Mobile

Nokia On The Verge Of Losing Market Share To Samsung In India

Vamien McKalin

Nokia's market share has dwindled worldwide, but the company's last stronghold could be in danger as Samsung looms over ahead. India is where this vigorous battle is being fought, a country where Nokia holds 26 percent market share, to Samsung's 22 percent.

A few years ago, Nokia held a massive 60 percent market share in India, but due to increased competition, the Finnish giant now has less than half that amount and could risk losing it all if careful measures are not taken. For those unaware, Samsung has already dealt a huge blow to Nokia; the South Korean behemoth has taken the number one spot overall, and is now looking to seal the deal by ripping India from Nokia's slipping grasp.

In a country like India, Android devices are an emerging threat, especially inexpensive devices from Samsung. Nokia is trying to combat this threat with its Asha line of low-end-feature smartphones along with a few Windows Phone devices, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

"It's definitely plausible that Samsung's low-end Galaxy smartphone series will explode even more and cumulatively Samsung will edge out Nokia," said Jessica Kwee, an analyst with Canalys.

With Android being the most used smartphone operating system in India, this could happen if Nokia doesn't release that one device to make a big difference. As of now, Samsung has 14 variants of its low-end Galaxy smartphone in India, while Nokia only has five Windows Phone devices available.

It's a clear sign that Nokia is very late to the party, and thus the company has a long way to go.

"Samsung seems to be more in sync with the market trends for smart devices in India," said G. Rajeev, an independent analyst tracking the handset market in India. "It is the one device maker with the largest number of devices on the Android operating platform," he added.

It is likely that by 2014, Nokia will lose its final frontier and may never rise from the ashes.

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