Thursday, April 17, 2008

Nokia defies global recession Q1 2008

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, a strong performance in emerging markets helped Nokia to defy the threat of a global economic recession, but its plunging shipments in the high-value North American market remained a key weakspot during the first quarter of 2008.

Bonny Joy, Analyst at Strategy Analytics said, "Nokia has grown its handset shipments at an above-average 27% annual rate and held its share of the 290-million-unit global market at an impressive 40% for the past two quarters. Nokia's strong performance has been achieved by targeting high-growth emerging markets such as India and Africa, which have so far avoided much of the economic downturn that is sweeping developed regions like North America."

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "North America, which despite a slowdown still accounts for 16% of global handset demand, remains a serious problem-child for Nokia. It is the only major region of the world where Nokia is not number one. A lackluster CDMA handset portfolio and weak relationships with some major operators have caused its marketshare in North America to collapse from 20% in Q1 2006 to an estimated 7% in Q1 2008. With global handset revenues coming under increasing pressure in 2008, then the high-value North American market is one Nokia simply cannot afford to ignore."