Apple's smartphone-only lineup poised to pass Nokia in total mobile phone shipments

Posted:
in iPhone edited May 2014
Despite selling only a limited selection of high-end smartphones, Apple may soon ship more total handsets than Nokia -- which still offers more than two dozen models, including cheaper feature phones -- as the once-mighty Finnish company falls even further from its throne.




Nokia's mobile phone shipments dropped by 14.9 million units to just 47 million in the first quarter of 2014, according to new data from market research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple, in comparison, shipped 6.3 million more iPhones than it did the year before to end its own fiscal quarter with sales of 43.7 million devices.

That means Nokia's 50-year-old mobile business, which once had a near-monopoly on the handset market, finds itself in a dead heat with Apple and its own 7-year-old mobile platform. Nokia commands 11.5 percent of the global market compared to 10.7 percent for Apple's iPhone line.

"Apple has closed the marketshare gap on Nokia to just one point, and Nokia will have to fight hard to stay ahead in the second half of this year," Strategy Analytics senior analyst Ken Hyers said.

The news is particularly troubling for Nokia because the vast majority of the company's handset sales come in the developing world from feature phones and the low-cost Asha series. Nokia's 220 feature phone, for instance, costs just $60 even without carrier subsidies.

It is not yet known what Microsoft, which closed its acquisition of Nokia's handset business earlier this week, will do with the lower-tier handset divisions. Some believe the company may choose to shutter the feature phone business and focus solely on touchscreen devices running Windows Phone in a bid to counter Android's rapid proliferation in the low end of the market.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 35
    If anyone is seemingly doomed, it's Nokia.
  • Reply 2 of 35
    Very sad for Nokia.
  • Reply 3 of 35
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    If anyone is seemingly doomed, it's Nokia.

    According to MS there will be no longer a Nokia.
  • Reply 4 of 35
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    According to MS there will be no longer a Nokia.

    Okay, "Microsoft Mobile" is doomed. ;)

  • Reply 5 of 35
    darkpawdarkpaw Posts: 212member

    I worked at Symbian when the iPhone came out. We had a company meeting about it, and a lot of people thought it wouldn't succeed because Nokia had the ecosystem and an established mobile business, and hey, everyone wants a physical keyboard, right?

     

    Lots of ideas and talking points were raised, and the management did *nothing*.

     

    I spent the next year working on a version of Symbian OS that was so very obviously years behind iPhone OS 1.

     

    While I was there I watched Symbian go from a marketshare of about 74% to a little over 40%. Symbian messed up. Nokia messed up. I'm amazed Nokia are still selling their feature phones.

  • Reply 6 of 35
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    That would be impressive and pretty relevant historically.
  • Reply 7 of 35
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member

    Apple will be there one day. They all will. No one stays on top forever.

  • Reply 8 of 35
    Micro/Nokia whistling in a dark alley, "I'm selling like nobody else..."

    There must be something about living at the high latitudes that makes some companies scorn what is going on down in the lower lats... Perhaps it has to do with global warming, but whatever it is if it continues, Redmond is next... oh wait, it started in Redmond.
  • Reply 9 of 35
    sirlance99 wrote: »
    Apple will be there one day. They all will. No one stays on top forever.

    Ever hear of Proctor and Gambles?
  • Reply 10 of 35
    jfanningjfanning Posts: 3,398member
    darkpaw wrote: »
    I'm amazed Nokia are still selling their feature phones.

    Strange article as technically now Nokia doesn't sell any phones
  • Reply 11 of 35
    Apple is waiting to go all-offese as soon as it knows that its future innovations are going to be protected catching entire industry by surprise. A lesson it learned hard way from iphone/ipad is that simply protecting patents won't protect it from Samsung and Google's copycat business model. Timing of WWDC can't be any better than this. In next few days Jury is going to beat the sh** out of Samsung by punishing it with a fine close to $2 billion and send a notice to tech industry about consequences of copying lead innovators. Apple WILL THEN release a truckload of new products while all this is fresh in everyone's memory and go all offense. Apple probably had a few products ready as early as last year but it did not want to rush to the market without knowing how patent infringement by Samsung/Google was going to be taken care of. It will NOW do so....Tim Cook is real smart guy and Apple has been playing Rope-A-Dope with Samsung/Google all along. Apple has taken many hits to wear out these copycats now and it's time Apple will prounce back and finish them off.....oh wait wasn't that Steve Jobs directive to Apple!
  • Reply 12 of 35
    emesemes Posts: 239member

