With 35.8% market share in 1st quarter of 2007, considerable cash reserves to support R&D and production initiatives, global market leader Nokia is behemoth to behold. Although challengers like Motorola and Samsung remain distant, ABI Asia-Pacific VP Jake Saunders believes Nokia could still stumble!

Nokia is also conscious that, while many of their existing end users do place significant value on user interface familiarity when they come to buy their next phone, there can also be a number of customers that become jaded and bored with "Nokia-styled" handsets. The N-series is not just about catering to an emerging segment of end-users, mobile messaging and entertainment prosumers, but also about re-invigorating the Nokia branded handset.

Linux phones are another possible potential threat to Nokia, which relies heavily on Symbian. While most mobile phone users are unlikely to want to tinker with their phones, existing vendors or joint ventures could come along that contribute different functional elements for the mobile device and the applications that sit on a Linux kernel based phone, which could allow for an "IBM PC clone type mobile phone" to be introduced into the market. The mobile phone as commodity hardware. The value could shift away from the hardware device and emphasize more the software/applications installed on it.

How to grab market share from Nokia? Saunders advises other players to win in the area of user-friendliness and functionality.

One of the remarkable facts about Nokia is that it is not always the "first to market". Nokia does not always focus its energies on being first to market, rather Nokia puts emphasis on "Functionality" and "User Friendliness" over and above other design considerations.

If you're looking for inspiration about beating industry giants, try watching the movie 300 and gear up for a new battle this 2007...

Via ABI Wireless Blog