Thursday December 3, 2009
Nokia sees 10% rise in device market next year
03 December 2009 – Nokia used its annual Capital Markets Day event in Helsinki today to outline plans for growth amid its belief that global mobile device shipments will rise 10 percent next year compared to 2009. “Going into 2010, the overall mobile devices market is stabilising and it is growing more in the areas where Nokia has competitive advantages,” claimed the company’s CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, in a statement. The Finnish vendor, the world's largest mobile device manufacturer, expects its market share to be flat in 2010 compared to this year (around 38 percent). It said it will focus on stabilising the average selling price of its handsets and forecast its handset unit operating profit margin to be 12-14 percent next year, in line with levels reached earlier this year.
Responding to recent suggestion that the vendor is considering putting more focus on non-Symbian platforms, Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo promised the company will next year “take the Symbian user interface to a new level.” He added that “as an operating system, Symbian has reach and flexibility like no other platform, and we have measures in place to push smartphones down to new price points globally, while growing margins. I see great opportunity for Nokia to capture new growth in our industry, by creating what we expect to be the world's biggest platform for services on the mobile." The company has promised to deliver "a major product milestone before mid-year 2010, and another major product milestone before the end of 2010.” Other goals include delivering its first Maemo 6-powered mobile computer in the second half of 2010 and “significantly increase the proportion of touch and/or Qwerty devices in our smartphone portfolio.” In the area of Services – a market Nokia is betting big on – it continues to target net sales of EUR 2 billion or more in 2011 and reaffirmed its target of having 300 million active users for its services by the end of that year. Nokia added that it intends to provide third-party developers “with better tools to create applications and content” for its Ovi offering and will scale up its Services business generally by expanding geographically and in partnership with more operators. Meanwhile, Nokia outlined forecasts for its struggling infrastructure joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks. The network unit is aiming to grow faster than the market in 2010, with a flat market expected for the mobile and fixed infrastructure sector in 2010 compared to 2009. ♠ JC
Source: GSMA
