Nokia Turns To Android To Regain Share In Emerging Markets

puddingebola writes "Nokia is preparing to release its first Android phone, as the lost market share in emerging markets from the death of Symbian has never been recovered. Windows Phone could never be adapted to the entry level devices that have driven growth in these markets, necessitating the move. From the article, 'Nokia was once the king of cellphones in emerging markets. But it has lost ground because it was slow to respond to Android's popularity in many countries. In India, where Nokia's Symbian-powered phones held a big share of cellphone sales just a few years ago, Android was installed on 93% of new smartphones shipped there last year, according to estimates from research firm IDC.'"

Comments

And another pointless phone

[Kjella]

Seriously, who's going to buy a Nokia Android phone when you know they've been bought by Microsoft and won't care one bit about supporting it? Same as the Maemo/MeeGo based phones that Nokia released after the Nokia/Microsoft deal was announced, it's stillborn. And unlike those who might have some unique features this is yet another Android phone that you can get from other companies, so it makes even less sense. Nokia must be running out of feet to shoot itself in.

Re:And another pointless phone

[interkin3tic]

Seriously, who's going to buy a Nokia Android phone when you know they've been bought by Microsoft and won't care one bit about supporting it?

Possible customers include anyone who doesn't follow mobile phone news very closely. Which is most people. Tech business news is not exactly gobbled up by the public. Most slashdotters won't buy, but mobile nerds aren't common. AND I might buy one if the hardware's nice enough and I can root it. What do I care about support for it if I can just install cyanogenmod?

Microsoft caused it ...

[gstoddart]

But it has lost ground because it was slow to respond to Android's popularity in many countries.

And just how much of this can be laid at the feet of Microsoft?

Because once Stephen Elop got in there, he took what was a profitable company and turned it into a dog by changing their focus.

Microsoft doesn't care about Nokia, they care about having a division which makes Microsoft phones.

That Nokia is now realizing they might need to embrace Android to turn things around means it's going to be interesting to see when Microsoft finishes buying them. Because there's no way Redmond is going to allow them to make phones running anything but Microsoft stuff.

Microsoft has been nothing but bad for the viability of Nokia, and I don't see that changing in the future.

Because, really, these are appalling numbers:

During Elop's tenure, Nokia annual revenues fell 40% from 41.7 Billion Euros per year to 25.3 Billion Euros per year. Nokia profits fell 92% from 2.4 Billion Euros per year to 188 Million Euros per year. Nokia handset sales fell 40% from 456 million units per year to 274 million units per year. Nokia share price which was at 7.12 Euros on the day Elop was hired, had fallen to 81% to a bottom level of 1.44 Euros two years later, after which it began trading at 4.14 Euros, up 36% on the day.

Elop was either grossly incompetent, or was there to lower the price of the company for the take over. Because he sure as hell failed to actually grow the company or do anything good for it.

...and the high end?

[Richard_J_N]

If I can get a high-end Lumia and have Android, that would be amazing.

Hey Nokia....

[Lumpy]

Do it right. your flagship phones, rip that garbage Windows OS off of them and install Android. I would LOVE your 900megapixel phone with a nice clean Android 4.4 on it.

you could get it to market in 30 days, no hardware to change. Want it faster?? contact the Android hackers and tell them how to unlock the bootloader and give them full details on the hardware. You will have android ported to it within the week.

You will INSTANTLY gain market share.

Re:Which goes to show how much you know...

[Sockatume]

Android's super-open, it just turns out people are more interested in the idea of having Google services on a phone than in Android itself. And that part is certainly not open. If you want to find your own supplier for maps, email, calendar, and browser, then you can launch your own Android gizmo; Microsoft has all those things.