Ericsson extends market share, Nokia faces tough year

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Although Ericsson continues to benefit from the ramp-up of 5G deployments around the world, Nokia will struggle with a further reduction in expected market share in 2021, as a result of the supplier struggling to turn all its 4G footprint into 5G, said Counterpoint Research, an industry tracker.

During the fourth quarter of 2020, Ericsson announced a substantial rise in sales of the radio access network (RAN) hardware, an indicator that it is expanding its footprint.

There was a good development in China, North America, and in the regions of Southeast Asia, Oceania and India.

In Europe, however, as the overall demand has been stagnant and is not increasing at this period, growth was solely due to market share gains.

While sales declined in the last quarter in Africa and Latin America, Ericsson expects to increase its market share in both these markets over the coming months, as well as in China.

The Swedish supplier now says that it is seeing worldwide gains in market share from all of its rivals and not just in markets where Huawei and ZTE are absent.

Ericsson expects this to continue until the middle of 2021 at least.

This is due, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday, to the attractiveness of its 5G product portfolio from a cost and product function perspective and due to its potential roadmap.

In addition, TCO (total cost of ownership) savings for its MNO (mobile network operator) customers continue to be created by its sustained investment in research and development (R&D).

Nokia will struggle with a further decline in market share anticipated in 2021 in the midst of restructuring, as a consequence of the supplier struggling to turn all its 4G footprint into 5G, the study said.

Nokia is not only absent from the main Chinese RAN market, but it is also struggling in North America because of its decreased market share and price erosion, which is higher in North America than in other parts of the world, due to lower volumes.

Furthermore, during 2021, the vendor expects major currency headwinds.

The report said, however, that Nokia has a very competitive mid-band RAN portfolio, and after the completion of the C-band auctions in the US, there could be some upside.

In Europe, due to the absence of Chinese vendors, Nokia is gaining market share, it added.