Nokia News

　　First, the good news: Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) isn’t just the leading manufacturer of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT ) Windows 8 global smartphone market. According to a recent report from AdDuplex, it’s absolutely destroying the competition. Combined with the Q4 announcement of 4.4 million Lumias sold, that should make even Nokia bears stand up and take notice. But with so many ongoing questions regarding the impact of Windows 8 in the smartphone OS market, does Nokia’s resurgence even matter?

　　The envelope, please

　　As of April 4, the date of AdDuplex’s report, Nokia was the manufacturer of choice for 80% of all Windows 8 phones in use worldwide. HTC was a distant second, holding 14% of the Windows phone market, and Samsung, with its limited Windows smartphone alternatives, accounted for 5%. A smattering of others, including Huawei, ZTE, and Acer, shared what little was left.

　　Nokia’s dominant position isn’t entirely a surprise. As the world’s No. 2 phone manufacturer, and the first to go all in with Windows 8, Nokia was always going to be ahead of the pack. But 80% is a staggering market share.

　　Fools should also note the growth of Nokia’s Lumia 920, its latest, greatest, and most expensive smartphone. The Lumia 920 has taken over the top spot of all Windows 8 phones worldwide, jumping from fourth place just a month ago.

　　With Nokia’s earnings announcement slated for April 18, let’s hope CEO Stephen Elop shares Lumia sales numbers specific to the China Mobile deal Nokia inked late last year. With 700 million subscribers, China Mobile is the world’s largest wireless carrier; a good start there would certainly help to explain the jump in Lumia’s position and position Nokia for further growth.

　　Internationally, Nokia dominates Windows 8 smartphone sales the way Samsung and Apple do in the U.S., with more than 90% market penetration in its top 10 markets. South America in particular loves its Nokia Windows 8 smartphones; four of Nokia’s top 10 countries by market share hail from the continent, with Argentina clocking in at 99% market share for all Windows 8 phones in use. Impressive.

　　Now for some perspective

　　Windows Phone, while growing market share in the U.S., remains a distant fourth behind Google’s Android, Apple iOS, and BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY ) , according to recent data from comScore. Android OS and iOS together own slightly more than 90% of the market domestically, and the story’s about the same internationally. Nokia and Microsoft can only point to Windows Phone 8’s movement in the right direction. Along with iOS, Windows 8 was the only operating system to increase its share of the domestic mobile OS pie the past quarter, up to 3.2% from 3% in November.

　　The battle lines have been drawn, and for mobile OS developers, that means the immediate objective is a fight for third place. Unseating Android and iOS will have to wait. Right now, BlackBerry’s holding onto that position. With its new BB10 slowly but surely rolling out across various markets, it should be able to stop the bleeding of its global OS and smartphone market share. Still, declines in market share in the U.K., traditionally a BlackBerry hot spot and one of the first markets to get BB10, puts a damper on things for the company. If Microsoft’s Windows 8 does surpass BlackBerry, Nokia will be leading the charge.

　　The investment opportunity

　　Nokia’s 16% share-price drop year to date should be music to value investors’ ears. Why? Nokia’s shares have declined even after a strong, profitable quarter; its partnership with the largest wireless carrier in the world, China Mobile, could be an enormous boost to already solid Lumia sales; and its Nokia Siemens arrangement is paying off big time.

　　It would be easy to discount Nokia’s dominance in the Windows phone OS sweepstakes, given Microsoft’s small (but growing) market share relative to Android and iOS. But that would be a mistake. Lumia’s sales growth and Nokia’s ownership of 80% of the Windows Phone market are big steps in the right direction and shouldn’t be discounted. Value investors in particular should take a good, long look at Nokia right now.

　　Nokia’s been struggling in a world of Apple and Android smartphone dominance. However, the company has banked its future on its next generation of Windows smartphones, and early indications are good. Motley Fool analyst Charly Travers has created a new premium report that digs into both the opportunities and risks facing Nokia to help investors decide if the company is a buy or sell. To get started, simply click here now.

　　The Death of the PC

　　The days of paying for costly software upgrades are numbered. The PC will soon be obsolete. And BusinessWeek reports 70% of Americans are already using the technology that will replace it. Merrill Lynch calls it “a $160 billion opportunity.” Computing giants including IBM, Yahoo!, and Amazon are racing to be the first to cash in on this PC-killing revolution.

　　Yet a small group of little-known companies have a huge head start. Get the full details on these companies, and the technology that is about to destroy the PC, in a free video report from The Motley Fool.

　　One of the things that makes Nokia’s smartphones so particularly shiny are Nokia’s top-notch designers, right? Maybe not. Microsoft’s revealed that it has “plenty of influence” over what goes into Nokia’s phones.

　　Speaking to Pocket-Lint, Casey McGee, Microsoft’s senior marketing manager for Windows Phone stated that

　　“Our relationship is so close we get hardware early and we have some say in how these things are designed. For an engineer or a designer it might feel a little bit different, but I think for people working with the developers and talking broadly about the phone I am very happy with the relationship and the ability to influence what they are doing.”

　　It’s hard to look at the Nokia Lumia 920 and not see elements of the Nokia N9, so quite how much this extends into actual hardware design as distinct from software design is a bit hard to say. Then again, Nokia’s future rests very solidly on the success (or failure) of Windows Phone, so perhaps having a big friend looking over your shoulder when you’re sketching out a new phone isn’t a bad idea after all.