Analyst says Nokia N8 outsold by iPhone by 6-to-1

Apple is outselling Nokia's N8 by a wide margin in Europe, Morgan Stanley analyst Patrick Standaert found in an investment note today. Checks with 150 phone stores across five European countries showed iPhones selling by a ratio of six to one. Customers were also reportedly happy with the N8 in most areas except for the app count on the Ovi Store, which was well behind the iPhone's catalog.

In spite of the gap, Standaert was upbeat on the study as it suggested to him that the N8 wasn't selling as poorly as feared. Nokia would only sell 2.5 million N8s in the fall and nine million through all of 2011, but the results would be good enough that the company could hold out with 35 percent total phone market share given the rest of its lineup. Nokia currently has 36.6 percent share, according to Gartner.

Nokia's 400,000 registered developers and three million app downloads per day were also signs that Nokia was overcoming its longstanding problems with courting developers.

The results may still create problems for Nokia, since the N8 is currently its flagship phone and the basis for its smartphone strategy. Many of those dropping Nokia have been jumping to platforms that have what Nokia was supposed to bring, such as multi-touch input and a modern web browser. Apple shipped 14.1 million iPhones in just the summer and is expected to get close to or beat that figure in the fall.

By Electronista Staff