14 DAY TRIAL // After Stephen Elop, Nokia's new CEO, announced that the company wouldn't be able to release a Windows Phone 7 device this year, another Nokia exec makes an interesting statement. The Finnish handset manufacturer plans to release no less than 40 mobile phones by the end of 2011, including 12 smartphones.
The Nokia exec, who is also close to the development department, told the Hindustan Times, “We will be launching 40 models in 2011 of which at least 30% would be smartphones.”
Nokia is currently facing fierce competition from Chinese, Korean and Indian handset manufacturers all over the world, which led to the company's fall in market share.
Furthermore, Blackberry, Apple and Google have increased their market shares in the smartphone category over the last two years, according to IDC (International Data Corporation) figures.
Nokia's decrease in market share is pretty obvious on the high-tier smartphone market, but it has more recently become evident on the budget segment as well.
India is one of the emerging territories where Nokia had the upper hand for years, but lately has faced stiff competition from Indian manufacturers who are releasing a wide range of handsets at affordable prices.
According to D Shivakumar, vice president and managing director of Nokia India, things will become more interesting for the company and its customers after mid-April, when some of the planned mobiles will start to be released.
On the other hand, Nokia is always introducing a relatively high number of handsets to mark its presence on different markets.
Still, there's no doubt that all 12 Nokia smartphone that are expected to be launched on the market in 2011 will be running on the Symbian platform.
It remains to be seen which version of the old mobile platform will be more favored (Symbian^1 or Symbian^3), and in what price range the manufacturer will position its devices.