While it may seem like a pretty obvious observation, YouGov has actually conducted a study and the results show quite an astounding change in the demand for Nokia handsets in the past few months. The actual user demand for Nokia handsets has decreased by a solid 12% since last year –a pretty significant difference, with or without the launch of the Apple iPhone 4.
Nokia’s position in the mobile phone industry has always been established by thier mid to low range handsets. While several Nokia N-series devices have been successful, their high end line has never been able to establish a reputation for the Finnish phone manufacturer. Despite lower consumer demand, Nokia still manages to make plenty of sales all over the world. While the 3G-centric markets and users who prefer Androids and iPhones over the Symbian might pass off Nokia’s products, they manage to sell millions of units in other regions.
Of course, Nokia still needs to make it big in countries like the UK and the US –where consumer demand for high end devices is much stronger than in other regions. Add in the fact that the reputation of the N-series was terribly brought down by the unstable performance of the N97 (which was so bad that even the marginally successful Maemo based N900 did not manage to change the public perception).
Right now, Nokia has a couple more devices that is adding up to the N-series, the N8 and the N9. While both smart phones seem to have similar specs (if initial rumors are to be believed), they run on different operating systems. The N8 uses the Symbian^3 OS while the N9 is going to run on the MeeGo OS –which is a hybrid of the Maemo from Nokia and the Moblin from Intel.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone-4, Maemo, Nokia, Nokia-N-series, Symbian, Symbian-3