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Nokia Tube proving serious challenger to iPhone
Published: 17 April, 2009
Tags >> Nokia | iPhone
One of the highlights of the Nokia results was the first firm indication of the company's prospects in the most important handset category of the year, the touchscreen smartphone, where the market leader has lagged behind Apple, Samsung and LG. This slow response to the trend established by the iPhone and LG Prada in 2007 was one factor in Nokia's loss of some smartphone share, but the performance of its first effort, the 'Tube', offers some bright indicators for a Finnish bounceback.
The Tube, officially the 5800 XpressMusic, shipped 2.6m devices during the first quarter and has sold three million since its launch in November 2008. By comparison Apple shipped 4.3m iPhones in its last reported quarter, which was three months ago. Apple will report new numbers on April 22, when it is expected to say that it shipped about the same number of devices, or less.
For Nokia's first touchscreen phone to do around two-thirds of the shipments of the iconic iPhone in one quarter is phenomenal considering the company has hundreds of other music handsets out there.
Nokia also said that its recently acquired Navteq mapping division saw sales fall by 36% as people bought fewer maps and as other vendors signed up fewer devices to use the service.
