Turning off Nokia

Nokia seems to have missed the smartphone boat , with the latest wave of YouGov�s Smartphone Mobile Internet Experience study YouGov study revealing that the Finnish brand is now lagging even further behind its competitors than six months ago.

Of smartphone owners, only a third will consider getting a Nokia as their next handset, compared to 46% in December 2009. On top of that, only ten percent of smartphone owners expect to purchase a Nokia, a drop of nine percent over the last six months.

In contrast, Apple continues to hold onto the lion�s share of the market, with 56% of smartphone owners considering and 41% expecting to get an Apple handset next time round.

However, despite Nokia�s decline in popularity, more smartphone owners are still considering a Nokia as their future phone than BlackBerry (31%) or HTC (28%), which could be explained by the brand�s past success.

But Nokia�s fall is also apparent from a decline in the number of people likely to recommend the brand to a friend or colleague. Nokia�s recommend score dropped by 15% in six months to just 12%. Apple, by contrast, has a 70% recommendation score.

Key reasons mentioned by those moving away from Nokia are the lack of available programmes, or �apps�, and perceived poor quality of the operating system, as well as merely wanting a change of brand. With smartphones taking over the phonescape � it�s interesting to note that a recent YouGov SixthSense report found that just over a third of all 16-39 year old males as well as a fifth of female 16-39 year olds now own a smartphone.

Russell Feldman, Research Manager in YouGov�s technology and telecoms team said, 'Where Nokia once led the market, it has drastically fallen by the wayside...significantly outperformed by both Apple�s Apps store and Android Marketplace. The results of our data consistently show that the market leader is fast becoming an also-ran in the smartphone market. New products, software and apps are needed soon if Nokia is to keep up with its rivals.'

source