Nokia To Release Cheaper Handsets
Bangalore: Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is all set to sell cheaper phones in an attempt to avoid growing competition against Chinese rivals in the low end Smartphone market.
The new models which are to be unveiled at the World Mobile Congress 2013 in Barcelona show that the company is expanding its focus on cheaper handsets after concentrating on catching up with Apple and Samsung in the past two years. According to sources, Nokia will introduce low end Smartphones in order to compete with the likes of ZTE and Huawei as well as lower price Lumia Smartphones running on Windows 8 OS.
However exact prices of these Smartphones were not available as a company spokesman denied to disclose it.
Nokia’s Lumia range was widely seen as a make or break product line for the company due to its high margins. It was the Chief Executive – Stephen Elop’s decision to switch to Windows 8 from its own Symbian software.
According to analysts, Nokia’s market share in the Smartphone business is still around 5 percent and the company needs to protect itself with basic phones if it wants to survive.
The company saw a 21 percent fall to 9.44 billion Euros in the net sales of mobile phones in 2012 while sales of high end smart devices drooped 50 percent to 5.45 billion.
In the fourth quarter, the company sold 4.4 million Lumia sets including Lumia 820 and 920 which were launched in November. As analysts predict, it needs to sell more than double that amount per quarter to convince investors that its Smartphone strategies are working.
Read: Nokia Is The Most Preferred Mobile Handset Brand: Neilsen
