Smartphones don’t let the top five mobile phone makers wind up

Smart phones are not only the focus of mobile phone manufacturers' product development, but also the market share of smart phones is more important than the market rankings of the top five mobile phone manufacturers. In the wake of the PC giant HP's rush to sprint the smart phone market, and Nokia and Microsoft announced a strategic alliance, the mobile phone maker's hegemony is bound to intensify.

The long-rumored case of cooperation between Nokia and Microsoft was finally confirmed at the joint press conference held on February 11th. Just two days ago, personal computer giant HP held the first product launch conference since the acquisition of Palm, and launched three new products equipped with WebOS system, including two smart phones "Veer" and " Pre 3" and a tablet "TouchPad".

Although the reaction of consumers to the new developments of Nokia and Hewlett-Packard remains to be observed, it is not difficult to sniff that from the heavyweights' active expansion of the smart phone market's big action layout, the mobile phone market in 2011 will be more fierce than ever.

Nokia and Microsoft Collaborate with Microsoft to Overcome the Market of Smart Phones In order to reverse the development of the smart phone market, Nokia, which has been adhering to the Symbian operating platform, has finally announced that it will use the Microsoft Windows Phone operating platform as its main smart phone development platform and formally invest in the Microsoft developer ecosystem. The embrace of the system (Ecosystem) will further increase the growth of the smart phone market and consolidate its position as the dominant mobile phone leader.

It is understood that Nokia has planned to divide the mobile phone business into two independent departments: smart devices and mobile phones since April 1, 2011. The former is responsible for the development of mid- to high-end smart phones, while the latter is dominated by the general mobile phone market. In the future, the product development, management and marketing activities of the two independent departments will all assume their own profits and losses.

Stephen Elop (left), president and CEO of Nokia, said that cooperation with Microsoft will enable the company to return to the leading position in the smart phone market. Right is Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer

Stephen Elop, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia (left in Figure 1) stated that Nokia is at a critical point of development and any major changes are necessary and inevitable. The company will use this new strategy to strengthen its mobile device platform to regain its leadership in the smart phone market. At the same time, he also emphasized that today, application developers, telecom operators, and consumers want amazing mobile products, not only the device itself, but also the excellent experience created by software, services, applications, and customer support. . Nokia and Microsoft will combine their strengths to provide an ecosystem that is incomparable in scale and global coverage. It forms a three-way match with Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Steven A, CEO of Microsoft. Ballmer (right in Figure 1) believes that the cooperation between the two parties will not only provide considerable hardware scale and development expertise, but also help the innovation of software, so that the overall ecosystem will be more prosperous.

For Nokia's alliance with Microsoft, market participants generally believe that Microsoft is more favorable. Ovum analyst Nick Dillon pointed out that although the innovative design and user experience of the Windows Phone 7 platform has won praise from the market, it has not been able to achieve brilliant sales results in the smart phone market. Therefore, for Microsoft, this move just injected a booster for its Windows Phone 7 platform.

As for Nokia, on the day of the cooperation announcement, Nokia's stock price in the United States fell sharply by 13%, setting a new low since 1998. The market research institute IHS iSuppli analyzed that this cooperation case has a negative impact on Nokia's short-term and long-term development.

In the short term, because Nokia still needs a way to launch a smart phone equipped with Windows Phone 7 for nearly a year, this news will undoubtedly make consumers lack of interest in the Symbian and MeeGo models launched this year. , and affect the willingness of application developers to develop. In the long term, this cooperation will further increase the uncertainty of Nokia's development, so IHS iSuppli has recently revised shipments of Nokia's smart phones from 2011 to 2014, which is expected to reach only 120 million in 2011. Around, only a slight increase over 2010. However, Nokia internally stated that 2011 and 2012 will be the transition period of product sales, and after that, the sales of the company's smart phones will grow rapidly.

It is worth mentioning that Qualcomm, the communications chip supplier, will be the biggest beneficiary of the cooperation between Nokia and Microsoft.

According to Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm is currently the only processor vendor with enough product portfolios to support Windows Phone and Symbian operating systems, with a 100% share of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Its relationship with Nokia has been fairly stable since the two parties reached a patent litigation agreement in 2008. Nokia has also planned to use the Qualcomm MSM7000 and MSM8000 series processors this year to introduce new models equipped with Symbian and MeeGo operating systems.

Nokia's market share in the global smart phone has been declining for three consecutive years, although the company tried to change Symbian into an open architecture and establish an online application store, and even cooperated with Intel to invest in another open platform. MeeGo's R & D, but no improvement. Therefore, whether the joint cooperation with Microsoft can be the third-largest platform force to compete with iOS and Android as expected by both parties will be the focus of follow-up.