Nokia 2011 Annual Report Download - page 19

conditions, combined with our increased focus on Nokia products with Windows Phone, we believe we
will sell fewer Symbian devices than previously anticipated.
We invested our own resources in developing Symbian until September 2011 when we concluded an
agreement with Accenture to outsource the Symbian software development and support services. Our
ability to have a competitive offering of Symbian devices and to maintain the economic viability of the
Symbian smartphone platform during the transition to Windows Phone is subject to certain risks and
uncertainties, which could, either individually or together, significantly impair our market share in
smartphones, net sales and profitability. Those risks and uncertainties include the following:
• Increasingly, our mobile operator and distributor customers and consumers no longer see our
Symbian smartphones as attractive during our transition to Windows Phone. Our mobile
operator and distributor customers may choose not to promote and market some or all of our
Symbian smartphones, or they may require financial incentives, such as significant price
reductions, to do so. This is likely to result in additional losses of market share, which could
be substantial, and which will not be offset at least in the near term by sales of our Nokia
products with Windows Phone. We may not be able to regain our smartphone market share
losses when quantities of Nokia products with Windows Phone do become widely
commercially available.
• The current or former Symbian smartphone owners may choose not to purchase our Nokia
products with Windows Phone.
• Applications, services and content developed by developers and other Symbian partners may
rapidly decline or cease, which would diminish the viability of our Symbian smartphones and
their attractiveness to our mobile operator and distributor customers and consumers, as well
as limit the opportunity to transition compatible aspects of our Symbian development to the
Windows Phone ecosystem.
• The lower than anticipated sales volumes of our Symbian smartphones resulted in the
recognition of allowances in 2011 for excess component inventory and future purchase
commitments related to Symbian, and we may need to recognize additional allowances in the
future if our currently anticipated sales volumes deteriorate further.
• Our suppliers may reduce the availability of certain components for our Symbian smartphones
or we may not be able to obtain certain or sufficient components for our Symbian
smartphones at attractive prices resulting in increased costs that we may not be able to pass
on to our customers.
• We may not be able to provide the necessary support for our employees working on Symbian
related matters and business during the transition to Windows Phone.
• We may not be able to efficiently manage the phase-out over time of our investment in
Symbian while maintaining accepted profitability of those products.
• Our strategic partnership with Accenture is subject to various risk and uncertainties, which
may adversely affect our ability to have an attractive offering of Symbian devices and serve
our Symbian customers. Accenture may not be able to provide new updates and
functionalities to the Symbian platform that keep it sufficiently attractive and there may be
delays in updates or new functionalities. Accenture may lose key personnel and skilled
employees involved in the development of the Symbian platform causing quality issues or
delays.
• Our strategic choices regarding our Symbian platform and market perceptions of the Symbian
platform may have a negative effect on the attractiveness of our other mobile products and
the Nokia brand.
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