Weak quarterly sales of Nokia smartphones raised the heat on chief executive Stephen Elop, whose decision to adopt Microsoft’s untested Windows Phone software has yet to deliver the recovery in the company’s fortunes he was hired to achieve.
Nokia has pinned its hopes on its Lumia smartphones to close the yawning lead of the market frontrunners Samsung and Apple, but progress has disappointed many investors and analysts.
Nokia shares fell as much as 6 per cent on Thursday after the company said it shipped 7.4 million Lumia phones in the second quarter, up 32 per cent from the first quarter but fewer than the 8.1 million units forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Analysts, some of whom had said Nokia needs to hit 10 million Lumia sales within the next few quarters to convince them it could survive in smartphones, said they were worried Nokia’s Windows Phone models had come too late to the race.
Phones running Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems accounted for well over 90 per cent of the global smartphone market in the first quarter, while Windows Phone handsets accounted for only around 3 per cent, according to market research firm IDC.
A large base of established Android and iOS users attracts a larger base of software developers to create the apps that run on the phones, which in turn enhances the phones to buyers.