SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT analysis measures the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths

involved in a project or business venture. It is essential because it helps to define the
goal and develop planning of the organization. To have a closer look at the brand
Nokia N97, SWOT analysis is presented here.
1. Nokia N97 strengths
Nokia has the leading market share and recognized brand amongst the consumers.
According to Strategies Analytics, Nokia possesses 38% of the market share in the
first quarter of 2009 (O’Brien, 2009). Nokia is famous for its sheer quality and
features. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the two top largest mobile
operators in the world (another one is Ericsson), which is a great support for Nokia
N97. Therefore, Nokia N97 has the strength of corporate brand.
Nokia N97 is considered to be the most advanced mobile computer with the
promise to change the way people connect to one another: “From the desktop to the
laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory
mobile computer in existence”, said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia
Nseries. Nokia N97 possesses several “the firsts” which will catch the eyes of many
consumers: the first Qwerty mobile phone with a slide out Qwerty in Nseries line, the
first touch screen device in Nseries line, the first Nseries device with high resolution
screen which is 3.5 inch and support 16 million colors, the first Nokia device which
has a built-in memory of 32 GB.
The price of Nokia N97 is about 550 pound equal to about $699, which is said to
be a good price for a mobile computer- a device close the gap between a computer
and mobile.
To boost up the strength, Nokia is in need of creating aggressive marketing
campaigns, which emphasize the brand and introduce the new Nokia N97. Customers
already have good strong belief about Nokia. Therefore, Nokia should take advantage
to promote Nokia N97. This will create positive belief and attitude towards Nokia
N97.
2. Nokia N97 weaknesses
Unlike I phone Apple-a friendly user mobile phone, it is supposed that Nokia N97
is tough and complex to understand for those who are not gadget lovers.
It has been about 4 years since Nokia Nseries was introduced the first time on April
27, 2005. Nokia N97 also belongs to this product line, whose name is kept for a long
time. As a result, Nokia N97 lacks of competitive differentiated name. The customers
should be able to form a connection between the name of the device with itself.
However, Nokia N97 lacks of this when introducing N97 with undifferentiated name
as a multimedia mobile.
To improve weaknesses, Nokia needs to have clear manual and improve their
assistance service for users, which can help them find it easy and comfortable to use
the mobile. Additionally, it is a good idea to create a survey about customers’
difficulties when using the new phone. On the other hand, although Nokia N97 lacks
differentiated new name, it has the strength of corporate brand. Nokia should make
good use of this to promote their new mobile computer, create image of a multimedia
mobile for Nokia N97.
3. Nokia N97 opportunities
In the economic crisis time, all enterprises and organization are on the same boat.
However, the target customer of N97 is the wealthy one which seems to suffer less
from the economic downturn. Thus, Nokia N97 is expected to satisfy the need of
well-off people who want a mobile computer that can bring the world to their pocket
even in this hard time.
It is recommended that Nokia should launch promotion programs to strengthen
their brand name and promote new brand which focused on target customers who not
only buy the core product but also the brand. It is necessary to enhance after-sale
service for the customers which satisfy the customers and help to maintain good
relationship with them.
4. Nokia N97 threats
The global economic crisis is striking every company, including Nokia. The
buying power of consumers has been reduced all over the world. According to
International Labor Organization, it is predicted that at least 20 million jobs will have
been lost by the end of 2009 because of this crisis (Late-2000s recession, 2008).
Definitely, it has great impact on the sale of Nokia. “Nokia reiterated its expectation
that industry sales would decline 10% this year from 2008” (O’Brien, 2009) due to
the global economic downturn. Hence, Nokia N97 is facing with the risk of low sale
at this crisis time.
Mobile technology is a big threat. It requires Nokia to generate continuous
innovation. The famous mobile giants like Nokia, Blackberry, Samsung, and Sony
Ericsson has almost the same technology as it can be seen when they introduce new
touch-screen mobile phone recently. Especially, I phone Apple is a fierce competitor
of Nokia N97 because it is considered to be the most well-known for the touch screen
mobile phone already. As being illustrated on the graph below, Symbian takes up the
majority of market shares in the smartphone market. However, Iphone’s is sky-
rocketing in 2008 as it can be seen from the graph.

Source: http://blogs.computerworld.com
Not only Nokia suffered from economic crisis but other companies as well. To
face with this threat, it is suggested that Nokia should reduce the price of Nokia N97
to increase sales. Futhermore, Nokia can take advantage of its Nokia Siemens
Network to promote the sale of Nokia N97 by offering discounts if customers sign
contract to use Nokia Siemens Network when buying Nokia N97. On the other hand,
by building a worldwide supplier network, Nokia can have competitive advantage
over Apple, whose business is based on United States mostly.
SWOT of Nokia N97 has just analyzed above. However, due to the limit of time
and resource, this analysis still needs to be improved in further research.