Nokia was the 2nd highest selling phone brand in 2013, why did they sell themselves off to Microsoft

[Wevenhuis]

This was the list of best selling phone brands in 2013 -

Samsung: 444.4442 million (24.6% market share)
Nokia: 250.7931 million (13.9% market share)
Apple: 150.7859 million (8.3% market share)
LG: 69.0245 million (3.8% market share)
ZTE: 59.8988 million (3.3% market share)
Huawei: 53.2951 million (2.9% market share)
TCL Communication: 49.5313 million (2.7% market share)
Lenovo: 45.2847 million (2.5% market share)
Sony Mobile Communications: 37.5957 million (2.1% market share)
Yulong: 32.6014 million (1.8% market share)
Others: 613.7100 million (34% market share)
Total: 1,806.9647 million (100% market share)

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In 2013, Nokia sold more phones than big players like Apple, LG, Sony and the Chinese brands. Only Samsung sold more phones than Nokia in 2013

After having stuck with Symbian for way too long, 2012 & 2013 were Nokia's comeback years in the phone market. Nokia had good range of phones with their good range of feature phones, budget smartphones like Nokia Asha, they even had their own OS called Meego and had made a good phone Nokia N9 with Meego OS in 2012. And not to forget the Nokia Lumia which was gaining in popularity in 2013, especially with the flagship Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixel camera, something which is still yet to be beaten even after more than 5 years and so many camera-centric phones being launched

Nokia were coming out with innovative Lumia phones one after the other in 2012-2013, even had futuristic features like wireless charging, something which other brands brought in 2017, Nokia had brought it way back in 2012 in Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia had a excellent advertising team and the Nokia Lumia's were promoted very aggressively in those times with Nokia coming out with good advertisements too

Nokia had a solid base in 2013 and rather than continue making Nokia Lumias, Meego phones and the budget smarphones/feature phones, Nokia in less than 4 months sell themselves off to Microsoft and that killed off Nokia and it also killed off Windows phone as well

Now when Microsoft took over Nokia, a lot of Nokia's core team had gone. Microsoft never had the hardware team and we can see the Microsoft Lumias never had any hardware innovations. Microsoft never did any proper advertising too. Only innovation which Microsoft did in phones was a software based innovation - Continuum which was used to dock the phone and connect it to a bigger display and run full Windows using the phone as the processor. There were no or very little hardware based innovations by Microsoft in their phones

If Nokia hadn't sold themselves off to Microsoft, Nokia would have grown even bigger in 2014 & 2015, coming with out more new innovative & futuristic features in their phones, especially the flagship Nokia Lumias. They would have been active in the feature phones & budget smartphones range as they were

Microsoft have always been good at software and Nokia were always good at hardware, so with Microsoft focusing on the Windows phone software and Nokia innovating at hardware level for Nokia Lumia, Windows phones would have grown big in 2014 & 2015

Talking of apps, Android was a growing platform in 2012-2013 too and that was the time many developers made apps. Developers made apps for Windows phones too in 2012-2013 when Nokia Lumias were there. Nokia selling themselves off to Microsoft put many developers away from developing Windows phone apps. And with Microsoft acquiring Nokia, there was a big gap between the launch of last Nokia Lumia by Nokia in 2013 and the Nokia Lumia 830 & Nokia Lumia 735 by Microsoft in September 2014. Microsoft then stopped using Nokia name and came out with Microsoft Lumia from November 2014, Microsoft Lumia 535 being the 1st Microsoft branded phone

So what was the reason for Nokia to sell themselves off to Microsoft just 3 months after a succesful 2013. There would have been some very wrong people in both sides for such a ridiculous deal to happen which benefitted neither of them. I felt very sad looking at the list of best selling smartphones in 2013 with Nokia at 2nd and then Nokia disappearing soon. If this ridiculous deal didn't happen, by 2018, Windows phones would have been very popular everywhere by now and many people would be buying Nokia Lumias

It is my impression it was a mistake that Microsoft bought Nokia. I would have been okay with a microsoft collaborative oem type buy-in a stake in Nokia is financial aid was plot of the story. From the beginning it felt wrong. I am happy it did deliver great devices in their own right and a great mobile OS. I still love and use two windows mobile devices to date that still work great as a daily driver. The OS and live tiles are great to use.

