With an eye on the Apple iPhone, Nokia comes out gunning
Posted by: in Companies Competitive StrategyFiled under: Launches, Industry, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Research in Motion (RIMM)
The head of Nokia (NYSE: NOK) thinks the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry are awesome products. Since his company has 40% of the world market for handsets, that may not be good news. He wants more of the high-end, high-profit part of the industry.
According to Reuters, Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo stated “We will exceed the RIM client (BlackBerry) in some months with a very good e-mail system.” Coming from anyone else, that claim would be foolhardy. Coming from Nokia, it is a threat. Nokia launched it first touchscreen phone today.
Shares of Apple and RIM already trade near 52-week lows. Within the last week, both stocks hit levels that were 50% off their highs for the last year. Investors are worried that the poor economy will injured sales for expensive phones and that the fourth quarter, a large selling season, will be weaker than it has been in several years.
If Nokia makes a very aggressive move into smartphones, Apple and RIM shares might not stage massive rallies anytime in the near future. Forty percent of the global market is too huge a number.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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