Reduced Year Smartphone Nokia 2010
Largest mobile phone maker Nokia will reduce the number of smartphone models coming out next year in an effort drastically in Finnish companies compete with Apple and RIM.
Nokia sells more smartphones than its competitors, but still lost the competition.
“We see fierce competition in the high end, but we also see the mid and low smartphones are increasing,” said Jo Harlow, head of the new Nokia smartphone unit said in a webcast.
“We will defend our position, we have the means to attack and survive,” said Harlow, a former captain of her basketball team at Duke University.
Nokia plans to push smartphone prices down while improving margins, assisted by the Symbian operating system is the market leader, Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said earlier this week.
Harlow was appointed to head the new unit in October, after the company reported smartphone market share fell to 35 percent in the quarter ended September from 41 percent in the previous quarter.
Nokia is introducing about 20 models in 2009, smartphones, said it has cut next year’s portfolio smartphonenya about half.
“Reducing the number of smartphone models have a lot of sense … but Nokia should be careful in finding the right balance.’s Portfolio of products has become one of the strong competitive advantage in the past,” said Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu.
Antti Vasara, head of R & D smartphone, said Nokia had to work harder with fewer products.
“We have reduced unnecessary differentiation that would be much more focus on portfolio next year,” he said