Nokia Just Out-Sold HTC, Sony, OnePlus, And Google
In the fourth quarter of the year 2017, more Nokia phones were sold than several of the most well-known brands in the USA. In the fourth quarter of the year 2017, more Nokia-branded smartphones were sold than any of the following brands: HTC, Sony, ASUS, Coolpad, Meizu, Gionee, OnePlus, Lenovo, Alcatel, and Google. This sort of threw us for a loop when we first heard it, especially since several of these brands have been at the forefront of the smartphone market here in the USA for the past half-decade or more.
Lenovo owns Motorola, and Motorola is one of the most well-known phone brands since before smartphones. OnePlus gets more press than most smartphone makers in the world, and Google advertises their Pixel phones more than they do any other product – except maybe search or Gmail. So what's the big deal here?
Nokia brand phones are made by HMD Global, a company formed of the remains of the Nokia company after its smartphone manufacturing business was sold to Microsoft. In the past year the Nokia brand has returned internationally, and the company's made several rather nice looking Android devices – as well as a solid collection of feature phones.
Information on sales for Nokia comes from Neil Shah on Twitter. Shah is an analyst and partner at CounterPointTR, a group that monitors smart device shipments around the world. Counterpoint reported that HMD Global sold more than 4.4-million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2017. That gives them approximately 1% of the global market and places them at #11 amongst the biggest smartphone brands in the world.
Could this be the first in a long line of victories for one of the most recognizable phone brands in the world? Just a couple of years ago, the brand's last word was going all-in on Windows Phone – a platform that's now all but extinct. HMD Global's re-investment in Android and feature phones in key markets worldwide may well have given them the gust of wind needed to get their ship back on the high seas of the smart device market here in 2018. Cross your fingers for another big contender from here on out.