SAD LOVE QUOTES: Apple steals Nokia's crown as the world's largest smartphone manufacturer

Friday, July 22, 2011

Apple steals Nokia's crown as the world's largest smartphone manufacturer

Last updated at 1:00 PM on 22nd July 2011

Nokia has lost its position as the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones to its buoyant rival Apple.

The Finland-based company has announced a loss of 368million euros (£323.6million) in the second quarter of 2011, compared to a profit of 227million euros (£199.6million) in the same period the previous year.

Revenues fell 7 per cent to 9.3billion euros (£8.2billion).

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop sent a memo to his staff slamming the state of the company in February. Apple has now overtaken Nokia as the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones

NOKIA - A FIRM IN TURMOIL

In February, Nokia's new chief executive sent a brutally frank memo to his staff slamming the state of the company, which he compared to standing on a 'burning platform'.

Stephen Elop's leaked message revealed his frustration that Nokia has still not managed to come up with a product to match the iPhone.

He described Android's new-found dominance as 'unbelievable' considering Google's operating system is only two years old.

He wrote: 'The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience.

'Android came on the scene just over two years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.'

Nokia's market share fell from 38 per cent to 28 per cent during 2010.

Mr Elop wrote: 'While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time.

'We now find ourselves years behind.'

He also criticised Nokia's Symbian operating system, which has fallen increasingly behind Google's Android competitor.

It said shipments of smartphones declined by 34 per cent to 16.7million units, which means Nokia is no longer the biggest player in this sector.

Apple recently said it sold more than 20million iPhones in the same quarter.

Some analysts expect South Korea-based Samsung to surpass Nokia's smartphones sales when it releases its second-quarter earnings next week.

Nokia, which recently announced 700 job cuts in Britain, said it was accelerating its cost-cutting plan to exceed the previously targeted savings of one billion euros (£879million) in 2013.

The reductions would be achieved through cuts in staff and outsourced professionals, facility costs and efficiency savings, the company said.

In February, Nokia announced plans with Microsoft to produce the first Nokia Windows mobile phone before the end of the year. Its own Symbian software has been losing ground to Google's popular Android platform.

But analysts said Nokia needs to take quick action to develop more new products or it will continue to lose ground to its rivals.

Nokia dominated the mobile phone market in the late 1990s after it overtook Motorola but has since lost its way.

It is being squeezed in the low end market by Asian manufacturers like ZTE and in the high end by the makers of smartphones like the iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry devices.

Its global market share is understood to have dropped below 30% earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade. Its shares, listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, have nearly halved in value this year.