Retail Vendor Of the Year: Nokia

Today, Nokia boasts roughly 350,000 points of sale globally and manufactures and sells an estimated 1.5 million phones per day. When other device manufacturers trickle a few strategic new handsets into the market per year, Nokia rolls out dozens, ranging from the low-end $19 Go Phone to a nearly $800 full-featured smartphone.

Recent statistics from market researcher Gartner, Stamford, Conn., show that in the first quarter of 2008 Nokia commanded more than 45 percent of the global smartphone market, with sales up 25 percent year over year, dominating based on its variety of offerings that target different price points in the high-end and middle tier. For the second quarter of 2008 Nokia posted $19.8 billion in sales, a 4 percent year-over-year increase.

No wonder Nokia is picking up the award for retail vendor of the year at RetailVision, Everything Channel's and Vision Events' retail industry event, in San Diego this week.

With its commanding presence, it would be easy for Nokia to rely on its momentum and coast along, but the Finnish manufacturer flat-out refuses to rest on its laurels. Instead, Nokia continues to dream up and make reality new tools and products to keep consumers and the retailers that sell to them outfitted with the latest that mobile technology has to offer, whether that be through its N-Gage mobile gaming platform, Nokia Navigation Services, or its Ovi Internet service, which acts as a dashboard to let users share photos, buy music and access third-party applications like Yahoo-owned Flickr and pits Nokia in direct competition with other Internet services champions like Microsoft, Google and Apple.

According to Robert Pignataro, Nokia's director of retail channel sales, Nokia's retail success comes down to offering a breadth of devices at varying price points. "We know that one size doesn't fit all and one product doesn't fit all," he said.

"Our success in the retail channel is focused on the fact that we have a billion Nokia users worldwide right now," said Pignataro, who will picking up the award for retail vendor executive of the year at RetailVision. "We have more consumer insight than any other company in the world. We studied more than 64,000 consumers in 20 markets, and that goes from emerging markets to developed countries, and as a result of that data we're bringing products and services to market that appeal to a wide variety of consumers. And our retailers see value in that."

Another key to Nokia's success, Pignataro said, is being ahead of the trends, something that has propelled Nokia from not only being the world's largest handset manufacturer, but also the leading maker of portable music players and digital cameras, because many of the devices Nokia offers contain those new features.

"The market is evolving," Pignataro said. "You've got the convergence of the Internet, mobility, context awareness; this is changing the way people communicate ... voice is only 12 percent of the total use of the device. People are Web browsing, they're e-mailing, they're using GPS and their music. Nokia is looking beyond the device portfolio, which in itself is very broad. ... But we're looking beyond the device and saying: How do we evolve the usage of your handset into these areas to connect people with their passions and their interests anywhere?"

And as Nokia looks toward the fourth quarter and into 2009, Pignataro said he expects the momentum to continue, with a host of new device rollouts and advancements in its services model. For retailers to capitalize on that, he said, they too have to offer consumers a varied choice of devices and solutions.

"The one thing that consumers reach for when they leave the house or go anywhere is their mobile device, so let's not underestimate the consumer buying power and what their interests are," he said. "The ability to offer a wide variety of choices I think is going to be critical for retailers this season so that we can address the specific needs of their consumer base."

To help retailers target consumers, Nokia has a few tricks up its sleeve for the holiday season and the new year, including retail-only add-on items to help consumers take advantage of Ovi and other services Nokia has launched as it diversifies its portfolio and grows beyond the device.