Nokia Losing Title of Largest Smartphone Maker

It’s no secret that 2011 has been a tough year for Finnish smartphone maker, Nokia. With the announcement of their plans to join forces with Microsoft to primarily produce Windows Phone 7 devices, their numbers have been dwindling.

Analysts have also noted these bumps in the road and naturally released their prediction for Nokia in 2011 which forecast Samsung taking the reins from Nokia.

“Nokia looks set to relinquish its smartphone crown to Samsung and Apple,” Nomura analysts said in a research note. “Further emphasizing the shift in power to Asia is our forecast for HTC to almost match Nokia during 2012.”

“If Nokia’s new phones are not well received in the third quarter and with the Galaxy S2 ramping up, Samsung might overtake them and become the smartphone leader in Q3,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

“There is certainly a very close three-way battle going on for top spot in global smartphone volumes between Nokia, Apple and Samsung during the second quarter,” said Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics.

“With Symbian demand crashing, there is growing opportunity for Samsung or Apple to grab the lead,” said Mawston, but said he still expects Nokia to stay ahead in the ongoing quarter.

This drop in numbers is to be expected. You can’t expect consumers to know that you are abandoning ship and expect them to stay and play the violin. All that Nokia can really do is try and keep the Symbian sales steady and come back with the most ridiculous, kickass Windows Phone 7 and remind everyone why they were the leading smartphone maker for so long.

Source: Reuters