Will Nokia regain its lost share to Apple via N900?
Mumbai: After a two month delay, Nokia finally started shipping its N900 handset. The N900, priced at $750 before operator subsidies, what really sets it apart is the Maemo 5 software.
“Maemo is really only a small step in the right direction,” says Neil Mawston, an analyst at market researcher Strategy Analytics.
But the high-end gizmo is aimed primarily at tech-savvy users. Also the risk and fear is that it may not beat the popularity and success of iPhone, which affected Nokia’s sales.
With the iPhone, Apple has now surpassed Nokia as the world’s most profitable handset vendor, Strategy Analytics said in a report released Nov. 10.
The research firm estimates that Apple earned $1.6 billion from handset sales in the third quarter of 2009, vs. $1.1 billion for Nokia, even though Nokia sold nearly 15 times as many phones.
Pressure is growing for Nokia to retake the initiative in smartphones.