Mobile phone major Nokia is set to launch Windows 8 tablet as early as the
second quarter next year.
Nokia is considering tablet launch at a time when the company is under pressure
to improve both revenue and profit.
Nokia‘s
devices business saw its net sales plummeting by 25 percent at EUR 5,392
million in Q3 2011 from EUR 7,173 million in Q3 2010. All business segments
under Nokia devices posted negative growth in Q3 2011.
Smart devices business of Nokia reported -39 percent growth at EUR 2,206
million in Q3 2011 in Q3 2011 from EUR 3,612 million. Nokia sold 16.8 million
smart devices in Q3 2011 as compared with 27.1 million units in Q3 2010.
Mobile phone business grew -14 percent at EUR 2,903 million in Q3 2011 from EUR
3,364 million. The company sold 89.9 million phones in Q3 2011, registering 8
percent growth over 83.3 million in Q3 2010.
Nokia is tapping a big market opportunity with the planned move to introduce
tablets.
While 32 million netbooks and 60 million media tablets are expected to ship worldwide in 2011, netbooks still hold interest in underserved
countries, where PC penetration to the home, along with broadband services, are
not widely available. Media tablet shipments will primarily cater to the
early-adopter consumer audiences of Western Europe, the US, Japan, and South
Korea.
Media tablet shipments surpassed netbook shipments in Q2 2011, reaching 13.6
million units, compared to 7.3 million netbooks. Netbooks had previously led
the way with 8.4 million shipments in Q1 2011, compared to 6.4 million media
tablets, according to ABI Research.
Driving media tablet interest is Apple’s iPad 2. 68 percent of the media tablet
shipments in Q2 2011 consisted of Apple iPad models.
Consumers are choosing tablets over netbooks for a number of reasons. Media
tablets are perceived to be easy to use, compared to the keyboard and mouse
interface of a netbook computer. Those who have avoided PCs because they are
difficult to use – think the Baby Boomer generation and older – see media
tablets as an opportunity to re-engage with Internet access.
Nokia will be working with Microsoft. According
to Strategic Analytics, Microsoft captured 2 percent global tablet share in Q3
2011. The future release of Windows 8 cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft,
so its hardware partners can start competing more effectively in the tablet
space.
RIM and its QNX platform captured 1 percent global tablet share in Q3 2011. The
next-generation PlayBook 2.0 model will need to offer a much improved ecosystem
for messaging and consumer apps if it wants to take off.
By Telecomlead.com Team
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