It’s been pretty tempting to compare Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) with BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB). Both have been struggling significantly over the last few years, but there’s one big difference between the two companies. BlackBerry is finally beginning to concede defeat as its board weighs strategic possibilities, which could even include a sale of the company.
Nokia steals BlackBerry’s third place position
Of course as with anything else, analysts disagree about what BlackBerry would be worth to potential suitors, but the value of its handset business is eroding by the month. If the company can’t get sales from its handset business up, then the value of the company as a whole declines significantly in the eyes of buyers.
Meanwhile there’s no doubt that Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) is taking BlackBerry’s previous third place in the smartphone race, and only time will tell if the company can continue grabbing market share from other handset makers. While Nokia’s Windows Phone sales have been increasing since the launch of Windows Phone, BlackBerry’s sales have only continued to erode with the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system. As such, the odds of a turnaround at Nokia appear to be more likely than of one at BlackBerry, even if the company chooses to go private rather than sell itself off.
Nokia offers more than BlackBerry
When comparing the two companies side by side, it seems as if Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) has more to offer than BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB). Nokia has the Nokia Siemens network, while BlackBerry has its services and platform segments. The numbers show clear value in NSN, but signs of companies flipping off BlackBerry Enterprise System rather than converting to the new one are troubling.
And then there’s the sheer number of phones. Nokia continues to churn out handsets, rapidly expanding its product portfolio, although BlackBerry is going about this much more slowly. And the Canadian company even chose to hold back its QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry 10 handset in favor of releasing the touchscreen version first. This may have been a very unfortunate misstep for the company.
