After Windows Phone 8 announcement, Nokia sales estimates cut
A group of analysts has significantly cut revenue estimates of Nokia phones after Microsoft’s announcement of Windows Phone 8 last week.
Nomura Holdings Inc. said it expects Nokia to only sell 34 million devices running Windows Phone in 2013, which is down 41% from the group’s previous estimates. Nomura also cut Nokia’s revenue estimates from nearly $14 billion down to $7.5 billion.
The cuts come as a result of Microsoft’s announcement last week of Windows Phone 8, the next operating system of its mobile platform. Microsoft said current Windows Phone devices, including Nokia’s flagship, the Lumia 900, will not be able to upgrade to the upcoming OS. By hurting current Nokia Windows Phone devices’ future readiness, Nomura expects less people to buy.
But those aren’t its only fears. The analyst group also believes Microsoft could be working on its own Windows Phone devices, which would add to the competition Nokia deals with already. This thought might come from Microsoft’s other announcement last week, which was that of the Surface tablet computer. Unlike with phones and its computers, Microsoft is making the Surface’s software and hardware.
“An abandoned strategy in feature phones combined with an apparent increase in competitive pressures in Windows Phone lead us to cut revenue estimates that the recent restructuring announcement does not fully offset,” the analysts wrote, according to Bloomberg.
But while current Windows Phone handsets won’t be able to adopt Windows Phone 8 due to hardware limitations, Microsoft did say current phones will be able to grow to Windows Phone 7.8 and at the very least receive some user-interface improvements that come with Windows Phone 8.
That’s some good news for Nokia, which earlier this month also had to announce that it would be cutting 10,000 jobs by the end of 2013 and shutting down several facilities.
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