NokiaCorp. (NOK) started shipment of C7 based on its Symbian platform. This is the second smartphone shipped after the N8.
Both C7 and N8 compete with Reasearch in Motion Ltd.’s (RIMM) Blackberry and Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone, which is based on Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android operating system.
Nokia announced the launch of smartphones two weeks back. N8 is based on upgraded Symbian 3 software with a multi-touchscreen facility. Symbian 3 OS is considerably faster, easier to use, more efficient and developer-friendly. Despite new competition, Symbian technology is fast gaining more traction over the Android technology provided by Google.
In the second quarter 2010, Nokia shipped a total 111.1 million mobile handsets, up 8% year over year and up 3% sequentially. In the same quarter, the company shipped 24.0 million smartphones, up 42% year over year and 12% sequentially.
Nokia’s global market share in overall mobile handset market was 33% in the second quarter 2010, compared with 35% in the year-ago quarter and 33% in the previous quarter. In the smartphone market, Nokia’s global market share was 41% in the reported quarter, flat both year over year and sequentially.
Nokia has been struggling for a long time to keep pace with rivals in the high-end, high-margin smartphone market. It has also been slow in launching premium devices to match against arching rival products such as Apple’s iPhone and new Android-based phones like Samsung’s Galaxy S, HTC’s Evo 4G and Motorola Inc.’s (MOT) Droid phones.
With the new Symbian 3 based smartphones such as N8, E7, C7 and C6, we believe Nokia will once again rule the handset market and recover its losses. Nokia is also planning to use Intel Corp.’s (INTC) Meego, the open-sourced mobile operating system in its next range of smartphones.
We maintain our long-term Neutral recommendation for Nokia. Currently, it is a Zacks #3 Rank (Hold) stock.
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