Last year Nokia and Microsoft announced a partner ship that would combine Nokia’s hardware with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Back then, the move by Nokia to abandon Maemo, MeeGo, and Symbian was not a popular one; however, it does seem to have worked out well for the company (despite some burned bridges).
According to a new report by Strategy Analytics, not only have Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices proved a popular choice, but the company has managed to propel itself to 33.1% marketshare; a number that makes Nokia the world’s largest Windows Phone smartphone vendor in Q4 2011. Further, the company shipped just under 1 million units in Q4 2011 while the market as a whole saw 2.7 million units shipped. That is a significant jump from the previous quarter where Nokia did not ship any units and the market as a whole shipped only 2 million.
| Vendor Shipments (Millions) Q3’11 | Vendor Shipments (Millions) Q4’11 | Vendor Marketshare (%) Q3’11 | Vendor Marketshare (%) Q4’11 | |
| Nokia | 0.0 | 0.9 | 0% | 33.1% |
| Others | 2.0 | 1.8 | 100% | 66.9% |
| Total | 2 Million Units | 2.7 Million Units | 100% | 100% |
While Nokia does not yet have majority share of the Windows Phone smartphone market all to themselves, they do have the most marketshare of any single vendor. The increased presence of Nokia helped the Windows Phone market as a whole see a total quarter over quarter growth of 36%, according to the report. Further, Director of Strategy Analytics Tom Kang noted that Nokia managed to snag most of it’s marketshare from HTC who is also losing ground in the Android market to rival Samsung.
Neil Mawston, the Executive Director of Strategy Analytics determined that the Nokia Lumia WP7 smartphone series, and increased marketing and retail presence in Asian and European countries significantly helped Nokia grow it’s marketshare.
Needless to say, Nokia management and shareholders are likely pleased by this turn of events. It will be interesting to see where Nokia is marketshare wise at the end of this year as their new Lumia series smarphones proliferate across the world. The full report is available here to Strategy Analytics clients.
“Needless to say, Nokia
“Needless to say, Nokia management and shareholders are likely pleased by this turn of events.”
This conclusion is nuts! In total, the WinPhone has insignificant market share, somewhere south of Samsung’s Bada platform. So Nokia managed to grab a significant fraction of an insignificant market – wow!
I would think Nokia management and shareholders are likely displeased that they have bet the farm on a phone that is not going anywhere.
Not necessarily, it’s caught
Not necessarily, it’s caught on more than Maemo. I don’t think WP7 will be taking over Android or iOS anytime soon but Nokia got a lot of money (iirc) for the deal from MS and the platform is growing. Sure, it’s not Android hardware levels of marketshare but that market also has more competition. They are likely going to make more money on this than continuing to make niche Maemo phones. Who knows, once the MS deal is up, they might jump into Android hardware :).
I appreciate your optimism
I appreciate your optimism Tim, and clearly you are not alone. Nokia shares have been steadily rising since the middle of the month. I don’t see cause for optimism in this current report, however.
In the first place, how many sales did Nokia steal away from other players like HTC, as opposed to actually growing the market? If the market for the Windows phones was really growing, a rising tide floats all ships, and we wouldn’t expect to see HTC losing sales.
The second thing is the 36% increase in Windows phones shipped. I don’t see how we can assign any meaning to that. Nokia is a new player. The channels for their Windows phones were, of course, empty to begin with so they needed to fill up the channels, and that alone accounts for most of the quarter over quarter increase in phones shipped.
As yet we don’t know how many of those phones actually sold, or were given to Microsoft employees. I have a suspicion that the Meego phones would have done better.
M$ and Nokia are late to the
M$ and Nokia are late to the game but, like they did with consoles, they will be a major player in a few years. Count on it.
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