D-Day (that is, device day) for Nokia and Microsoft has kicked off with their press conference in New York. But speaking to analysts in Helsinki beforehand, Nokia revealed a sales number: it said that it sold 7 million devices so far in its Windows Phone Lumia line. The number is not huge, but it points to a global reach: those sales were across 54 markets and 130 operators.
But the challenge in the U.S. in particular is acute. It sold only 600,000 handsets there in Q2.
Still, numbers are growing. Nokia sold 4 million Lumia devices in Q2; with around 2 million across the previous two quarters. And the global reach, if Nokia and Microsoft leverage them well, could point to a better growth curve ahead.
The company is also likely to push services today and in the weeks ahead as it looks to attract more users to its new devices. Yesterday there was a sneak peak of that when Nokia announced Nokia Music free streaming in the U.S.
Today there are some 100,000 applications for the platform. Four out of five cars that have navigation systems have Nokia mapping on them, Elop said in the press event today.
Nokia has a big climb ahead of it in the smartphone race. In the last quarter, Nokia shipped 10.2 million smartphones (that includes devices built on its legacy Symbian OS), which Strategy Analytics estimates gave Nokia a 7% share of sales — less than half its share the year before. In unit terms, Nokia shipped (which SA equates with sold) 10.2 million devices. Yes, if you consider that Nokia sold 4 million Lumias in Q4, that means that it’s still selling more Symbian devices.
In contrast, Samsung and Apple are currently dominating the game. In the same quarter, Samsung sold 50.5 million smartphones, for at 35% share of the market. Apple sold 26 million for an 18% share.
We’ll be refreshing this post with other numbers as they get revealed in New York.
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- NOKIA
- MICROSOFT
Nokia is a Finnish multinational communications corporation. It is primarily engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries.
They make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more.
Nokia is the owner of Symbian operation system and partially owns MeeGo operating system.
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Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.
Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured.
Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market.
Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and…
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