Did Windows Phone Kill Nokia's Smartphone Business

[Lee B]

From Tom's Hardware - http://www.tomshardware.com/news/smartphone-sales-single-digit-growth,30694.html

The IDC doesn?t expect Windows? market share in smartphones to grow much in the coming years, despite Microsoft?s heavy investment in promoting the platform (including offering it as a free upgrade for desktop users in the first year).Back in 2011, IDC predicted that Windows Phone would have 20.3 percent of the market, increasing its share by ten times what it was back then. This prediction was made in part because the IDC believed most of Nokia?s Symbian market share would transition into Windows Phone. However, that never really happened, as most Symbian users switched to Android phones.
Had Nokia chosen Android instead of Symbian, the company may have had a better chance of keeping its market share. Nokia chose Windows Phone believing it could more easily differentiate from all the Android OEMs, but in reality, Windows Phone served to only further marginalize Nokia in the market.

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Windows Phone?s market share has remained virtually the same since it launched five years ago, at around two percent of global smartphone sales, despite Nokia?s and Microsoft?s best attempts and billion dollar investments to change that. The OS saw a -10.2 percent decline in 2015 compared to 2014, and it?s expected to further decline in 2016, despite Windows 10 being ready soon for mobile.

 

[Ma Rio]

Nokia chose Windows Phone believing it could more easily differentiate from all the Android OEMs, but in reality, Windows Phone served to only further marginalize Nokia in the market.

Nokia was aware that Symbian was dying (that's the most BS moment I know because Symbian was a great OS), and they were aware of the 'burning platform', and they had to chose.
They could eather go with the already almost-mainstream Android, or they could try to do something new and different.
They chose the latter, and I trully respect that. They took the risk, and sadly it didn't pay off that much. If they stayed on Symbian, they'd probably end up like BlackBerry.
Speaking of Blackberry, look at them now. They switched to Android. Wow.. big deal, ofc everyone is going to buy Samsung phones and not give a damn about blackberry. Most of blackberry users were business users which didn't care about apps and cosmetics, so switching to Android may even cost them more than they thought. The Android market is already full, and if Nokia decided to go with Android, they'd probably end up at around 10% market share, slowly decaying.

 

[Lee B]

You're right that Symbian was a burning platform. Nokia, like MS and RIM, failed to anticipate what Apple saw -- consumers would love a phone that could do a whole lot more than email and phone calls. (As Steve Jobs famously described the iPhone at launch, "an iPod, a revolutionary phone, and an internet communicator.") Nokia was losing big money and had to do something. In the end, this worked out a lot better for Nokia, which came away with $7.2 billion, than Microsoft, which eventually was stuck with a huge write-down of their investment. Ballmer wanted to buy all of Nokia; his board didn't want him to buy any of it. The clever Finns sold the money-losing part of the business, kept the profitable part, and have done well since.

 

[TheMelonOfWater]

Long story short: Yes.
Windows Phone killed Nokia's smartphone business. If Nokia decided to go android instead, they probably would have had much better success and the Lumia 1020 probably would have been a hit.

 

[cracgor]

Nokia was aware that Symbian was dying (that's the most BS moment I know because Symbian was a great OS), and they were aware of the 'burning platform', and they had to chose.
They could eather go with the already almost-mainstream Android, or they could try to do something new and different.
They chose the latter, and I trully respect that. They took the risk, and sadly it didn't pay off that much. If they stayed on Symbian, they'd probably end up like BlackBerry.
Speaking of Blackberry, look at them now. They switched to Android. Wow.. big deal, ofc everyone is going to buy Samsung phones and not give a damn about blackberry. Most of blackberry users were business users which didn't care about apps and cosmetics, so switching to Android may even cost them more than they thought. The Android market is already full, and if Nokia decided to go with Android, they'd probably end up at around 10% market share, slowly decaying.

It didn't help that the BlackBerry with the click screen that came out as the first keyboard absent version was not very good. I remember a lot of those blackberry users switching to iPhone within a month of their first use... Even changing carriers.

 

[cracgor]

Long story short: Yes.
Windows Phone killed Nokia's smartphone business. If Nokia decided to go android instead, they probably would have had much better success and the Lumia 1020 probably would have been a hit.

Likewise, Nokia went android it would have probably killed windows phone.

 

[Bobvfr]

Does any one care, it's history, we have a new OS, Lots of new toys to play with, so why all the looking back and negativity, if you don't like Windows, MS and the future, why not go somewhere else.

 

[cracgor]

i'm working on it. but this isn't just a windows phone site. it is also windows, office, xbox, etc. Just because I'm not excited about the phone prospects doesn't mean I can't participate.

 

[red grenadine]

Well, it was well already on its way to death. Microsoft just put a bullet in its head and ended it quickly

They are lucky. They could be limping along like Blackberry right now. Not quite dead, but certainly not alive.

 

[Bobvfr]

I have a Windows phone, I like my Windows phone, I plan to get a new one when it's time, personally I reckon WP as part of Windows has a future.

I understand we all see things differently but if you don't like Windows phone, maybe hang around on the other parts of the forum for maybe PC's or Tablets, if there was a part of WP you maybe had a suggestion to improve it, but if you really don't like it, why on earth hang around here.

By all means go buy another phone, it's a free world when it comes to choice of phones, and then go and be enthusiastic about it where the readers may care about it with you.

 

[Nokia5110]

I will be back!

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[tangledW]

Is there a point or question here?

 

[xandros9]

Is there a point or question here?

Probably trying to see what people have to say about that data.

 

[Sin_Co]

I miss my Nokia 5800, that was a great phone!

 

[WinCoffee]

Well Nokia is long gone now :/ I have fsith in Microsoft phones this whole business is differend now days. Back in time there was a lot differend types of phones. Now everyphone is almost same.

 

[tgp]

Nokia was aware that Symbian was dying (that's the most BS moment I know because Symbian was a great OS), and they were aware of the 'burning platform', and they had to chose.
They could eather go with the already almost-mainstream Android, or they could try to do something new and different.
They chose the latter, and I trully respect that. They took the risk, and sadly it didn't pay off that much.

This is my thought as well. Nokia took a calculated risk. It could have paid off handsomely. Sadly, it did not. They probably expected the Windows Phone OS and its ecosystem to grow a lot faster than it did.

OTOH, I believe Nokia could have done well had they gone to Android instead of Windows Phone. They had good hardware. I think they would have turned out first class Android devices.

 

[WinCoffee]

Basicly Nokia wasn't prepare for smartphones. They had some touchscreen phones but they weren't "Smart phones".

 

[houkoholic]

Nokia would not have done well if they went Android, the proof is already in the pudding as we see today - most Android OEMs are struggling to make a profit. Those who do are in special situations - Samsung is completely vertically integrated which Nokia cannot compete with, Chinese OEMs are heavily subsidized by the Chinese government which grants them very cheap loans so they can afford to sell so cheap etc. Nokia would be in a similar situation as Sony - they will get praised for hardware but will wither away each quarter.

EDIT: oh and Samsung has deep ties with the Korean government as well. One thing you cannot compete on fair grounds with is deep ties with government whom is willing to grant you either cheap loans or special privileges. I don't believe Nokia will receive that kind of attention from the Finnish government the way the Chinese and Koreans are giving to their own.