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HMD Global Nokia smartphones. (Image: HMD Global)
Nokia maker HMD Global suffered a sharp drop in smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2020. The crown crisis is likely to have only a small part in this.
Counterpoint Research researchers say the global smartphone market declined 13 percent in the first three months of this year, the largest decline so far. Market leader Samsung lost particularly strongly, but held the top position ahead of Huawei and Apple. Xiaomi was the only one of the top 5 manufacturers to grow significantly in sales. In contrast, Nokia maker HMD Global suffered a 44 percent drop in smartphone sales, as reported by Nokiamob.
Nokia smartphones: sales collapse
According to this, the Finnish startup that became a unicorn about two years ago was only able to sell 1.7 million Nokia smartphones in the first quarter of 2020, after around 3.1 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Therefore, Nokia has a market share of only around one percent. However, there was already a significant drop in sales figures in the last quarter of 2019, so the effects of the crown crisis should only serve as an excuse. This observation is also supported by the fact that Nokia’s sales fell three times more than those of the general market.
In the coming weeks, the new Nokia smartphones introduced in March could boost the manufacturer. The Nokia 8.3 5G with a quad primary camera and fast 5G modem, for example, is said to be the first smartphone to support 5G global roaming. Additionally, HMD Global expanded its business area a few weeks ago and offers HMD Connect, a global data roaming service.
HMD Global focuses on business clients
In any case, HMD Global focuses primarily on the business market. In 2019, the company said, “It had gained two new business customers per week who chose Nokia smartphones as their preferred employee smartphone,” said company director Florian Seiche. For Nokia, among other things, data storage on European servers and cooperation with Google, which guarantees the current version of Android for two years and regular security updates for three years.
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