So What About Nokia’s Market Share In North America?

Image via Wikipedia

If you want to hear the (non) answer to this question, check out this interview with Bill Plummer, who is a Vice President in Nokia Americas (seek to 38:40 for the interview). But if you’re not interested in doing so, here’s the summary:

• Nokia had 47 different models in the marketplace in 2007, serving a wide range of consumers.
• In 4Q 2007, Nokia was shipping 1.5 million phones a day.
• Nokia had the vision 3 years ago when releasing the Nseries devices, everyone else is now catching up.
• Nokia welcomes the competition, it’s good for consumers.
• Mobile network operators want to offer a wider range of handsets to meet consumer’s demand for more “converged” devices.
• The Nokia N95 was aimed at early adopters–people known for setting trends that change the market.

While those are all nice facts, it didn’t directly answer the question of why. The short answer: Nokia needs to get to get better at working with the carriers in North America, who (in my opinion) exercise too much control over the mobile market in both the U.S. and Canada. I’ve seen some improvements in that area in my limited exposure to these areas working for Nokia, but we can always get better.

The other thing that needs to happen? A stronger push for “unlocked” devices, as in making devices available in physical stores like Best Buy and Office Depot. Then again, I’ve been saying that for a while now.

Via Darla Mack