What Maruti is to cars, Nokia is to mobile handsets. This perception seems to have changed, especially in the past four to five years. Today, Nokia is just another option, not ‘the’ phone to have.

Microsoft, having recently acquired Nokia, has its work out for it: revamping the image of Nokia andbuilding its own brand in the mobile handset sector.

CHALLENGES FOR MICROSOFT

The evolution of the Indian mobile industry has left a negative impact on Nokia’s market share. It is not only because of other global players like Samsung, Sony etc, but more significantly owing to local players such as Micromax and Lava — which account for over half of all the smartphones that are sold in the country. Micromax alone has grown rapidly in the last four to five years and has increased its overall market share to a whopping 8.7 per cent.

Similarly, in the tablet market which has witnessed an exponential growth of around 427 per cent in 2011-12 alone, in comparison with others, Nokia has faired poorly.

Despite Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset business, regaining Nokia’s lost glory within a short span of 10 years will be a challenge for them.

ADVANTAGES WITH NOKIA IN INDIA

Nokia’s experience in the Indian market — of 19 years, has enabled it to develop certain competencies which may help it to distinguish itself from other players.

Nokia is still a preferred brand in the low-end-feature phone market having a share of 14.7 per cent.

Nokia’s wide spectrum of high quality and well-engineered handsets (Asha and Lumia series), along with its proven manufacturing and supply chain capabilities allow it to cater the needs of very large segment of its customers.

‘INDIANISED’WINDOWS

In order to overcome its barriers, Microsoft should focus on building an Ecosystem customised for India.

The ecosystem should consist of collaborations with the Indian app developers that will allow it to satisfy local needs of customers and re-sellers.

In order to build a complete ecosystem there should be complete synchronisation between all windows’ devices which aren’t currently compatible with the Android OS (as it does not exist in PCs) and Apple since it has different operating systems for mobile and personal computers.

Since Nokia’s current major customer segment in India is the lower income group,to leverage this, Microsoft should introduce the Windows OS in Nokia’s Asha Series.

This strategy will help increase Microsoft’s penetration into the Indian market, like the Andoid OS has been able to. This will enable Microsoft to inherit the trust and reputation that Nokia has built over the years.

FUTURE COURSE OF ACTION

The pie of the smartphone segment is bound to get bigger. Microsoft should strategically play on this expansion by introducing its Windows OS in the entry segment models of Nokia such as Asha 105. By this time Microsoft will also gain the ability to challenge the Android phones in the high- and low-end categories. This will help Nokia reclaim its title as being the preferred phone of the Indian consumer.

(The authors are pursuing an MBA at Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology, Pune.)