Apple Vs Nokia: The battle for market dominance

Nokia (Nokia), the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, expects its share of the global handset market to remain flat next year, amid mounting competition from Apple’s (Apple) iPhone and lower-end Chinese devices.

Volumes in the mobile-phone industry will rise by about 10% in 2010, the company forecast at its investor day today in Espoo, Finland, where it is based. Nokia’s share of the smart-phone market, the industry’s fastest-growing piece, slid to 39.3% in the third quarter from 42.3% a year earlier, while Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, gained, according to researcher Gartner (IT).

“The goal of flat market share was surprisingly modest, tepid, I would say,” said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst with MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn. “”They are quite likely losing market share a bit in India and China. If they can offset that by an increase in North America and Western Europe, it would be welcome.”

The company is releasing new touch-screen phones and improved applications to compete with Apple’s iPhone, which has made the U.S. company the world’s most profitable handset vendor, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Nokia lags behind Apple in applications, the new battleground for handset makers. The company’s main business of mid- and low-end handsets, which accounts for 55 percent of devices revenue, is also being eroded by Chinese and emerging market rivals.

Nokia fell as much as 15 cents, or 1.7 percent, to 8.76 euros and was down 0.6 percent as of 2.47 p.m. in Helsinki. The stock has dropped 20 percent this year, valuing the mobile-phone maker at 33.2 billion euros ($50 billion).

With all things aside however Technology Blogged loves Nokia phones – always has done, not all of them but most. And on that – we also love the iPhone. Nokia will come back we’re sure .