Another reason to think of this is a recent good YouTube video make by TechAltar about the resurgence of the European mobile brands. Worth a watch and interesting to here what Nokia's strength is for a comeback.

 

[amits1024]

My opinion is that Nokia selling out to Microsoft was a huge mistake. They were making progress in emerging markets with windows phone. They were making a little progress in the US, but when they launched the Lumia 930, and you couldn't get it on anything but Verizon (branded with a different name). I think if Microsoft had worked more WITH Nokia instead of buying them and shutting everything down, the world would be very different right now.

Yes. I feel a better thing would have been Microsoft buying a good stake in Nokia for $2-3 billion. That money would have kept Nokia running & as per the deal, Nokia wouldn't have been able to make any Android or Android-based phones. Windows phones & Asha phones would have been Nokia's main priority and they could have also worked on Meego as well

What Microsoft buying Nokia did also killed the Windows phone too especially when Windows phone was growing in 2013 with apps coming to Windows as well

 

[amits1024]

It is my impression it was a mistake that Microsoft bought Nokia. I would have been okay with a microsoft collaborative oem type buy-in a stake in Nokia is financial aid was plot of the story. From the beginning it felt wrong. I am happy it did deliver great devices in their own right and a great mobile OS. I still love and use two windows mobile devices to date that still work great as a daily driver. The OS and live tiles are great to use.

Another reason to think of this is a recent good YouTube video make by TechAltar about the resurgence of the European mobile brands. Worth a watch and interesting to here what Nokia's strength is for a comeback.

Yes it was a big mistake. The worst thing to happen was not even 1, yes not even ONE flagship Windows phone came out in 2014. After the Nokia Lumia 1020 in 2013, the next true Windows flagship was Microsoft Lumia 950 launched in 2015, so 2 year gap between flagships hurt Microsoft, although in between there were some good high end phones like Lumia 930 in 2014 launched too

Best thing would have been Microsoft buying a good stake in Nokia like how I said in the above comment

 

[amits1024]

Nokia selling the phone business to MS was a smart move, Nokia using WP was not.

Nokia using WP was a smart move as it kept Nokia in a league of their own and they made some awesome phones with many hardware innovations. Nokia brought wireless charging in 2012, they even brought 4G VoLTE in some of their phones in 2012-2013, Nokia brought 41 MP pureview camera in 2013, even after 5.5 years, that still remaing the highest MP camera on any smartphone despite phones becoming more camera centric

But Nokia selling themselves off to Microsoft hurt them and also killed Windows phone just when it was starting to grow

 

[unmorphed]

2nd in phone sales, not smart phone sales. Big difference in $30 phone in India.

 

[fatclue_98]

The worst thing to happen was not even 1, yes not even ONE flagship Windows phone came out in 2014.

You mean flagship Lumia. The HTC One M8 and Samsung Ativ SE were both released in 2014 and don't tell me they weren't flagship-caliber at their time of release. Fact is, the One M8 is the only WP8 phone that ever released with the Snapdragon 801 chip. The Ativ has the same SD800 as the Lumia 1520 so one can't be flagship and not the other. As for the cameras? Our dear folks at Windows Central even did a camera shootout between the aforementioned phones and the Lumia Icon. https://www.windowscentral.com/camera-comparison-htc-one-m8-windows-vs-samsung-ativ-se-vs-lumia-icon

 

[nate0]

As for the cameras? Our dear folks at Windows Central even did a camera shootout between the aforementioned phones and the Lumia Icon. https://www.windowscentral.com/camera-comparison-htc-one-m8-windows-vs-samsung-ativ-se-vs-lumia-icon

Wow I never saw that review/shootout before. Pretty close battle. Thanks.