"We are at the dawn of a new era in mobile communications driven by the rapid convergence of the Internet and mobility, and Nokia is setting the pace of change," said CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. "We estimate that in 2010, the total Internet services market will be approximately 100 billion euros," Kallasvuo added.
Targeting Consumers
Nokia forecasts that mobile device volumes will grow by approximately 10 percent in 2008 -- up from an estimated 1.1 billion units this year. However, the highest unit shipment increases are expected to occur in the Asia-Pacific, China, Middle East, and Africa regions, where low-end phones are outselling their high-end counterparts.
Nokia predicts that industry-wide handset average selling prices will decline somewhat next year, but the company intends to mitigate falling prices by leveraging the power of the Internet in ways that will make it more compelling for mobile subscribers to upgrade to the very latest advanced handsets. For example, Nokia is targeting the lion's share of the 180 million music-enabled devices it expects the entire industry to ship next year -- up from an estimated 145 million units in 2007.
To help counter rival music strategies, the handset-maker has just unveiled a new "Comes With Music" program that will give buyers of Nokia's next-generation music devices one year of unlimited access to Universal Music's portfolio. "Even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we're making available," said Anssi Vanjoki, an executive vice president...
