Submitted by: Submitted by apoorvsara
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 11/18/2011 04:30 AM
Will the WP7 and Nokia strategic alliance be successful?
Apoorv Saraogee
C2012
1.1 Introduction
The strategic alliance between Nokia and Microsoft will be examined on the smartphone front and its success will be assessed. It is clearly helping Microsoft out a lot, but it is not as clear for Nokia.
The smartphone industry is undergoing incredible changes and the predicted worldwide increase in smartphone sales is a staggering 57.7% in 2011 compared to the number of sales in 2010.The competition has become very fierce with strong competitors such as the Google Android which is an emerging leader in the market. 17.3% of Androids new customers come from Nokia based Symbian.
To help alleviate Nokia’s troubles, it has hoped that a strategic alliance with Microsoft is the solution. Under this, Nokia will adopt the Windows phone 7 as its primary smartphone strategy and effectively phase out the rapidly declining Symbian. Unlike other hardware manufactures that adopt the Windows phone 7, Nokia will have some say in the development of software. For example, Nokia Maps would be replacing the Microsoft powered Bing Maps on the phones. Nokia hopes that this will ensure some ‘control’ over its smartphones. Nokia will be helping Windows phone 7 reach many new market segments on a global stage.
1.2 SWOT Analysis of Nokia
Strengths: Symbian is currently the global market leader in smartphones with 37.6% market share as of 2010 end. They clearly have a large customer base around the globe. They also have the best expertise on hardware design and maps. They have a strong presence in other industries such as the low end phones and thus have spread their risks.
Weaknesses: Symbian’s market share is dropping drastically and has a predicted market share of 19.6% by the end of 2011 which is a 18% decrease in market share compared to the 2010. Their expertise on software is not able to stand up to the competition. They have invested a lot of money in R&D for...