November 23 may have been known as "Black Friday." But it was
a very bright and boisterous day for Nokia (NYSE:
NOK
). According to Trip Chowdhry, the Managing Director of Equity
Research at Global Equities Research, Nokia sold out of its
flagship phone -- the Lumia 920 -- last Friday.
"[The Lumia] 920 Windows 8 Phone on AT&T (NYSE:
T
) was completely sold out by mid-day," Chowdhry wrote in a note
to investors and reporters. He added that he was unable to get a
converged view on the number of units each store received.
As the world's second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones,
this should not come as a great surprise to investors. But while
the company performs well in emerging markets (where it can still
sell a large number of feature phones), Nokia has been struggling
to increase its sales of new smartphones. The Finnish
manufacturer recently
dropped to seventh place
in worldwide smartphone sales as Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) continue to rise.
Regardless, Nokia has decided to
stand by Windows
. In August the company said that it would not abandon
Microsoft's (NASDAQ:
MSFT
) mobile operating system for Google's (NASDAQ:
GOOG
) Android platform.
That decision seems to have paid off. One study showed that
Nokia commands
59 percent of the Windows Phone market
. If the company can maintain that dominance as the platform
grows, it could one day prove to be a formidable competitor to
Apple and Samsung. But investors remain concerned. Over the last
12 months, Nokia shares have lost more than 34 percent of their
value.
Nokia has a very real chance of becoming the world's
third-largest manufacturer of smartphones. Research In Motion
(NASDAQ:
RIMM
), which all but created the smartphone market with the first
BlackBerry, has spent the year dragging its feet. Instead of
releasing BlackBerry 10 -- the next evolution to its mobile OS --
the company delayed its flagship product till 2013 and chose to
focus on
PlayBook upgrades
for 2012. Investors still have faith in the firm's performance,
however. Over the past three months, RIM shares have jumped
nearly 70 percent. Year-to-date, the company is still down more
than 25 percent.
HTC (2498.TW), another Nokia rival, has had its own set of
troubles. In addition to the declining revenue, HTC was
reportedly
not allowed
to release a Windows 8 tablet when the OS launched on October 26.
The Taiwan-based enterprise recently lost
$40 million
after OnLive closed its doors. (HTC was an investor in the
company.) And while HTC had reportedly said that it
would not settle
its patent dispute with Apple, the company reversed its decision
and
settled the dispute
. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but HTC chief
executive Peter Chou
denied the claim
that his company will pay Apple as much as $8 per smartphone.
Year-to-date, HTC is down nearly 50 percent.
Follow me
@LouisBedigianBZ
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
advice. All rights reserved.