Samsung Electronics will become in this quarter the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, ahead of Nokia, which has dominated the cellular phone market since 1996, according to the estimates of Nomura financial company, announced Reuter.
In the next quarter, Nokia will also be behind Apple, the Finnish company will thus only occupy the third place in the world rankings, predicts Nomura. “Nokia seems to give the ‘smartphone crown’ to Samsung and Apple. Furthermore, we expect the HTC to get close to Nokia in 2012, which highlights changes in power in Asia market”, added analysts at Nomura.
Market research companies Gartner and Canalys expect that Nokia – the creator of the smartphone market with the launch, in 1996, of The Communicator model – lose its dominant position, this year. “If the new Nokia phones will not be well received in the third quarter, while the demand for the Galaxy S2 model is growing, Samsung could overtake the Finnish company and become the leader in the smartphone segment” said Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner.
Nokia has lost the initiative on smartphone market in favor of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices. On cheap devices segment, Nokia has been outrun by Asian manufacturers. Overall, Nokia still produces more mobile phones than Samsung as a result of its strong position on the usual appliances market and the largest distribution network in emerging countries.
The company moves from its own platform Symbian to Microsoft, as part of operations reorganization – process launched in February by the new CEO Stephen Elop. On May 31, Nokia has dropped the annual financial targets, raising questions about the new director’s ability to fulfill promises to revive the group.
Nokia shares dropped almost 45% since the beginning of the year. Nokia’s market value plunged 77% to about 25.6 billion dollars, since Apple launched the iPhone in June 2007.