The news for Nokia (NOK) is not so bright these days, looking at the broad picture of things. This is not to say that the industry is in dire straits, because the market is actually emerging. Nokia was the leader in mobile phone sales for 14 years, until it was taken over in that title by Korea’s Samsung in the first quarter of this year. This occurs after Apple (AAPL), as well as Samsung, overtook Nokia in smartphone sales last year. Nokia saw a dramatic drop, falling 16% in basic phone sales in the first three months of 2012. To top that off, basic phone sales have dropped in four of the last five quarters.

This comes as competitors like China’s ZTE (ZTCOF.PK) and Huawei have been growing fast. These companies are especially moving ahead of Nokia in places like India. India has the world’s second-biggest mobile phone market, with more than 900 million subscribers. In 2011, Nokia’s share of this market was 31% of the total 183 million handsets sold. This has been cut in half since then. This drag on sales for Nokia has been widespread, with its share of the Chinese market, the world’s largest cellphone market, falling 62% from a year ago. Nokia controlled 39% of the market in 2009, but only controlled a mere 24% last year. Nokia cannot afford this drag on its sales right now.Why is it that Nokia is having so much trouble keeping up with the booming market?

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