6/07/2009

Nokia losing Grip over the Teen Segment

According to a recent report, mobile phones market leader Nokia is steadily losing its hold over the rather important teen segment thanks to the uninspiring, bland designs that most Nokia phones sport.



Nokia seems to have failed to introduce an attractive handset that teenagers could carry around. The survey carried out by Social Networking site Habbo Hotel was conducted over the period of a few months and saw the participation by 112,000 teenagers from across 30 countries. The results from the survey showed that while Nokia still remains popular, its popularity has dipped almost 8 percent from last year. The drop in popularity has helped Nokia's Korean rivals Samsung and LG to capitalize with phones like the LG Cookie that offers the user a touchscreen experience at a not so hoigh price.

Yes, Nokia too was fairly successful with its touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic, which has sold over 2.6 million units so far, but post that the only other addition is the N97 which is hardly a teen phone. The Koreans on the other hand have been constantly releasing new, cheaper handsets while Nokia refuses to update its now old 5800 with spruced up features or even a nw sibling.
The surprise part of the survey was that even though Sony Ericsson might be in trouble now, the brand is still popular amongst teenagers. It amazingly stood as the first choice for 18% of the students. This however was a drop of 3% over the past year. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that the company has a hardcore fan following amongst teens. The 18% preference puts it at the third place as Samsung has now moved up to 19% in the teen segment.

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