeable future for the simple reason that they are not too interested in the low end of the market right now, which is where all the volume is. instead, they are focusing on the mid to high end, where margins are much bigger.
just think bmw: much lower volume than, say GM, but much higher margins = one of the most profitable car companies in the business.
on that score, they might not be launching half as many new models as samsung might be doing, for instance, but the fact remains that SE's product line is still selling very well. it's quite amazing that despite it's age, the t610 has still been selling very strongly. it is the best-selling camera phone in the world, after all. i presume t610 sales will begin to taper off now that the t630 takes over.
lastly, i don't think number of models on sale is the most important thing. it's how well they penetrate their targeted market segments that is critical.
at the end of the day, while SE is still very young, it has already established a very strong reputation for itself in the mid to high end market, which is its intended goal. that prestigious, high end image will then serve it very well if and when it decides to really go after the low-end market.
Posted by jomni1
And it looks like Nokia is not going to compete agressively in the mid-high range as they will concentrate on bringing cheaper phones.
Here are some important business points:
1) Market share isn't everyting... unless your cheap products are high margin as well.
2) The number of models released may not be an optimal strategy... it would be a waste of resources to delvelop a phone every so often, or to develop competeing models. For sure a lot of the models may become flops. Concentrating on a few well-built models may be better (as what I perceive SE is doing).
3) Profitabiltiy and return on investment is what really counts. A company may have large sales but small profit margins. Another company sells only a few but with higher profit margins. The better company is the one who brings the higher rate of return to their investors (no matter what the size).
4) Only time will tell if Nokia goes back to the right track, SE continues to perform well or even better, or Samsung dominates the market.
Posted by znights
one thing for sure for me is that
is doing better. i am starting to notice people around me switching to it used to be rare to see people holding a T630/T610/z600. nowadays, they are simply everywhere!
Posted by znights
some info about nokia vs
http://www.theregister.com/2004/04/21/sony_ericsson/
Posted by mib1800
Some of you mentioned that SE is interested in the higher end/niche market with their technology prowess.
Unfortunately, this is not working. Take a look at the following.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/euro_q1_pda_sales/
It looks like that P900/800 is being trashed left and right. Nokia Series 60 Symbian phones are outselling the SE UIQ Symbian by 7 times.
Only SE share is static. The rest has increased market share (even the embattled Nokia)