wraggster
January 26th, 2014, 22:22
http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/adam/b9c2c74dbd6fec5fd0728f4a500701c5/nokiaasha503group.jpg (http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/24/nokias-dumphone-future/)"Year-on-year decline." Those are words that no company looks forward to publishing in its earnings reports, but unfortunately we've seen them printed more often than not on Nokia's quarterly statements (http://www.results.nokia.com/results/Nokia_results2013Q4e.pdf). Though there have been a few ups and downs, struggling profits and sales have been a general concern for a long time, and unfortunately this quarter's earnings report (http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/23/nokia-q4-2013/) did little to soothe our worries; Nokia sold 600,000 fewer Lumias than the previous quarter. Now that Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division is nearly complete (http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/04/microsofts-nokia-acquisition-now-a-done-deal-with-final-eu-appr/), much of our focus has turned to how the merger will affect the Lumia lineup of Windows Phones. An even bigger mystery at the moment, however, is what Microsoft will choose to do with the rest of Nokia's phones -- namely, the Mobile Phone division, which consists of the company's basic featurephones and the Asha lineup (http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/22/nokia-asha-500-502-503-hands-on/) of advanced featurephones, none of which run Windows Phone.
Just after Microsoft announced its intent to acquire the phone maker, Nokia insisted (http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/09/06/asha-feature-phones-and-the-future/) that the division wasn't going anywhere; it has "substantial global reach ... and a strong customer base," but in emerging markets like India and China, it faces intense competition from fully functional smartphone platforms for a similar cost. Even worse, as we learned in yesterday's report, sales from this division were flat -- and as the competition gets heavier, it's going to get worse, not better. Is it worth it for Microsoft to try saving a lineup of handsets that don't feature Windows Phone OS? Or does it make more sense to push lower-end Lumia devices to cater to the next billion smartphone users?
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/24/nokias-dumphone-future/
Just after Microsoft announced its intent to acquire the phone maker, Nokia insisted (http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/09/06/asha-feature-phones-and-the-future/) that the division wasn't going anywhere; it has "substantial global reach ... and a strong customer base," but in emerging markets like India and China, it faces intense competition from fully functional smartphone platforms for a similar cost. Even worse, as we learned in yesterday's report, sales from this division were flat -- and as the competition gets heavier, it's going to get worse, not better. Is it worth it for Microsoft to try saving a lineup of handsets that don't feature Windows Phone OS? Or does it make more sense to push lower-end Lumia devices to cater to the next billion smartphone users?
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/24/nokias-dumphone-future/