Nokia's reputation as the unchallenged master of the mobile phone industry took a blow this week when it said it had lost market share in Q1 to increasingly confident competitors. Nokia's statement is worrying for its investors, but suggests that the telecoms market as a whole is looking up.
While Nokia originally forecast that sales in the three months to March 31 would be three per cent to seven per cent up on last year's level, it said it now expects the figure to be two per cent lower at €6.6bn ($7.96bn). With a product range skewed towards the low end, chief executive Jorma Ollila said the company lacked attractive medium-priced products in Europe and the North American market.
"We have not been able to grow with the market in the United States and Europe, where our share has been very strong," Ollila said.
read here
Apr 9, 2004, 08:33 PM
