The world’s largest mobile maker, Nokia, has dropped its prices across a range of its smartphones by up to 15 percent this month across Europe in what analysts say is a bid to stave off its dwindling presence in the market.While it ships the most units around the world, Nokia is in fast decline to big competitors like Samsung and Apple that are aggressively pushing their products ahead of Nokia on a global scale. Apple recently surpassed Nokia as the top phone maker in Australia.
Nokia has dropped the prices of its N8, C7 and recent E6 by almost 15 percent, with a range of other small cuts across the rest of its range, though the company puts this down to regular business practice.
The move comes as Nokia begins cutting factory staff and outsourcing work while its share price drops.
Industry sources speaking to Reuters indicated that the price drops could intensify a price war within the mobile market. They also say that the scale of the price drop across the range from Nokia has not been seen for a long time.
While the company ordinarily cuts global prices on certain quarters of the year, the recent move stands out as being region-specific, so Australia has not seen the same 15 percent cuts.
