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An article that Darth Mario might find interesting...
'High-flying Nokia now dependent on 'cheapies.'
Free whitepaper Exclusive Nokia is one of the world's best known brands, and spends a lot of money keeping it that way. The Finnish giant splashed out £175m (approx R2.5 billion/$340m) on advertising alone last year.
Much of this advertising is designed to remind us that we're inadequate unless we have one of its latest high-end pieces of gadgetry, which grow ever more sophisticated each year.
"It's what computers have become," the latest campaign reminds us. As well as enormous brand advertising, Nokia seeds prototypes of these expensive toys with drooling bloggers in the hope their uncritical enthusiasm will catch on amongst the rest of us. In fact, the conventional wisdom for many years has been that Nokia's high-end, high-margin multimedia devices are the company's future.
But the reality that's emerging from the hard numbers tells a remarkably different story, we learn from a research note issued by Dresdner Kleinwort Investment Bank (DKIB), and seen by The Register.
Nokia is now "reliant" on sub-€50 (approx R480) budget models, says DKIB Research. And far from being the company's past, cheapo handsets may be Nokia's future.
Sub €50 handsets grew to take up 42 per cent of Nokia's sales in 2006, the company's CFO revealed last week. If that's true, DKIB says, "then, one can conclude, the lower priced segment made up all (100 per cent) of Nokia's shipment growth last year".
DKIB extrapolates that Nokia's sales of "above €50" remained flat at around 202 million units last year, which is a retreat in what is a growing market. Or as the research note put it, "a volume share attrition to the tune of 200bps [book value per share] as the market grew by around nine per cent".
By contrast, Nokia's thriving low-end added 500bps last year. Shipments doubled to 146 million, and Nokia commands two thirds of this budget market.
"If the current trend continues, then parity should soon be attained between the 'above' and 'below' €50 product categories," DKIB warns. "Unless management takes special efforts to kick-start demand for the more luxurious models (N95, E-series, 8600 etc) through dedicated marketing campaigns, we would anticipate the 200m barrier to mark the 'point of cross-over'."
It's a remarkable observation. When we posted a piece a year ago entitled Whatever Happened To...The Smartphone?, we didn't expect this to happen, let alone so soon.
In 1988, London's Victoria and Albert Museum, with the help of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, began to brand itself as "an ace cafe with quite a nice museum attached". It's going to be hard for us industry-watchers to start thinking of Nokia as a budget phone company with "a nice multimedia division attached" - but perhaps we should.
Phones? They're what, er ... phones will become.'
_________________
T39m,
T610,T630,P900,Nokia7600 & N73
[ This Message was edited by: amawanqa on 2007-06-07 08:30 ]
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Posted: 2007-06-07 09:29:53
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Another one of those 'more going down in my left nostril than in here' days, it seems..
Well who would have imagined Porsche and Sagem working together to make the new Porsche cellphone:
http://www.esato.com/news/article.php/id=1669
... and Hummer's cellphone breaking cover today too:
http://www.esato.com/news/article.php/id=1670
_________________
T39m,
T610,T630,P900,Nokia7600 & N73
[ This Message was edited by: amawanqa on 2007-06-07 16:37 ]
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Posted: 2007-06-07 17:28:45
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Good grief, what next! Wish i had a Hummer, they can keep the phone.
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Posted: 2007-06-07 20:18:00
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Hey Wanga.Now that ive got this 2Gb card this phone finally feels complete.The music player is really sweet on the eyes.Got 102 dance tunes(all 128kbps bitrate) on so far and my memory is 428mb used 1523mb still free.The sound is awesome.Especially the megabass and loudness equaliser function.Also tracked down an i-phone theme for the P990i and now my phone is looking cool.Its the one with the two orange fishes swimming amongst transparent jellyfishes.Hats off to the creator.Very impressed.I think smartphones without a good-sized memory card doesnt feel like a smartphone.My phone never quite felt right until I got this memory card.My advice to you is get the P1.Dont think about it.Just get it.Dont think HTC,Nokia or any of the other brands.Theres something really special about UIQ3.At least I think so.This phone rocks.My next accessory.A bluetooth stereo headset to listen to my tunes.
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Posted: 2007-06-07 23:29:14
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By the way Brix,cool pic of you on pg 1.
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Posted: 2007-06-07 23:32:22
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@ The Hobbster:
That's pretty cool to hear how you've got that P990 so sussed n' set-up, boet. After reading numerous P990 forums and threads about how the new firmware has transformed the phone, I'm impressed. Really a pity that
took so long to get it to that point, though. Oh well, that's all history now, and the prices that new P990's fetch now makes it an awesome smartphone bargain! No question.
It would appear that O2's claim of having the P1i in stock by next month is fairly optimistic, as it's looking increasingly like August or so, but let's see what transpires. A month or 2 is really not gonna be a trainsmash, but pleeeez no year-long wait again,
...
I'm a big fan of personalising my phones with themes, tones, etc as well. It amazes me how many times I still hear the default Nokia tune and message alert from the latest Nokias around here.
_________________
T39m,
T610,T630,P900,Nokia7600 & N73
[ This Message was edited by: amawanqa on 2007-06-07 23:30 ]
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Posted: 2007-06-08 00:29:22
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On 2007-06-07 23:32:22, HOBBS wrote:
By the way Brix,cool pic of you on pg 1.
Won't quite describe that pic as cool...basically taken with the video call camera on my N70....at night...Good for an MMS but nothing to show off. All that said I still like the pic because I'm with one of my coolest buddies, chilling at News Cafe in Green Point.
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Posted: 2007-06-08 01:06:48
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The mobi reader got me hooked on my phone since yesterday.It's really a cool app,Thanx da Krypsta for mentioning it here.I'm currently reading War Of The Worlds and enjoying it.It's funny how a phone feels new when you have a new useful app installed.
Gmorning all.
@Hobbs,
It's really nice you're enjoying your P990 like that bro!I envy you!
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Posted: 2007-06-08 06:31:00
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@ J, anytime mfowethu, that's probably the one app which i can't do without.
Wanqa, so true boet, that default Nokia tone is downright annoying.
Right guys, it's Friday
Massive industrial action planned from today onwards, from what i hear, so the next few days should prove to be crucial to negotiations. My one wish is that those idiots who go about committing acts of intimidation and violence in whichever form ought to be arrested and charged. Their actions completely defeat the aim of the exercise.
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Posted: 2007-06-08 07:02:00
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Jmash.How can you envy me when you sitting with a W950i?Sometimes when I see that phone in a shop window I think,'Shit I should have got that.'Love the size and that purple black shell. @Brix-I meant cool picture of you dude.You look real happy. @Wanga-P990i's are going here for R6475 in comparison to the N95's 8 grand.So its still not that cheap here.Still the price of a not so expensive laptop.
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Posted: 2007-06-08 08:32:23
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