Paris: While Apple Incorporated's iPhones are flying off shelves, the equity market shows investors are not taking Nokia's calls.
Charts show how Apple and Nokia market values have switched places in 10 years.
Apple's $247 billion (Dh907 billion) market value today is about where Nokia's was in 2000. That's when Apple's main product was the Macintosh computer.
The switchover came in 2007, when Apple's introduction of the iPhone cemented a move into consumer electronics that began with the iPod music player in 2001. The Finnish company went from being 14 times the size of Apple in 2000 to an eighth of it yesterday.
War failed
"They have lost the war on the smartphone and the brand image of the group is weak," said Sebastien Sztabowicz, a Paris-based analyst at Kepler Capital Markets, on Nokia. "Investors are focusing on Apple and the BlackBerry." He rates Nokia as "reduce".
Nokia last week cut its outlook for 2010 earnings for a second time this year. While Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, is telling customers to wait for the N8, its new flagship smartphone, demand for the iPhone and Google Incorporated's Android devices is surging.
Nokia, which held on to its smartphone market share of 41 per cent in the first quarter thanks to cheaper models and lower prices, has said it plans to ship the new N8 model in the third quarter. The customer base for Cupertino, California-based Apple's iPhone may top 100 million users next year, helped by the release this week of iPhone 4, says Morgan Stanley.
"The smartphone revolution has started and Nokia is not there," said Helena Nordman-Knutson, a Stockholm-based analyst at Oehman. The N8 "will be old when it's out because everybody has taken the next step."
Nokia last week said its second-quarter handset revenue and margins will be "at the lower end of or slightly below" its earlier forecast range of 9 to 12 per cent. The full-year adjusted operating margin in handsets could come in below the 11 to 13 per cent range forecast earlier, mainly because of its weakness in high-end smartphones, it said.
Sales in the devices and services division may fall below 6.7 billion euros (Dh30.6 billion) in the second quarter, Nokia said.
