India leapfrogs USA to become Nokia's second largest market
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 24th 2007 9:06AM
posted Aug 24th 2007 9:06AM
No real shock here, but according to Nokia, India has just overtaken America as the handset maker's number two market. 'Course, China is still hanging tight to the top spot for now, but Nokia execs are expecting "demand to remain strong as India's user base surges." Interestingly, President Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo reportedly suggested that he didn't expect the demand in India to be limited to "low-cost phones," hinting that mid-range to high-end handsets may take off there after all. Oh, and Nokia had previously expected India to become its second largest market by volume "by 2010, if not sooner" -- so it looks like things are moving well ahead of schedule, eh?
While we're looking at WiMAX-enabled N800's, they're looking at color-screened 2610s. Nokia would do well to concentrate on getting some decent models out in the US.
Actually, Nokia would do well to focus on making a profit. Right now, India provides it a better opportunity for that than the US does. Let's face it, Nokia has TRIED to provide better products here but it's been stymied by 1) conservative carriers and 2) a lack of interest by the general population.
actually india gets most of the nokia range pretty quickly. the color 2610 is a budget phone since people from the lower economy classes need phones too.
I just wish nokias quality control hadn't gone through the floor.
During my recent trip to India, I was amazed by the number of Nokia stores, at least in the region I visited. I didn't find any other cell manufacturer having retail presence.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kris_kumar/573242360/
Too bad the stores only had dummy units.
All very well for Nokia, but I wonder how well 3rd party s/w providers will do in the Indian market. In China, there is little to no interest in phones going 'online' (also, wifi is not allowed on phones). However, my S60 app download stats show that Indian users have plenty of access to the internet via their phones. In my results, Russia is the top, but they are almost exclusively S60 2nd edition phones, while India is a good mixture of both 2nd and 3rd.