Nokia sale won't affect smartphone business

Nokia sale wont affect smartphone business
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Nokia Sale Won't Affect Smartphone Business. Acquisition of handset major Nokia by software giant Microsoft will not impact smartphone shipments substantially, research firm Gartner said on Monday.

New Delhi: Acquisition of handset major Nokia by software giant Microsoft will not impact smartphone shipments substantially, research firm Gartner said on Monday.

While giving 2013 projections said the research firm said it expects Windows operating system (OS) device shipments to touch 331.6 million units in 2013 and 363.8 million in 2014, from 346.5 million units last year.

“Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia doesn’t have a major impact on the forecast, because Gartner already assumed that Nokia would have accounted for the vast majority of Windows Phone share throughout the forecast, with only minimal volume coming from other OEMs, such as HTC or Samsung,” it said in a release.

Nokia Sale Won't Affect Smartphone Business

In September this year, US-based Microsoft said it will acquire a substantial part of devices and services business of Nokia for 5.44 billion euros ($7.17 billion) in cash, in an effort to strengthen its position in the smartphone market.

“Windows Phone challenges in the smartphone market remain the same, with the need to bring on board more developers and enrich the ecosystem, as well as turning the Windows Phone brand into a cool smartphone brand,” Gartner research vice president Carolina Milanesi said.

While there are clear benefits to the acquisition, such as channel strength, carrier relationship and emerging-market knowledge, the brand and ecosystem do not directly benefit from it, she added.

The firm said handset market will continue to experience steady growth, but the opportunity for high average selling price (ASP) smartphones is now ending and growth is expected to come from mid-tier smartphones in mature markets and low-end Android smartphones in emerging markets.

“Android will remain the leading device operating system, as it is on pace to account for 38 per cent of shipments,” Gar-tner said.

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