Nokia has been facing a number of operational challenges influenced by the development and advancement in the mobile industry. Nonetheless, the company enjoys a superior market share in a number of countries like India.
Although nokia is not a very popular brand among the city and urban dwellers, the brand enjoys great loyalty from the rural market segments (Cheng, 2012). A number of reasons have helped nokia to attract rural dwellers. This includes the extra powerful battery that last quite long compared to other brands. The Nokia brands also boast of a strong and hard body, which enhance its durability.
Other features include a detachable panel that enables users to replace their broken or worn out covering. Nokia phones are also famed for efficiency in network reception and they cover all the available market segments.
These are some of the strengths enjoyed by the nokia brand hence giving it a lifetime in the market. However, the company’s performance is limited by some factors such as high import tariffs. Other brands have come into the market with better products and features and Nokia Company seems to be left behind.
The company has great opportunities in the rural segment as well as the urban market. There is a large rural market that is still not fully exploited and the nokia brand has an upper hand in capturing it. The company can also take the opportunity to introduce 3G in India.
Threats are inevitable in any market and the mobile phone market is not an exception. The major threat faced by Nokia is the launch of Apple’s iPhone (Cheng, 2012). With the great applications and advanced technology, the nokia brand has been overshadowed by Apple’s iPhone.
The entry of Chinese made phones in the market is a major blow to the Nokia brand especially in the low-end market segment. Chinese made phones are coming at very cheap prices making them easily accessible to the rural folks.
This is threatening to wipe out the overwhelming demand for nokia phones in the rural areas where the brand has its greatest market share. Other threats include factors affecting the entire industry such as the projected entry of Voice over Internet Protocol ‘VOIP’ handsets (Madrigal, 2012).
The nokia company like any other company is subject to legal requirements and political environments. In Multinational Corporation, political factors are important for to consider (Cheng, 2012). Nokia has always conducted surveys to establish its scope and limitations in order to abide by legal requirements are stipulated in different host countries (Madrigal, 2012).
The company works hand-in-hand with the governments of host countries in to gain favor on embargoes and quotas. The law of copyright is the greatest advantage that has allowed the nokia company to withstand the looming pressure from competitors.
Economic factors can have a major effect on the production of a company and this applies to nokia as well. Being in the global scale of production, international trade waves are important to nokia. Before the company sets into a country, they always take a background check to analyze the economic systems of the country, inflation rate, the exchange rate, and the level of employment (“Allthingsd: Nokia Slips to Seventh in Smartphone Market” par 2).
The company deals with quite a number of diversified cultures. Nonetheless, cultural aspects do not affect telecommunications are since mobile phones are easily assimilated. Communication is very vital regardless of cultural beliefs and this has made mobile phones rise in demand.
Technological advancement has influenced the mobile phone market. The way people communicate with each other using their mobile phones is changing so rapidly and Nokia Corporation is adapting to the challenges. The nokia brand has introduced Smartphones to counter the recent entry of the same products from the competition.
The company is continuously searching for ways to enable its consumers to access information on all the available options with regard to the existing technology. With nokia phones today, one can access the internet and access some of the biggest social networks. This has improved communication as well as enhancing customer’s standards of living.
Evidently, the nokia brand is slowly losing its grip in the phone market and its popularity is quickly fading away (Stoll and Grundberg, 2012). This is quite eminent in most of the developed countries where other giants like Samsung and Apple are gradually taking over the market.
Its Symbian phones have performed poorly in the market although it was intended to compete with Smartphones from other brands. The low-end phones are also not up to the challenge from other companies. Clearly, the company requires critical and relevant changes on its applications and technology.
For the company to succeed and become as profitable as it was before, it has to reconsider its use of Symbian and windows application (Cheng, 2012). With the popular Android operating system, nokia can increase its chances of survival in the already crowded market. Battery life has been a matter of concern with regard to Smartphones but nokia with their long battery life reputation can maximize this opportunity.
Works Cited
Allthingsd: Nokia Slips to Seventh in Smartphone Market. 2012. Web.
Cheng, Roger 2012, Nokia on the edge: Inside an icon’s fight for survival. Web.
Madrigal, Alexis 2012, The Forgotten Mapmaker: Nokia Has Better Maps Than Apple and Maybe Even Google. Web.
Stoll, John and Sven Grundberg. “Nokia Again Apologizes Over Ads for Phone.” The wall street journal. 2.2 (2012): 1-2. Web.