Nokia extends reach into Turkish market
Posted by meb at April 21st, 2008
A major player in the mobile device sector, Nokia extends its reach into the depths of the Turkish market, as the company opened its 23rd Nokia shop in Ankara Friday. Nokia’s Turkey chief Imfred de Jong stated that they increased market share in Turkey to 39 percent, a figure greater than its share on the global market.
“I think that in first quarter we showed good year on year growth, we have 27 percent volume growth compared to same period last year. We increased revenues 28 percent compared to last year. So I think this was a good achievement,” Jong told the Turkish Daily News.
Nokia’s global sales reached 12.7 billion euros in first quarter of 2008. “Of course, we have to see that these are turbulent times on the global markets. We will also see how political tensions in Turkey will affect our business,” Jong underlined, referring to the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Services surpass devices:
Jong said Nokia will focus on internet services like OVI, an online platform for sharing multimedia content and navigation, and navigation in the upcoming years. “We have several navigation campaigns and have more and more coming. We’ll bring more products to the market which support Global Positioning System (GPS),” Jong noted, adding that Nokia forecasts 35 million GPS supporting device sales around the globe in 2008. For the moment, users can have access to maps of Istanbul and Ankara free of charge.
“If you look at the mobile telephone market you see two major developments at the same time. On one side you see mobility and convergence with more and more features on the same device, like navigation. On the other side you see that people want to have access to the Internet all the time. What you can do with a fixed Internet access, you can also do with your mobile device,” Jong said.
“This is what we do and bring to the market under the brand name OVI. With OVI, which means ‘door’ in Finnish, you have easy access to the Internet and to our services like games, navigation, music. You can upload or download multimedia information and we present a social platform where users can share their personal multimedia content they created,” Jong said. OVI and navigation systems are in line with Nokia’s new strategy of transforming itself into an Internet services company, announced last year.
“I think we are constantly changing our vision because the market developments go so fast that we have to change also fast. Instead of telling just a mobile device, we want to sell service on top of that,” Jong asserted.
Turkish market promising:
Turkish mobile phone market provides ample opportunities for mobile phone producers, said Jong. “About 88 percent of the Turkish people are already using a mobile phone, rendering the market a nearly saturated one,” he noted.
European mobile device ownership levels have already surpassed 100 percent and Turkey is approaching that level. “We see more and more people using more than one device. The majority of our sales are still in the entry segment. But we see a very fast shift to higher-end models with cameras or basic music features,” Jong noted and stressed that Turkish citizens replace devices every one or one-and-a-half years, nearing the world average.
Turkish customers mainly prefer models with music and demand radio functioned into the device, and increasingly request MP3 players, Jong informed.
The Nokia executive pointed to tax levels in Turkey that force products to have a higher price. “We are not happy with high taxes. It makes our products too expensive. But that is something we cannot change, and they are particularly charging over voice call. The lower the tariffs, the better for everybody. We would like to see that low as well,” Jong said.
Turkey must not miss 3G:
Mobile phone market is also influenced by technological adjustment of countries to emerging trends, and for Turkey, third generation (3G) technology that enables users to have video calls on their phones should be the goal ahead, Jong stated. “In Turkey we really need to have 3G as soon as possible. If you look to where developments go in mobile communication, you will realize that one simply needs more capacity. We need the 3G and I can not see how this can be solved otherwise,” Jong stressed.
“We have also full confidence that we can keep our position here. Our product range and services assure me of that. I believe in navigation we are really ahead of our competitors. So from that point of view I have confidence in the future,” Jong said, adding that competition will help them keep sharp at the Turkish market.
Source: Turkish Daily News
Related posts: