Nokia’s Q4 numbers were good, but Samsung’s were out of this world, and that has the Finns scared. With Apple, Google and RIM eating Nokia’s lunch in the high end, Nokia didn’t really break a sweat since the mid range, and especially low end, market is their domain of excellence and is responsible for a large portion of their revenues. No one could compete with Nokia on price, nor distribution, but that’s changing.
To combat this Nokia has cut the prices of all their models, some by as much as 10%, such as the Symbian powered sub 150 EUR touch screen enabled 5230, in a bid to increase market share and to drive competitors, such as Samsung and LG, out of the game. It’s great for the consumer, and with Nokia’s reduced OPEX thanks to the large amount of employees they’ve let go, this “new normal” of being frugal can let them maintain their barely double digit margins.
Price is one way to win, but lately people are demanding better, and different experiences. The few of us who cling to the fact that we know Symbian S60 inside and out, because the operating system has largely been the same since the early part of the last decade, are not going to keep Nokia alive. I’m not saying Nokia is going to die, but there has to be another way to stay on top of the mobile phone space than being able to drop your twice every time you get scared of the competition.