Nokia Killing Symbian and S40 In North America 148
In an interview with AllthingsD, the head of Nokia's US operations declared that Nokia will be focusing exclusively on Windows Phone devices in North America. Reasons cited include the low profit margins of the ubiquitous low-end Series 40 devices and lackluster sales of Symbian based devices. This also means that the N9 won't be making it to North America either.
What makes the writer think no N9 for USA? (Score:3, Informative)
Those devices are popular in africa and india etc developing markets.
The OS in N9 is Harmattan aka Maemo 6, you know one of the linux based Nokia phones. (No, not Meego)
It has nothing to do with symbian.
Only problem with N9 is, that it's 4 years too late.
Die Nokia! Die! (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia have turned Symbian OS into a joke. Every application you install including any freeware must be signed or your phone must be hacked. You also need a developer certificate - specific to the phone's IMEI to hack your phone. Ever since this June when Nokia changed Symbian Signed so that getting a developer certificate software for free is no longer possible, Way to turn a smart phone into a dumb phone. I'm locked into a contract until November. After that I'll never buy anything Nokia or Microsoft again. I am not big on brand loyalty but I have been using Nokia phones exclusively since 1998, and now I can't wait to ditch them. Up until a couple of years ago I was able to get good battery life and install the odd app to customise my phone without too much drama. Sure PC suite was buggy and made teathering difficult when it crashed (requiring phone or PC or both to be rebooted) and instead of fixing it it seemed to get buggier with every generation but I could live with that. For the most part the phones were just the right balance of smart phone at a good price. Now they are overpriced pieces of junk - you'd almost be better off with one of those crappy throwaway GSM only phones for all the capability the latest gen of phone give you. Bye bye Nokia, don't let the door hit your arse on the way out and take Symbian Signed with you.
Re:Decent kit is going away :( (Score:5, Informative)
It's a shame, really. My wife's 4 year old Nokia E65 is still doing its thing, with an OK web browser, wifi etc., and the battery life is roughly 5x what my LG Optimus gets. Nokia used to make some great kit if you weren't the type that had to have "Apps" that were just repackaging of websites or farting noises.
Nokia also use to let you install apps without having to buy certificates until Symbian Signed came along. The apps just weren't as sophisticated. A change in June means even getting a dev cert costs $$$, so they can go to hell now. There are some very useful applications for customising your phone out there - it's not just fart apps. For example Nokia doesn't do an auto answer to speakerphone app (which would essentially do away with the need for a hands free unit). But you can get an app for that. Before they killed off the freeware community there use to be a lot of good stuff for free for their candybar phones.
Re:Well, there's one brand I'll never be buying ag (Score:4, Informative)
I've owned Nokia phones in the past, and have always considered them when it came time to buy a new one. But they just ensured that will never happen again. I can see maybe dabbling with Windows Phone and offering a few sets for variety... but when the news keeps showing that Windows Phone is DoA [eweek.com], I don't get why Nokia would bet everything on a sinking ship. Are they truly that suicidal?
The article you quoted is rubbish. Here's a comment from there:
One should invest in a little research before writing.
1) The 38% drop stems almost entirely from users moving from Windows Mobile to another platform. Windows Mobile is to Windows Phone 7 what the Newton is to the iPhone. Yes, Microsoft is losing to Android but so is Apple. And it is misleading to imply, as you did, that customers are leaving Windows Phone 7. This just isn't the case.
2) Mango was released to manufactures last month. This was reported by this same outlet that allowed you to publish such drivel. On second thought, you were right to ignore it. I wouldn't trust eWeek as a source either.
As to why Nokia switched: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_24/b4232056703101.htm [businessweek.com]
Key takeaway is that hiring open source evangelists to design a mobile OS(i.e Meego) failed and they wouldn't have had enough devices running it. After the board realized that, they jettisoned the CEO and brought in Elop to get alternatives. Blackberry, HP and Google told him to take a hike so the only credible option left was WP7. Interesting angles that you don't see when you read Slashdot comments.