Nokia Will Use Windows Phone To Grab a Bigger Piece of the U.S. Market

After years of putting most of its efforts into Europe, the President of Nokia's U.S. subsidiary says that North America and the United States are going to be a critical part of Nokia's overall strategy going forward.

Previously, Nokia had been in a "chicken or egg" situation with the U.S. It never put much effort into making devices appeal to consumers in this country, so sales were poor. Because sales were poor, the company never saw much point in putting any effort into making its products appeal to U.S. consumers. As a result, Nokia has less than 1% of the U.S. smartphone market.

Nokia's Chris Weber says that's going to change. Speaking in an interview with AllThingsD, he said, "We'll develop for North America and make the phones globally available and applicable."

This change is a result of Nokia's switch from using Symbian as the operating system on its high-end handsets to using Microsoft's Windows Phone. Nokia expects devices running Microsoft's mobile OS to sell well in North America. According to Weber, "The first Windows Phones that will ship are being done by our group in San Diego." 

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop recently gave the world a sneak peek at his company's first Windows Phone, code-named the Sea Ray. This will have a bar shape dominated by its display, but its exact specifications are not yet known.

No More Symbian
Weber says that Nokia's U.S. subsidiary is going to put its entire focus on handsets running Windows Phone. There will not be any more Nokia smartphones or featurephones released in this country based on Symbian.

This includes the recently-announced Nokia N9, which runs the MeeGo OS. Nokia said yesterday that this model will not be introduced in the U.S.A.

Source: AllThingsD