Apple Biting Nokia Turns Table on Values: Chart of the Day Tweet

While Apple Inc.’s iPhones are flying off shelves, the equity market shows investors are not taking Nokia Oyj’s calls.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows how Apple and Nokia market values have switched places in 10 years. Apple’s $247 billion market value today is about where Nokia’s was in 2000. That’s when Apple’s main product was the Macintosh computer.

The switchover came in 2007, when Apple’s introduction of the iPhone cemented a move into consumer electronics that began with the iPod music player in 2001. The Finnish company went from being 14 times the size of Apple in 2000 to an eighth of it today. Also this week, it became smaller than Waterloo, Ontario- based Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry.

“They have lost the war on the smartphone and the brand image of the group is weak,” said Sebastien Sztabowicz, a Paris-based analyst at Kepler Capital Markets, on Nokia. “Investors are focusing on Apple and the BlackBerry.” He rates Nokia as “reduce.”

Nokia this week cut its outlook for 2010 earnings for a second time this year. While Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, is telling customers to wait for the N8, its new flagship smartphone, demand for the iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android devices is surging.

Nokia, which held on to its smartphone market share of 41 percent in the first quarter thanks to cheaper models and lower prices, has said it plans to ship the new N8 model in the third quarter. The customer base for Cupertino, California-based Apple’s iPhone may top 100 million users next year, helped by the release next week of iPhone 4, says Morgan Stanley.

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