New talk shambles in suggesting Nokia to get back in smartphone market

Taking a cue from the zombie apocalypse landscape, the idea of Nokia getting back into the smartphone market has seemingly re-emerged from the dead thanks to new information from Bernstein Research senior analyst Pierre Ferragu. In a report to major clients, Ferragu thinks Nokia can ride the strength of their brand image to become a major Android smartphone manufacturer in the budget device segment of the market.

According to Ferragu, Samsung and Apple, while not fighting for the same consumers in the smartphone market, are competing for distribution channel customers. This battle resulted in no room being available for a third alternative to the Android and iOS platforms. Even now Ferragu thinks there is no room for a new entrant due to the level of maturity of the iOS and Android ecosystems.

Looking ahead though, Ferragu thinks the day is returning when “brand, distribution and scale were everything, innovation was mostly hardware-driven and easily replicable.” As evidence of Nokia’s return to a market where the dynamics are changing to a formula that existed when Nokia was thriving, Bernstein points to evidence the company is snapping up Android engineers for their development team. However, the analysts do anticipate Nokia will have to partner with others to manufacture low cost handsets and they point to a company like LG or Huawei as a possible source.

Finally, Ferragu believes Nokia’s brand image will help it succeed where others may have been struggling. Nokia recently placed 98th in brand value according to rankings by Interbrand. “From that perspective, the brand matters in smartphones as does distribution and scale,” according to the Bernstein analysis.

source: Korea Times
via: G for Games

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