Dreaming is not harmful they say and dreaming can become a sole remedy when the reality desired is too far away. This is exactly the way I want to characterize Samsung’s recent announcements they will surely overrun Nokia in the mobile competition race this year.

Samsung CEO Choi Gee-Sung told journalists in Las Vegas that they got more revenue in the last quarter of 2011 than Nokia and will overrun the Fins as to the unit shipment amount this year too. No doubt Nokia lost its dominance in the mobile market with the appearance and success of Apple’s i-devices. And Nokia’s market shares and profits also went down significantly as compared to 2007 (before Apple’s re-appearance). But does this mean it is losing to Samsung too? While theoretically it is possible of course, in reality it is way too far to think so. Nokia has very good standing in emerging markets and with the anticipated slowing down of smartphone markets this year, it is hardly that Samsung will overtake the place where Nokia is firm enough.

Reuters says Nokia can sell 388 million mobile phones this year, while Samsung — 359 million. Samsung puts its hopes in Android, Bada and Tizen, when Nokia is happy to cooperate with Microsoft on WP not forgetting also to think about its original Symbian OS. Whatever, in my personal opinion, Samsung is very far away of coming close to overtaking Nokia, but dreaming they say is not harmful.

Credit Suisse multinational financial company forecasts that mobile phone shipments will slow down globally in the first half of 2012. Previously Credit Suisse announced 12 percent of growth for 2011, and for this year the Swiss company has given only 2 percent of growth. 1.85 billion handsets are expected to be sold this year, which is by 3 million higher than last year.

The analysts at Credit Suisse also promise a good year for Nokia, saying the Finnish company will finally start reaping good results for its bold transition from Symbian to Windows Phone. While many blame Nokia for dropping the Symbian line, others claim this step was the saving hand for Nokia. Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha is confident that Nokia will continue to cover the 13 percent of the  mobile market worldwide, by its “sensible and aggressive pricing” and “decent support for Windows ecosystem as confirmed by our recent survey of carriers.”

Meanwhile, Nokia’s main competitor Apple is also rearranging its strategy for the newly emerging markets, such as the South American markets (Brazil, for example). Also, Apple tries to hold on to its older iPhones by offering them free for a two year contract.

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From the smartphone headlines in 2011 a significant amount was dedicated to the possible merge of Nokia with Microsoft. It is not clear when exactly those stories originated but the world is now in suspense as to what will eventually happen. It should be stressed Nokia had officially denied the authenticity of such negotiations, but at the same time the meetings of Nokia’s high executives with their Microsoft colleagues continued.

It has already become kind of a tradition to post an article about Nokia/Microsoft union, after which Nokia promptly denies such talks. A Russian journalist/blogger Eldar Murtazin is particularly specialized in posting similar posts. Murtazin announced several times in various sources Nokia as a brand is going to die even if it is bought by Microsoft. Murtazin claims Nokia adopted a wrong strategy back in 2008 and from that time on is only surviving somehow. He even says Nokia accused him of stealing something from the company, but he was subsequently cleared of any charges. The tech analyst claims further that time will show his being right and that Nokia will at most transform itself into a manufacturer of cheap and low quality gadgets.

Nokia in its turn confirms there are talks between the Finnish company and Microsoft, but these are negotiations in the framework of Windows OS cooperation. Evidently, Nokia would not reveal its true intentions if it was going to offer itself for purchase to Microsoft, and this year in this sense will be decisive.

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Nokia works in mysterious ways; every geek has already got this. And now Nokia’s come up with another acquisition — the Finnish manufacturer has bought a small Norwegian company, Smarterphone specialized in designing an operating system for featured phones.

This information leaked on the eve of CES 2012. Later a Nokia representative confirmed this rumor, but is now refusing to give answers. So we are not aware of the deal details, and even don’t have least notion of how much it cost Nokia.

But right now what makes me wonder is why Nokia acquired an operating system designing company at a time when Microsoft’s platform is on all its high-end handsets and its native OS Symbian is blooming regardless of the fact its life period will end in 2016.

I leave all the assumptions to you. But do you think Nokia has acquired this company to ensure itself against further patent infringements? This is a rather interesting hypothesis. Any ideas?

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BlackBerry manufacturer RIM is clearly struggling these days and there are talks the Canadian company will eventually agree to lucrative acquisition offers. There were rumors already that Amazon was interested in the RIM, but that seems to be a part of history now as new rumors say Microsoft and Nokia want to jointly bid for the RIM ownership.

The two companies are holding continuous talks with the RIM executives, but the very details of informal negotiations are still uncertain. The only basis to suppose the RIM would agree to acquisition bids is that the company is finding it more and more difficult to stay on top amid such a huge competition among the leading smartphone manufactures. The RIM seems to be losing a significant part of its once so loyal customers, besides the company’s stock was in a continuous downfall this year. Moreover, Windows Phones and Android have become now so popular that BlackBerry OS is in danger to be called obsolete.

Even if no takeover option is discussed, the RIM would definitely love to cooperate now with Microsoft and Nokia — in May it became known the BlackBerry smartphones will be using Bing search engines for web searches. Bing even was to be incorporated on the operating system level. While Microsoft may be interested in merely software cooperation, Nokia would be happier if it could use Microsoft to jointly take over the RIM.

