While the competitors are on full throttle releasing the latest models, designs and features, Nokia, the world‘s largest mobile handset manufacturer is trailing behind. It‘s time it attends to the call for makeover or lose to rivals.
Diversified customer bases are needed to fully capture growth and smoothen the risk due to diverse revenue streams.Nokia, which once looked invincible and grew to enjoy unparalleled success in the history of the mobile industry, is now on the defensive, losing market share as it faces increased competition from rivals like Samsung, LG and a reinvigorated Motorola. Its woes have been added further by the fact that the global mobile industry is fast becoming a commodity market, as the average prices of handsets have been falling sharply. And now, with the CEO Jorma Ollila ending his 13-year reign at Nokia, the situation could not have got worse. The world’s No.1 mobile handset maker seems to be running out of options and is fighting hard to regain its lost market share.
Getting its act together, Nokia recently released seven new models of mobile phones apart from a handheld tablet device in June 2005. Interestingly, the new models with more user-friendly features come in rather unusual Nokia designs and also indicate the company’s seriousness to tap into the rising Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) segment. Three of the new models are targeted at the CDMA markets, a significant shift in the company’s product offerings. The company is also looking at more diverse areas like enterprise services, multimedia services and mobile infrastructure business to drive growth. But will Nokia be able to retain its supremacy of the mobile handset market in the wake of rising competition? |