    Nokia isn't selling phones anymore, so this article is titled incorrectly

  • Reply 13 of 35
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by darkpaw View Post

     

    I worked at Symbian when the iPhone came out. We had a company meeting about it, and a lot of people thought it wouldn't succeed because Nokia had the ecosystem and an established mobile business, and hey, everyone wants a physical keyboard, right?

     

    Lots of ideas and talking points were raised, and the management did *nothing*.

     

    I spent the next year working on a version of Symbian OS that was so very obviously years behind iPhone OS 1.

     

    While I was there I watched Symbian go from a marketshare of about 74% to a little over 40%. Symbian messed up. Nokia messed up. I'm amazed Nokia are still selling their feature phones.


    Symbian should've followed Android way after 2007 and they would've been still in business: overhaul everything and remake the software "look" and "feel" like iOS. Too bad...their hard headed arrogant executives underestimated the power of iPhone and iOS. 

  • Reply 14 of 35
    Wow in not a fan of the Samsung phones but selling more than Nokia and Apple combined is seriously impressive! 2 companies that together you would think would dominate from cheap to high end phones beaten by one company.
  • Reply 15 of 35
    chandra69chandra69 Posts: 638member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fallenjt View Post

     

    Symbian should've followed Android way after 2007 and they would've been still in business: overhaul everything and remake the software "look" and "feel" like iOS. Too bad...their hard headed arrogant executives underestimated the power of iPhone and iOS. 


    That would make Apple's job tough - to follow two patent trials. Not good !!!

  • Reply 16 of 35
    danielswdanielsw Posts: 906member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by darkpaw View Post

     

    I worked at Symbian when the iPhone came out. We had a company meeting about it, and a lot of people thought it wouldn't succeed because Nokia had the ecosystem and an established mobile business, and hey, everyone wants a physical keyboard, right?

     

    Lots of ideas and talking points were raised, and the management did *nothing*.

     

    I spent the next year working on a version of Symbian OS that was so very obviously years behind iPhone OS 1.

     

    While I was there I watched Symbian go from a marketshare of about 74% to a little over 40%. Symbian messed up. Nokia messed up. I'm amazed Nokia are still selling their feature phones.


     

    "Weak minds are denied the fruits of observation."

     

    When I saw that first iPhone keynote, I was rather stunned over how difficult it was going to be for the competition to meet or beat it.

     

    But now, seven years later, I'm a bit saddened that seemingly *on one* has really stepped up to the plate with an honest and viable response.

     

    The Nokia/Symbian people have apparently demonstrated their "weaknesses of mind."

  • Reply 17 of 35
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Isn't this the very last quarter of Nokia phones before the phone brand rides off into the sunset?

  • Reply 18 of 35
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    danielsw wrote: »
    But now, seven years later, I'm a bit saddened that seemingly *on one* has really stepped up to the plate with an honest and viable response.

    What are you expecting? Sometimes a design is the best it can get. How many things do you use daily whose design is pretty much the same for the last 100 years?
  • Reply 19 of 35

    This is still more evidence that the companies who hopped onto the Android platform (i.e. Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei) instead of continuing with their own platforms or trying to develop their own in response did the right thing. Love it or hate it (and most of you clearly hate it) the Android players are the only ones who stayed in business. What is more, they are being joined by more players (Xiaomi, Amazon, Asus, Acer, Sony, Lenovo) that are going to enter or significantly ramp up their smartphone production this year or next. Funny ... Microsoft is being forced to keep Nokia's Android phone because it is the only Nokia phone that is actually selling. Microsoft's excuse: we will use it to get developing nations into the Windows ecosystem. <img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" /><img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" /><img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />

     

    If it weren't for Android, Apple would be the only company in the smartphone (or tablet) business right now. 

  • Reply 20 of 35
    heliahelia Posts: 170member
    Apple is doomed!
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