Nokia (Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO) is by a wide margin the largest maker of mobile phones in the world. According to the Gartner Group’s research, they sold 110 million mobile units (a staggering number!) in the first quarter of 2010. The nearest competitor was Samsung at 64.9 million units. Nokia, with 35% of the world market, is rated by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as the 9th most innovative company in the world.
Mobile leadership is an important stake in the future because mobile devices are rapidly changing the way we all live. The change is especially important in the “emerging world.” There, in some cases mobile communications has been and is the first wave of telecommunications. In other places like India mobile comms are the foundations of innovative business models that are changing the global telecoms landscape.
Despite its huge scale and market leadership, Nokia faces some challenges. A lot of the buzz in mobile communications has recently been about Apple’s iPhone and about devices built around Google’s Android operating system. Nokia’s “feature phones”, that is, phones that don’t have the sophisticated software and web-enablement of “smartphones”, though a huge business right now, are a bit left out of this emerging picture. So are Nokia’s smartphones based on the Symbian operating system, which, despite its current large market share (just under 50%), seems to be retreating in the face of Apple and Android.
GigaOm, the technology blog, has called Nokia’s response to these developments “reactive, not proactive.” GigaOm reports that Nokia has reorganised four times since the iPhone was introduced.
Noting these challenges, for me Nokia still looks like a great company with a huge position in a global market. For one thing, they are one of the most international companies I know. Headquarterd in Finland, their sales came regionally in the following percentages in 2009 (company SEC filing figures)
- Europe 24.8%
- Middle East and Africa 18.0%
- Greater China 16.8%
- Asia Pacific 28.6%
- North America 3.1%
- Latin America 8.7%
Nokia seems already to have penetrated all corners of the world, and is flourishing in developing markets, statements few multinationals can make. The battle of the smartphone will probably be important, but probably more important may be the battle to supply mobile telecoms across China, India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Nokia’s tagline is: Connecting People.
Its stated values are
- Engaging you
- Achieving together
- Passion for Innovation
- Very human
My experience of the company’s online presence is that they love creating great communications experiences for their customers. Certainly, though I’m now hooked on my iPhone, every time I’ve given up my Nokia phone I’ve missed the thoughtful qualify of Nokia’s operating design.
I’ll watch with interest to see if this truly international giant, so customer-centric and innovative in the past, can somehow either launch or catch a few more of the coming waves in mobile technology.
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Scott is scott@lovingwork.org and @scottdowns3 on Twitter.
creativity · customers · emerging markets · excellence · global · innovation · leadership · Nokia · values
