Yawn… perhaps not the most gripping way to begin today’s post; nevertheless, it is befitting… here’s why… In a word: Nokia. And, the simple fact that the market passing them by was ‘perhaps the beginning of their ending’ (to paraphrase Winston Churchill).
To reiterate; there’s the simple fact that the market has largely passed them by (as consumers moved up the value-chain and embraced the standard set by Apple with Google’s Android coming out of nowhere within under 2 years). This in and of itself is / will / would, etc. be a Herculean task to successfully navigate a comeback in the midst of – if that were their only crisis to manage. However; as if that isn’t enough, Samsung is projected to pass them moving into second place (largely assisted by Google as Apple set a serious fire under their feet particularly in their home-market of S. Korea). But wait; there’s more as the emerging markets (which they thought they had sewn-up have now begun shunning the companies’ products too).
And, finally (well, not actually but for the sake of space) their first releases with Microsoft are not slated for at least a year out (even though the firm is stating that they’ll have a Windows-enabled release later this year; read: in all probability best case scenario)… all of which makes it no surprise that they are just getting hammered in the market. After all; they brought their current lot on themselves (which by extension is a large reason why they’ve pinned their future on Redmond as that too is anything but a safe-bet).
From FT: http://goo.gl/PZ65S
From the Register UK: http://goo.gl/v7RIy