Nokia Struggles in Smartphones

Nokia, the cellphone giant, is still struggling to win share in the smartphone arena in a post iPhone era. Nokia’s N900 ($549) smartphone introduced last November has sold only 100,000 units in its first five months on the market, said Gartner today, indicating Nokia has yet to compete effectively against the iPhone and Blackberry.
The N900—a chunky slider with a 3.5 inch touch screen—won favor among hard core enthusiasts, but couldn’t gain mass appeal. Cnet gave it a favorable initial review citing its powerful web browser, multitasking, fast processor and 5MP camera but noted that its user interface fell short. The phone was also seen as a breakthrough as it is the first to use Nokia’s Linux-based open source Maemo 5 OS, previously used on MIDs and tablets.
But 100,000 N900s over five months, doesn’t stand up to the 8.75 million iPhones sold in three month (Q1). Nokia sold 50,000 N900s in the last quarter of 2009 (when it first launched) but momentum trailed in Q1 2010, said Gartner.
Source: Gartner via Reuters