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Nokia Profit Down While Aiming At Apple

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by Kevin Maney
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Oct 16 2008 3:29pm EDT

Nokia: Profit Down While Aiming at Apple

Kevin Maney writes: No one can accuse Nokia of being timid. The world's biggest cell phone maker got beaten up in the third quarter, seeing profit fall 30%. But the company says it took a short term punch for long term gain. While competitors were dropping prices to steal market share, Nokia refused to play that game -- instead keeping prices firm but competing on quality and capabilities of its phones. That decision knocked about a percentage point off Nokia's global cell phone market share -- which seems to worry analysts more than Nokia.


At the same time, Nokia seems to be lining up as the first real competitor to Apple in the mobile music business. Nokia's new offering, called Comes With Music, launched in the U.K. The deal: You buy an iPhone-type Nokia handset, and it comes bundled with a one-year subscription to a free music download service. Unlike other subscription services like Rhapsody, with Nokia's you can download as many songs as you want and keep them, even if you let your subscription run out. It's an interesting move but leaves lots of questions about whether consumers will see the benefit. If the service succeeds in the U.K., you can bet Nokia will expand it to other parts of the globe.


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