Showing posts with label windows mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label windows mobile. Show all posts

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Nokia cuts Lumia 900's price to $49, struggles in cost management as compared to Apple

Desi Mind Meld .
As per +The Wall Street Journal report, +Nokia is cutting price of its flagship Lumia 900 Windows phone three months after launch from $99 to $49. Nokia was already squeezed on margin with original 2-yrs contract pricing, not sure what their strategy is by reducing it further by half.

As per some teardown analysis by IHS iSuppli market research firm, Lumia 900 carries a bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing cost (MC) of $217. That is $233 in profit margin at $450 retail without contract. Lumia 900's closest competitor with similar feature set is +Samsung USA’s S II Skyrocket +Android phone, which carries BOM + MC of $244, and a retail price that is $100 higher, at $550.

Comparing Lumia 900, the challenger, to Apple's iPhone 4S, the reigning champion of supply chain and cost management, is a whole different ball game. As per some teardown analysis estimates, iPhone 4S carries BOM + MC of $198 and retails at $649 without contract. That is a whopping $451 margin per unit and $1 more than Lumia 900's retail price!

And then there is economies of scale at work. Apple commands the purchasing power to drive costs down using economies of scale. It is a vicious circle for Nokia and other Apple challengers between economies of scale and purchase power.

Sources:
Nokia Lumia 900 Carries Bill of Materials of $209
Nokia Halves Price of Flagship Phone: Finnish Company Says Move on Windows-Based Smartphone Is 'Normal Strategy'
Video - Inside Nokia's Struggle Against the iPhone - WSJ.com
Nokia's top-of-the-range Lumia 900 costs $200 less than the cheapest iPhone 4S. But Nokia pays more for the parts. Ben Rooney in London explains how big a problem this is for Nokia. Photo: Reuters

Desi Mind Meld
As per a Wall Street Journal report, Nokia is cutting price of its flagship Lumia 900 Windows phone three months after launch from $99 to $49. Nokia was already squeezed on margin with original 2-yrs contract pricing, not sure what their strategy is by reducing it further by half.

As per some teardown analysis by IHS iSuppli market research firm, Lumia 900 carries a bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing cost (MC) of $217. That is $233 in profit margin at $450 retail without contract. Lumia 900's closest competitor with similar feature set is Samsung’s S II Skyrocket Android phone, which carries BOM + MC of $244, and a retail price that is $100 higher, at $550.

Comparing Lumia 900, the challenger, to Apple's iPhone 4S, the reigning champion of supply chain and cost management, is a whole different ball game. As per some teardown analysis estimates, iPhone 4S carries BOM + MC of $198 and retails at $649 without contract. That is a whopping $451 margin per unit and $1 more than Lumia 900's retail price!

And then there is economies of scale at work. Apple commands the purchasing power to drive costs down using economies of scale. It is a vicious circle for Nokia and other Apple challengers between economies of scale and purchase power.

Sources:
Nokia Lumia 900 Carries Bill of Materials of $209
Nokia Halves Price of Flagship Phone: Finnish Company Says Move on Windows-Based Smartphone Is 'Normal Strategy'
Inside Nokia's Struggle Against the iPhone - WSJ.com
Nokia's top-of-the-range Lumia 900 costs $200 less than the cheapest iPhone 4S. But Nokia pays more for the parts. Ben Rooney in London explains how big a problem this is for Nokia. Photo: Reuters

The Discovery Economy: Nokia's New Augmented Reality

Desi Mind Meld .
Like Google +Project Glass, City Lens is +Nokia's take on augmented reality. Well, without +Google, and without Glasses. Nokia phones now run on Windows Mobile OS. Jason Walsh, Content Specialist for Location and Commerce at Nokia explains in the attached video that City Lens app will help you discover places you normally would have missed.

It sounds like a great idea if City Lens will randomly tell me if I want to try out a "hole in the wall" restaurant that I never knew existed next door. Google Now, anyone? However, it also sounds freaky to those of us who really watch our Internet foot print and are concerned about the cloud knowing us more than we know ourself. Plausible.

However, this is not what Jason said as he continued to explain the app. At start he said "I am not talking about the kind of exploration when you scroll through the list of places that are relatively close to you" but then during the app demo he showed a list of restaurants with their ratings that were around him. So, what is the difference? Am I missing something?
The Discovery Economy: The Tech's The Least Interesting Part Of Nokia's New Augmented Reality
Do you know what augmented reality apps are really good at? Directing you to new things they don't directly point at. It's a whole new world of discovery.

Desi Mind Meld
Like Google Glass, City Lens is Nokia's take on augmented reality. Well, without Google, and without Glasses. Nokia phones now run on Windows Mobile OS. Jason Walsh, Content Specialist for Location and Commerce at Nokia explains in the attached video that City Lens app will help you discover places you normally would have missed.

It sounds like a great idea if City Lens will randomly tell me if I want to try out a "hole in the wall" restaurant that I never knew existed next door. Google Now, anyone? However, it also sounds freaky to those of us who really watch our Internet foot print and are concerned about the cloud knowing us more than we know ourself. Plausible.

However, this is not what Jason said as he continued to explain the app. At start he said "I am not talking about the kind of exploration when you scroll through the list of places that are relatively close to you" but then during the app demo he showed a list of restaurants with their ratings that were around him. So, what is the difference? Am I missing something?
The Discovery Economy: The Tech's The Least Interesting Part Of Nokia's New Augmented Reality
Do you know what augmented reality apps are really good at? Directing you to new things they don't directly point at. It's a whole new world of discovery.