Yesterday, the credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Nokia’s debt to near junk level citing a “sharp decline in first-quarter cell phone sales that led to a 35 percent fall in revenue.” Standard & Poor’s announced a similar downgrade in March. Nokia’s share prices plunged another 20 percent in recent days on news that it would not come close to its forecasts.
Things do not seem to be looking up, either. Reuters talked to four European carriers that said Nokia phones simply could not compete with Apple’s iPhone and the Android devices already available.
When the Nokia 900 launched, we asked: “What question does the Lumia 900 answer? Why would you buy a Lumia over an iPhone or Android device?”
After RIM’s latest earnings call, it also appears to be in a death spiral. Yesterday, it hired bankers to help it figure out what to do – and if you are asking bankers to help get you out of a technology mess, you are really screwed.
The question now is whether Nokia will beat RIM to bankruptcy or being sold (to Microsoft).
