Tough competition ahead for Nokia, RIM and HTC in 2013

Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 20 December 2012]

Nokia, Research in Motion (RIM) and HTC have seen disappointing sales in 2012 and hope to win back market share with the introduction of Windows Phone 8, Blackberry 10 and Android models in 2013. However, it remains to be seen whether the three brands will be able to make turnarounds in the coming year.

Nokia switched to the Windows Phone platform in 2011, and the vendor is paying a painful price now because the availability of hardware support for WP is weak, while Nokia is also unable to leverage on its own technical advantages and development expertise on WP-based devices, according to industry sources.

The weaker-than-expected sales of Nokia's WP7.5-based smartphones, launched in the fourth quarter of 2011, came as no surprise to the industry as the WP7.5 models cannot be upgraded to WP8, therefore limiting Nokia's total shipments to around 10 million units over the past year, commented the sources.

In addition, consumers have been dumping Symbian-based models at a pace faster than expected, expelling Nokia from the top-five smartphone vendors rankings, the sources added.

However, sales of Lumia 920 have been brisk since the launch in November, particularly in the US, Germany, Australia and Hong Kong. The model is to be available in China soon.

With the launch of the entry-level Lumia 620 scheduled in January 2013, Nokia is expected to become the top vendor of WP8 phones, but it will be tough for the vendor to reenter the top-five vendor rankings or to swing back to profitability any time soon, said the sources.

Although RIM has been able to ship over eight million smartphones a quarter thanks to steady sales in emerging markets, the twice postponed launch of its next generation BlackBerry 10 have dealt a serious blow to the Canada-based smartphone vendor, revealed the sources.

But it is easier for RIM than Nokia to make a turnaround as long as RIM is able to continue to attract consumers in Indonesia, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and other emerging markets, while enhancing its competitiveness in the entry-level to mid-range segment, the sources asserted.

While still operating at a profit, HTC has seen its shipments decline significantly in 2012 despite its efforts to focus on marketing a number of flagship models instead of its previous shotgun policy. The decline indicates that HTC's competitiveness and marketing are lagging its rivals, said the sources.

HTC's efforts to inject new features into its Android- and WP8-based models as well as its possible team-up with Facebook to launch customized smartphones will be crucial for the Taiwan-based smartphone vendor to claw back market share in 2013, the sources commented.