State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Nokia has stated that Symbian would remain the key software platform on its smart phones, as the world’s largest handset maker forecast a 10% rise in global handset volumes next year following a period of sharp contraction. Nokia is trying a number of different things, including emphasis on social media and music services. Nokia has also stepped up advertising which talks about its email solutions (E72 for example) and how its better than BlackBerry because it works directly with Microsoft Exchange without the need of a middleware.

The rivalry between different software platforms has become increasingly fierce, as handset makers compete for their share of the smart-phone business, the one area of the mobile-phone market that has continued to grow during the recession, a WSJ article notes.

Nokia said it will continue to focus on applications for its phones, targeting net sales from its services unit of €2 billion or more in 2011 from an expected 300 million active users by the end of that year.

To differentiate its products from rivals, Nokia has increasingly focused on applications such as navigation, its Comes With Music phones, and its Ovi online portal.

However, it has faced intense competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and App Store, as well as touch-screen phones from rivals such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and a growing number of devices based on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Adding to the competition, Samsung is set to release its new Bada operating platform Dec. 8.