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Nokia: We over invested in the U.S. market

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 10:51 PM

Nokia chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said his company has "over invested" in R&D in the U.S. market, and instead will pursue an incremental strategy of expanding its portfolio in the market rather than looking for the silver bullet in the mid-priced handset range. The U.S. market represents less than 10 percent of Nokia’s annual global shipments, and Nokia never gained a foothold in the U.S. CDMA market, which it bowed out of earlier this year. Kallusvuo said there was "no magic bullet" that would help Nokia gain more market share, only that the task required "hard work and more hard work." Of the four slim phones the world’s largest handset maker introduced yesterday, only one might work in the U.S. on T-Mobile’s network. The Nokia 6086 is a mass-market UMA phone that supports quad-band GSM, but it looks like T-Mobile will have to heavily subsidize it to make it appeal to the mass market.

Source: Fierce Wireless

Before I go in to rant mode, I don’t think the problem with Nokia’s sales in the US is a technology issue. It’s a carrier issue. People think the only cell phones they can use are from their carriers. This kills choice, which kills sales.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Dimilaz

    Hey, I agree with you that it is not Nokia’s fault that they only have 10% of market share in the US. Consumers, here in the US, think they only can get their phone (not buy the phone) from carrier and most likely get it for free. Majority updates their phones every 2 yr at the expiration of their agreement. With that concept, it is impossible to sell cell phones stand alone with out a contract, which sounds ridicules to me and that is why our choice in the US sucks. Good thing we have Internet and we real gadget people can get whatever we want whenever we want and don’t need to wait when Cingular or AT&T introduces “new” Nokia e62 which is degraded version of European e61 that was released 6mth prior to US….

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    Yea I think I’m going to write about the sad state of affairs that plagues our country.