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How the mighty have fallen: Nokia’s struggles, put in perspective

Published May 17th, 2013 10:15PM EDT
Nokia Smartphone Sales

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In one point in time, Nokia was the top-selling smartphone vendor in the world by a wide margin. It wasn’t even that long ago, in fact. But when Nokia failed to respond quickly enough to the industry’s shift toward touch, the Finnish giant lost its footing and toppled spectacularly. Just how bad have things gotten for Nokia? Market share numbers paint a pretty frightening picture, but a single tweet from Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis might do an even better job of putting things in perspective.

In the past two years since Nokia announced that it was switching to Windows Phone as its mobile platform of choice, the vendor has sold just over 20 million Lumia phones. During the same period of time, Apple has sold 248 million iPhones and Android phone sales have topped 800 million units, led by Samsung.

It looks like the platform may still be burning.

Windows Phone’s market share is inching upward but it is still eclipsed by iOS and Android. As Nokia leads the charge against BlackBerry for the No.3 spot in the smartphone platform race, the question of whether or not the vendor made the right choice in backing Microsoft’s mobile efforts remains.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.