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In May there were rumors on the web that Nokia and Microsoft are in the process of negotiations in view of Nokia selling its phone making division shares to Microsoft. At that time these talks seemed to be of a fantasy field and besides, Nokia quickly denied any plans to sell itself to Microsoft. Several times such rumors used to appear in this or that form, especially after Nokia and Microsoft started cooperation in the deal with Windows Phone OS. Now these rumors resurfaced but with more grounds to believe we are dealing with something more than just rumors.

This time Denmark’s largest bank, Danske Bank has sent a report to its clients telling them Nokia is going to sell its smartphone producing division to Microsoft in the first half of 2012. Consequently, Nokia’s shares rise for more than 3% after these statements. But again no official announcement has come from Nokia itself.

We have more bases to believe this can actually happen since such a serious organization as Danske Bank had some real information for sending such a report and especially there is already a precedent when a software making company acquires a hardware making company (for example Google’s buying of Motorola). So let’s wait and see what will happen.

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The shift from Symbian and MeeGo devices to Windows Phone handsets was something shocking for Nokia fans. This is especially true about the Finnish customers, as the manufacturer is one of the prides of their nation. And the shift towards the “other nationality” operating system has influenced the perception of the locals.

This is obvious from the manufacturer’s rapid market share loss in its home country. If Nokia’s share of the last year was around 76%, now it has dropped to 31%, which is 45% less. Even with this result the manufacturer is still leading on the market. The second position is occupied by Samsung with its 25%. Apple comes third with its 16%. Interestingly, Samsung’s results have been improved by 22%.

This is not a total failure if we consider the small number of Finland’s population — 5 million. In contrast, this might be a chance for Nokia to get a ticket to the U.S. customers. Here the market is way larger and more important in terms of sales. Still the manufacturer has to adopt a way to keep the sales high in its home country, otherwise it can have an impact on Nokia’s positive image.

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The diversity of marketing tools, which companies dominating the smartphone market today are using to diminish the successes of their counterparts, is amazing. But to go further and think (or maybe dream) their opponents are dead as a company, is the highest technique.

There were some texts in June predicting which companies would not be there in 2012. This list included Nokia as well. And this prediction was done by the same authors who had predicted T-Mobile would be dead. Now 24/7 Wall Street has information Nokia will disappear in 2012 with companies such as Sony Ericsson, Sears, Saab and Kellogg’s Corn Pops. Here is how they did it, “Nokia is dead. Shareholders are just waiting for an undertaker. The world’s largest handset company has one asset: Nokia sold 25% of the global total of 428 million units sold in the first quarter. Its problem is that in the industry, the company is viewed as a falling knife.” The expressions used in this text clearly prove this is not a prediction, but a negative marketing technique for they are not saying may be, but demonstrating as a fact something, which does not exist.

As if it’s not enough, they are deliberating on who can buy Nokia, and bringing as candidates such companies as HTC, Samsung and LG. Well, why not Google or Apple? The answer is — it is the three mentioned companies that view Nokia as their main “oppressor;” they want Nokia to go to take its place as a company viewed next to Apple, but sharing the second place with Google with Android OS.

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Nokia’s working hard to make its upcoming Windows Phone smartphones as popular as possible. In this regard, Microsoft and Nokia have the same goal, because popular Nokia smartphones mean market share for Microsoft. But it’s more than just a simple market share indicator, because it also means Android and iOS will yield their positions.

Well, earlier we learned that the purpose of Nokia’s cooperation with Microsoft is to make the Finnish company’s high-end smartphones more popular. Thus, Windows Phone must run only on high-end devices. As we see, both companies like what they are doing. Take the latest news, which says Microsoft Apps will become available for Symbian Belle-powered devices. Moreover, the company unveiled the Nokia Lumia 710 at Nokia World 2011 and it is difficult to call it a high-end device. So obviously, this cooperation’s gone deeper than expected.

Now it’s gaining another momentum as Nokia announced it’s going to attract developers to its marketing strategy to help smartphones based on Mango get firmly entrenched in markets where it’s particularly strong (for example, China). This is more than important, because apps have always been one of the main features affecting consumer choice. Apps play an important role, because even if the platform’s a good one the absence of apps can make it completely useless. So I guess the involvement of third-party developers is the right decision.

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The Nokia 800 Lumia was expected to be released in the UK territory sometime this year. This is true about the operator-based units of the device, but not for the SIM-free and unlocked devices. Thus only those willing to get a contract with the operator will get the device in 2011. Clove, which is one of major UK retailer stores, announced the device will be available not earlier than the January of the upcoming year.

Interestingly, the device will be available on November 16, but only from mobile operators and their third-party partners.

One of the assumptions that reason these delays is that Nokia’s not ready to supply enough units of the Nokia Lumia 800 for the UK market. Another reason could be the following — to keep people enthusiastic about the phone for a few more months. If this is the case I’m not sure it’ll work, as these delays annoy and disappoint people.

As for the mobile operators, Nokia mentioned that this Windows Phone device will be sold via all major UK mobile operators, which means that before the end of the year the device will be available in the whole territory of the UK.

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