Nokia is going after enterprise smartphone users, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop says, barging into the same market that BlackBerry occupies. But while BlackBerry has been on a steady decline, Nokia's wide selection of handsets running Windows Phone OS gives it a good chance of surging to third place in the overall smartphone market, just behind Samsung and Apple.
In an interview with Bloomberg, there was little mention of Samsung and Apple (which should give you a clue about how far ahead of the pack those two have pulled), but much ado about BlackBerry, which is Nokia's primary rival. “I get asked a lot of questions about this relative to BlackBerry," he said, "and what I’ll say is: I’m very interested in BlackBerry customers.”
Elop said in the interview that the Finnish company has always focused on emerging markets with its Asha line, which target first-time smartphone users who may be very careful about the costs of their phone and data plans. China was one of these early markets, and Nokia has an established presence in India. Thailand and Singapore are also areas he says Nokia has its eye on.
What about the developed world?
Elop mentioned that corporate users such as Coca Cola and Kone (an elevator company) have switched from BlackBerry to Nokia, and said that he was very proud of the fact that when people talk about smartphones, the Lumia 920 consistently joins the ranks of phones serious users should consider when buying. "Microsoft and Nokia have a unique opportunity to target and go after the business consumer," he said, referring to Windows Phone OS, which Nokia handsets usually run.
"I can't make a forward prediction like that, but it's very clearly our intent to go after those customers," Elop said when asked about whether or not Nokia would surpass BlackBerry in 2014.
But when asked about whether or not Nokia could someday claim the second-largest market share, Elop replied that his company could take the number one spot — but Nokia and Microsoft both have their work cut out for them.
