Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) has seen improved sales in India fueled by its Lumia series of phones, while rival BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), which like Nokia is experiencing rapid changes, remains at lows and failed to impress customers, says a report form economictimes.indiatimes.
Nokia, BlackBerry facing stiff competition
Both companies have been trying hard to mark their presence in the world’s fastest-growing handset market with Nokia doing quite well while BlackBerry is falling off the edge.
Smartphone giants like Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) dominated the Canadian smartphone maker and Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). Apart from international threats, domestic companies like Micromax and Karbonn also took a major share of the Indian smartphone market, hurting the bigger players.
According to Himanshu Chakrawarti, chief executive officer of The Mobile Store, “Blackberry retail sales are dead.” The Mobile Store is India’s largest mobile retail chain with a 27% share of the retail trade market.
Nokia Lumia gaining after failing initially
Chakravarti added that Lumia failed to gain traction initially, but eventually with its flagship phones like Lumia 520, in under INR 10000 ranges, fueled the sales. Also, the latest models from Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) like the Lumia 625 and Lumia 925 are contributing to the popularity.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) gained popularity in India after it offered below INR 15000 smartphones in 2009. However, recently the Canadian smartphone maker has launched many premium priced devices based on the latest OS BB10, which failed to attract customers, losing them to Android-based models from Samsung and Sony.
According to a senior executive at a major retail store, BlackBerry is not selling more than 25,000 phones per month now.
Contrary to this statement, Varghese M Thomas, BlackBerry’s corporate communications director for India & Saarc region, said that the numbers are entirely speculative, and though the company does not divide revenue based on countries, revenue has surged year on year.
According to recent data from mobile phone sales tracker IDC, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) do not hold any position in the top 5 smartphone makers in India. Samsung rules the roost with the majority of market share. Market share of BlackBerry declined to 0.5% in the third quarter ended September 2013, down from 3.9% in the previous year. In the second quarter, BlackBerry commanded 1.5% market share.
“There was a little confusion and unrest among consumers in the market whether BlackBerry was going to sell out,” Manasi Yadav, senior market analyst at IDC said. She said that the price were very high when BlackBerry launched Z10 and Q10 between Rs. 40,000 and Rs 45,000. Customers were reluctant to spend that much on the device, she added.
