Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) has released three new devices in its Asha series and two Lumia flagships with the hope of enhancing the sales of the Windows Phone and gaining market share, but, how well this strategy of Nokia pays off is yet to be tested, according to Digitimes Research.
Nokia Asha series not impressive so far
The Nokia Asha is a feature phone and is subjected to neck-breaking competition from low cost smartphones as it is positioned in the high-end feature phone segment.
In the third quarter of 2013, Nokia shipped 5.9 million Asha phones worldwide, an escalation of over 4.3 million units in the second quarter, but a decline from the 6.5 million units shipped a year ago. On a quarterly basis, Nokia ramped up the overall shipment of its feature phones, but witnessed a drop of 27.2% to 55.8 million units during the same period a year ago.
According to the report of Digitimes Research, the Nokia Asha failed to make a significant contribution on the Finnish firm’s feature phone business
Lumia struggles to keep up with competitors
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s Lumia phones are still struggling to make their mark, though low priced models have furthered Nokia’s overall smartphone shipment. The Finnish phone maker is seeing poor sales of its Lumia phones in the high-end phone segment.
In the third quarter, 8.8 million units of Nokia Lumia were shipped, which is an increase over the 7.4 million units in the previous quarter, and 6.3 million phones shipped in the previous year. Nokia is struggling to level with Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), according to Digitimes research.
Nokia’s handsets and devices business will be acquired by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as announced in September for EUR 44 billion or $7.3 billion.
Expected launches at MWC 2014
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) is expected to release its 8-inch Lumia 2020 tablet and Lumia 1820 smartphone in Mobile World Congress 2014 to be held on February 14th.
The Lumia 1820 is widely believed to be an update of 1the 020 smartphone, and the Lumia 2020 might be a downscaling of recently-launched 10-inch Lumia 2520. Lumia 2020 will have specs such as a Snapdragon 800, 1080p resolution display, a higher PPI display than the Lumia 2520 and stylus support.
