16 April 2009

The Correct Numbers:
Nokia 5800 XM Sales Reach 3 million Devices

According to Reuters' Tarmo Virki and Nokia's first quarter sales results, Finnish mobile phone giant has sold over 2.6 million units during the first quarter, with cumulative shipments of more than 3 million units since the Smartphone’s launch in late November 2008 which totally beats the company's self-imposed target of 1 million devices!

Sure, this is not even nearly as good as the whooping 13 millions of devices reported yesterday, but it is still very respectable score for company’s first mass market full touchscreen device.

The Nokia 5800 has clearly been a big success and may well prove to be Nokia's biggest profit driver in the first half of 2009," Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey said for Reuters yesterday.

Analyst Tero Kuittinen from GC Capital said Nokia could ship more than 2.5 million 5800s in the January-March quarter, matching rough estimates for iPhone shipment volumes.

"Outside the US market, it is emerging as 'the poor man's iPhone' - a device with clunky and old-fashioned software, but much cheaper price, better camera quality, lower weight and far superior stand-by time," he said.

"In New York or London, consumers do not mind the bad voice quality and battery problems of the iPhone. In Jakarta or Moscow, consumers are far more performance- and value-oriented," Kuittinen said.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has seen successful sales starts in a number of markets, including Spain, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Finland and especially Russia in November, with other territories including the UK, Singapore, Australia and the US couple of weeks ago.

"The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been received very positively and this milestone is just further proof that people all over the world want a device that is not only a great music experience, but also makes the most of touch screen technology," said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia.