Nokia’s Comeback Story
Nokia was once the most popular brand in the mobile industry, they dominated phone industry for over a decade, but then they lost it all, Nokia was on the verge of bankruptcy. But since 2017 Nokia phones have started to come back in the market. So what happen?
Nokia is a Finnish company that increased Finland’s GDP by 1.5%. Nokia accounted for almost a quarter of Finland’s exports in 2003. In 2006, Nokia’s revenue exceeded the state budget of Finland. Their 2100 series sold over 20 million devices worldwide. Nokia sold 50% of mobile devices worldwide in 2007. So what happened, many say that their downfall was due to poor management where some believe they had tough competitors.
In 2007, Apple introduced itself with the first-ever iPhone, which was discontinued in 2008. One thing Apple learned from the iPhone was that people loved the touch screen, and they had something better in IOS (mobile operating system)
At its core, Nokia was known for its hardware. In 2008, Nokia bought Symbian (operating system). But with competition in the market, this was a time for innovation, phone technology was getting old and people were getting bored. The first company to hit markets with something new would take over the phone industry and Apple took advantage. Apple’s third iPhone release in 2009 was a hit, their market share doubled, reducing Nokia’s share. Things were about to get super competitive for Nokia, with Google entering the market with their OS, Android. The launch of Google Nexus in 2010, helped Android become the best-selling OS worldwide. Nokia was still on Symbian.
A study showed that over 39% of the mobile developers who were using Symbian had planned to switch to Android or iPhone for two reasons: Symbian was not as popular in North America and because Symbian was open-sourced later, developers could not take full advantage of the Symbian as they did with Android and iPhone. Nokia’s sales dropped drastically, their market capitalization went from €110 billion to €14.8 billion.
In a way, Nokia was feeling pretty good with what they were, and that is when the iPhone and Android took them over. Nokia was now planning to file for bankruptcy, but then a major player bought them out, Microsoft. In 2013, they announced that they would acquire Nokia’s mobile device business for €5.4 billion.
The brand Nokia was always considered a reliable brand. In 2015 Nokia Technologies released the N1 tablet running on Android, with the new OS they sold 20,000 units in the first 4 minutes. Giving the tablet a rating of 9 out of 10. In 2016, Microsoft sold Nokia to a Finnish company HMD Global for $350 million. The sale included design rights, and the rights to use Nokia on all electronic devices worldwide until 2024.
For the first time since 2014, Nokia’s phone were on sale. In 2017 the demand for Nokia was seven times higher than expected; HMD shipped millions of units across the world. 1.5 million Nokia smartphones were sold in the first half of 2017 making HMD, the best-selling mobile phone vendor in Vietnam and Middle East. Then in Q2 of 2018, HMD sold 4.5 million smartphones, and in Q2 of 2019 they sold 4.8 million.
Currently, the company is valued at €1 Billion. Their brand has allowed them to quickly establish 50 locations around the world in the first 12 months of operating. HMD has brought back, Nokia for what we know them for, Hardware. With new models made from a single block of 6000, 7000 series of aluminum, and stainless steel, their phones are strong and durable.
Nokia Corporation may have gone for good, but the brand Nokia is still going strong. Nokia’s story teaches us the importance of keeping up with the trends. But most importantly, to maintain a strong brand, as long as you have strong brand-loyal consumers may let go of your past mistakes and continue to do business with you.
