Nokia Corporation (NOK) Focusing on Replacement Market?

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK), while struggling in major markets like the U.S., has been making legitimate headway in mobile handsets among emerging markets like India, where Nokia and Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) have been at or near the top in market share over the last year. Now, as more and more people get into mobile and smartphones worldwide, it seems that many of them get in the position to replace their phones, not just dump them and go back to whatever they were doing before they had a mobile phone.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK), with its recent release of new Asha models of a budget smartphone, and the expected unveiling of the top-line Lumia phone next week, is attempting to position itself at every price point to be a viable option as the replacement phone that many mobile users tend to move to after they wear out their current phones. Nokia estimates that the replacement market is increasing by 60 to 65 percent every year, with users in urban areas replacing their phones more often than those in suburban or rural areas.

Specifically in India, where Nokia has a strong presence, the smartphone market is growing by 40 percent per year, though as of now the country represents less than 10 percent of total worldwide sales.  However, it’s possible that with being such a strong presence in such a large potential market, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) may be well-positioned not only for growth among those who are in the market for their first phones, but also those who will be looking to replace their current phones.

Any foothold Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) can make in any market – especially one as potentially large as India, where 1 billion people call home – can certainly be appreciated by investors like hedge-fund manger Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, who had a $3.4 million play in Nokia stock at the end of June, but had sold off more than half his shares during the second quarter of 2012.