Apple Inc. (AAPL) Finds an Unlikely Ally Against Samsung: Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK)

Source: IDC.

It’s very much like Samsung and Nokia simply switched places in terms of both unit and market share. Within the smartphone subset of the mobile phone market, here’s how things played out last year.

Source: IDC.

Nokia has long enjoyed success in lower end emerging markets with its low-cost devices, and right now Samsung is the bigger threat in those segments (until Apple releases an affordable iPhone), as the company targets every imaginable price point and form factor in a shotgun approach to product strategy. These markets are where Samsung is making most of its gains, since Apple still dominates the high end in developed economies.

Even a previous-generation iPhone was able to outsell the flagship Galaxy S III in the fourth quarter, with the newest iPhone 5 selling nearly twice as many units. Apple is now the top smartphone vendor in developed countries like the U.S. and Japan, while Samsung still has the lead in emerging markets like China and India.

Nokia’s Asha lineup, launched last June, targets emerging markets and is seeing success, selling significantly more than the higher-end Lumias.

Source: Nokia.

At the Mobile World Congress last month, Nokia showed off a $20 feature phone that was of surprisingly respectable quality given the price point.

Grudge match
All of this shows why Nokia may still hold a grudge against Samsung, even as the company’s turnaround is well under way and the transition to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone is starting to bear fruit. Nokia now comprises the overwhelming majority of Windows Phone shipments; Lumias were 73% of Windows Phone shipments last quarter. What’s good for Nokia at this point is good for Microsoft, too, and a U.S. ban on Samsung devices would give Microkia some room to breathe.

The article Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Finds an Unlikely Ally Against Samsung originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Microsoft.

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