Nokia is still one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, but in the all important smartphone and high-end handset market where profits are higher, the company is lacking. Nokia is seeing may users migrate from its smartphones to the iPhone and Android-based smartphones. The results for the company are low profits and sagging stock prices.
One of the ways that Nokia hopes to tempt new customers and keep exiting users from going to other brands is by cutting prices. Two industry sources are saying that Nokia has cut prices of its high-end smartphones in Europe. The sources claim direct knowledge of the pricing and say the cuts will be around 15%. The phones that will see price cuts are reportedly the N8, C7, and E6 devices.
Other devices may see smaller price cuts. One source Reuters cites is at a European telecom operator and the source said, "There are no very big cuts per model, but the scale -- across the portfolio -- is unseen for a very, very long time."
A 15% discount is not that much to an end user and even at the reduced price Nokia will have a hard time competing with the more popular Android and iOS devices on the market. Nokia stock prices tumbled on the news by 2% and Nokia insists that the cuts are "business as usual."
Analyst Carolina Milanesi at Gartner figures Nokia should cut prices on other handsets too. She said, "They should discount older products including the N8, the C7 and the C6, and ship the new ones at a very aggressive price too."
Nokia is not doing well and is looking to the Windows Phone 7 devices coming later this year to save its failing smartphone business. A "super-confidential" Windows Phone from Nokia was leaked late last month giving a glimpse at what Nokia has in store.
