Apple Cedes Surging India Smartphone Market to Nokia-RIM

Apple Inc., the world's largest smartphone maker, is having trouble selling iPhones in India, a market with 602 million active subscribers.

Apple, which will introduce a new iPhone version tomorrow, ships fewer handsets to the world's second-largest mobile-phone market than it does to Norway. Nokia Oyj and Research In Motion Ltd. sell more devices in India, where smartphone shipments are forecast to grow almost 70 percent a year until 2015, helping mitigate their market-share losses in the U.S. and Europe.

Sales for the world's biggest company by market value are hindered because Indian wireless carriers, which started third- generation networks this year, have yet to offer nationwide services fast enough to take advantage of iPhone features, said Gus Papageorgiou, an analyst at Scotia Capital Inc. in Toronto.

“Networks in India are just not conducive for Apple -- 3G networks aren't quite where they are in Western Europe and North America,” he said. “RIM got the right product, the right timing, the right app.”

Apple shipped 62,043 iPhones to India in the quarter ending June 30, or fewer than to Norway, Belgium or Israel, according to estimates by Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC.

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Apple to launch online marketing services in December

Apple has announced its iAd mobile marketing method will become available to European businesses from December.

The company said the system will allow advertisers to "reach millions of iPhone and iPod touch users right in their favourite apps" and offer developers a fresh source of income.

Several main advertisers in the country have signed up for the service since it was introduced to the US in July and the feature is expected to account for 21 per cent of the nation's mobile display marketing revenue.

Major European brands that have agreed to use the system include Renault, Louis Vuitton and L'Oreal.

Marc Menesguen, head of strategic marketing at the beauty product maker, stated iAd would offer online marketing services providers an "unparalleled opportunity to reach and serve the most engaged and discerning customers".

The content will be available to users with products running Apple's iOS platform, which according to a current report by Gartner was responsible for 16.7 per cent of the smartphone market in the third quarter of 2010.

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