Nokia’s Windows strategy could
loosen Symbian’s grip on India
PRIYANKA JOSHI
Mumbai, 14 February
okia’s Symbian operating sys-
N tem (OS) is set to lose its hold
on India, where it has an esti-
mated 60 per cent marketshare. That’s the
likely fallout of the biggest handset mak-
er in India announcing a collaboration with
Microsoft to launch Windows-based mo-
bile devices.
Google’s mobile operating system, An-
droid, is Symbian’s closest competitor. Ac-
cording to technology market intelligence
firm IDC, smartphones on the Android plat-
form comprised 9 per cent of the Indian
market in the third quarter of 2010, up from
2.9 per cent a year earlier.
Technology research firm Gartner ex-
pects manufacturers like Samsung to launch
a whole range of budget devices that will
drive Android into mass market segments.
Other players such as Sony Ericsson, LG
and Motorola plan similar strategies.
While Nokia expects to sell around
150 million Symbian devices globally
in the next two years, it will progressively
MOBILE OS MARKETSHARE
2009-10 2010-11*
* Projected
**Includes Windows, J2ME and proprietary OS
Source: Analyst estimates and industry figures
transition smartphones to the Windows
platform. D Shivakumar, Nokia’s coun-
try head, insists this should be seen as
a positive move. “Windows Phone is a
good smartphone platform and we see it
appropriate for premium devices priced
at, say, $300 (around `13,500) and on-
wards,” said Shivakumar.
Nokia acquired Symbian in December
2008 and since then has become the biggest
contributor to Symbian’s code, as it owns
the development resources for both the Sym-
bian OS core and the user interface.
(%)
Nokia says it will continue to offer Sym-
bian Series 30 and Series 40 devices at
the low end of its range. At the same time,
the company is not excluding the possibility
of offering Windows Phone devices in
the lower price segment in future. Shiv-
akumar reiterates that the company is
not entirely dumping the Symbian or MeeGo
(created by Nokia with Intel) OSes.
“You will see the first MeeGo-based
phone in 2011 and we will continue to
build Symbian devices for the lower end
of the market. But there’s nothing to stop
us from using the Windows platform
for lower cost handsets, too” said
Shivakumar.
In India, IDC estimates Nokia’s share
of the handset market has slid to 30 per cent
from about 70 per cent just 5 years ago.
“Markets like India will continue to em-
brace cheaper devices and, hence, pre-
mium-priced Windows handsets might not
show an uptick for Nokia in India as the
older Symbian-based devices,” says Naveen
Mishra, an IDC analyst.
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