Apple May Lose Market Share To Nokia In Nordic Countries

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Pareto Securities Research believes that what Apple unveiled in the wake of its most awaited announcement on September 12, was not evolutionary enough, when compared to what competitors offer. The firm revealed on its Nokia news flash, reported by research analyst, Helena Nordman-Knutson, that the company’s failure to offer LTE in the Nordic countries was likely to slice a big chunk of its potential business in Europe.

Apple May Lose Market Share To Nokia In Nordic Countries

The analyst  claims that, the fact that the new iPhone device will not be offering the super fast LTE 4g network in Sweden, one of its prime markets in Europe,  leaves the company with limited opportunity in the crises struck region. The report added that Apple will only be offering its LTE network in Germany and the U.K, in Europe. This means that those looking for high speeds in iPhone 5 will have to go for 3G networks, as Apple’s LTE for iPhone 5 is not compatible in a majority of the countries.

On the other hand, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)’s newly launched Nokia Lumia 920 is LTE compatible in all of Europe, making it hold a competitive advantage against Apple in that regard. Additionally, Samsung Electronics Company Ltd, which has been Apple’s main challenger in the smartphone industry over the last couple of years, has two variants to cover the frequency bands, and thus Galaxy SIII supports LTE in the Nordics, as well as  in the UK.

Meanwhile, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) stands to gain in Apple’s absence, as the research firm strongly believes that Nordics based network carrier, TLSN, would not invest in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone 5, which can only run on 3G, within the Nordics. The telecommunications company would rather concentrate its funds on popularizing Samsung’s Galaxy S III, and Nokia Lumia 920. This begs the question of whether Apple’s gamble on LTE within the Nordics would end up being such a costly risk.

However, Apple can boast on its well developed and marketed brand, which distinguishes itself from competitor’s by the virtue of the fact that it gives the users the right device, not necessarily what they think they want. Indeed, the late Steve Job’s ideology, was based on the belief, “People Don’t know what they want, unless they see it.”

Another item criticized is screen size; the firm claims that Apple’s 4″ screen can only be seen as an evolutionary development as compared to it predecessor iPhone 4s, which has a 3.5″ screen. Pareto illustrates this by quoting the huge screens of both the Nokia Lumia 920 and Samsung Galaxy S III.

So, are they really setting the benchmark? Probably in terms of large, but according to one of our posts yesterday, we did quote Apple referencing to its 4″ iPhone 5 as the right device, as compared to the “big screens”, or was the iPhone maker trying to justify its meanness in not giving customers a larger display? In my opinion, no, an assessment of the features in the iPhone 5 says it all.

Nonetheless, Nokia  and Samsung  must recognize Apple’s strong brand and ecosystem, the research firm says that the company’s likely volume sales is its main competitive advantage, against its peers. While the projections are quite different from what we have exhibited in our recent reports, Pareto expects Apple to sell 54 million units in Q4, while Samsung is estimated at 59 million units and Nokia Smartphones are expected to ship out 11 million units for Q4.

The report also reckons that Samsung, which surprisingly happens to be the market leader in the U.S., in terms of Smartphone sales, as per August reports, which we covered earlier, is likely to lose the battle to Apple, following the launch of iPhone 5. The firm has a Buy rating on Nokia, based on the predicaments that are about to befall one of its biggest competitors, Apple, while competition in Europe remains even.

At the time of this writing, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) was trading at $3.02 per share, up $0.08, or a 2.65% increase from yesterday’s close.

 

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