The dust is still settling on Nokia’s huge announcement to drop their current OS efforts and focus on developing Windows Phone 7 devices. There have been some interesting spats/snubs between the Nokia and RIM CEO’s but that is just part of the mobile game. The interesting part is how analysts are taking this information. The latest report I read about had Citi analyst Jim Suva (via Business Insider) stating that carriers are going to drop Nokia like a hot potato in favor of RIM along with Apple and Google at least in the short term.
What Jim is saying kind of makes sense. Here is his full explanation:
We are upgrading Research In Motion (RIMM) to Buy from Sell. Carrier "Promotion Commotion" should start to flip to benefit Research In Motion at the expense of Sell-rated Nokia (CIRA analyst Zahid Hussein). Nokia is completely changing its strategy to now embrace the Microsoft mobile operating system thereby creating a multi quarter gap in Nokia products & carrier promotion support. We met with several international carriers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain this week who commented on their forthcoming shift to promote other handset OEMs (Android, Apple & RIMM) until Nokia’s product strategy is more realizable. Nokia currently has 35% global market share vs. 23% Samsung, 9% LG, 5% Apple, 4% RIMM, 3% Motorola, 3% Sony Ericsson, 3% HTC (4Q’10).
The reasoning is an interesting twist. RIM has been making a big push internationally where Nokia has the largest footprint. With Nokia giving up on their current platforms and the devices running them it will be awhile until Nokia has something competitive to offer carriers. I guess we will all just have to wait to see how the cards fall…
Terrence T ( View Profile) - Posts: