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.
Nokia is still in business? (Score:2, Funny)
Nokia is still in business?
Re:Nokia is still in business? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently so. But their new CEO appears to be doing everything he can to change this.
Quite what the major shareholders think about it, I'd love to know.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
No, the new brand of phones is called NoWin.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Nokia is still in business? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
The last quarterly was a great example of your CEO deciding to scuttle the company, and how long it takes from him blowing up scuttling charges placed in all the right places to ship actually starting to sink.
Funnily, I've played with N9, and it feels superior on W7 HTC phones that nokia design guys had in may in about every way. The old pre-Elop strategy of symbian for low end and meego/harmattan for high end would have likely meant nokia would have been still very much #1 and head and shoulders above ever
Re: (Score:3)
And the basic non-smart phones wont' have symbian or windows either way. So a non issue there. What make Nokia huge in the past was that their core business was also very well designed and everyone wanted one from the basic user to the high end yuppie moron. So Nokia has lost the highest end market but that's to be expected as they're fickle and will chase whatever new lust object comes along. The real problem is that they're losing out on their core business from cheaper dumb phone alternatives, having
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nokia may be poised for the turnaround of this decade, Apple was clearly the biggest turnaround in the last 20 years, from 90 days to bankruptcy to the largest market cap company in the world. I have no doubt your comment when Apple was in the news 15 years ago would be: Apple is still in business?
Which do you think is a better growth investment and more likely, Apple will further grow 1000x its size and revenues from its _current_ position, or for Nokia to make a comeback? Clearly the safer bet is on No
Re: (Score:2)
or, the much more likely position, Apple continues to sell all kinds of stuff that people rush out to buy while Nokia slides into bankruptcy.
That's the problem with recovery plays, quite often they just don't. The safer bet is on 'boring' old Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
" it's killing pretty much everything it makes and just repackaging stuff made by another company."
If it's so easy that just repackaging someone elses work, why wouldn't microsoft do it themselves? There would be no reason for microsoft to play this game, if your theory is correct.
Re: (Score:2)
Open Source to clenched-fist model. (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear Nokia, I love your engineers. But please ditch your marketing department, just soon as you fire your CEO Stephen Elop, the $hill from Micro$oft. I miss you lots.
Re: (Score:2)
Dear Nokia, I love your engineers. But please ditch your marketing department, just soon as you fire your CEO Stephen Elop, the $hill from Micro$oft. I miss you lots.
Please. In all honestly, Nokia was in deep trouble long before he took over in September 2010. Android and iPhone was and still is eating them for lunch while the precious engineers never managed to make anything out of Symbian/Qt/Maemo/MeeGo so they'd have a competitive smartphone. Elop took over a company that was already driving off the road, he might have panicked and sent them head-first into the ditch rather than back on the road, but it was far from flowers and sunshine before he took over.
Re: (Score:1)
The engineers weren't at fault, management was. Maemo was a beautiful phone, then they decided to scrap it and redesign with MeeGo after they bought Qt. This made *some* sense because they came up with the very clean development strategy with Qt compiling to both Symbian and MeeGo so they could slowly phase it out, but it came at the high price of having nothing to compete with Android/iOS.
Now MeeGo is ready and they're throwing it out for Windows Phone 7, the worst of all of the modern smartphone OSes whic
Re: (Score:2)
Now MeeGo is ready
That's hardly what this article [businessweek.com] says.
At its current pace, Nokia was on track to introduce only three MeeGo-driven models before 2014â"far too slow to keep the company in the game. Elop tried to call OistÃmÃ, but his phone battery was dead. "He must have been trying an Android phone that day," says Elop. When they finally spoke late on Jan. 4, "It was truly an oh-s--t momentâ"and really, really painful to realize where we were," says OistÃmÃ. Months later, OistÃmà still struggles to hold back tears. "MeeGo had been the collective hope of the company," he says, "and we'd come to the conclusion that the emperor had no clothes. It's not a nice thing."
Personally I don't understand how they could screw that up so royally, but it seems they did.
Re: (Score:2)
Now MeeGo is ready
That's hardly what this article [businessweek.com] says.
At its current pace, Nokia was on track to introduce only three MeeGo-driven models before 2014
And Nokia's problem so far has been having too few models? And they're biggest competitor launches how many phones a year?
It is evident from a number of sources that are or were inside Nokia that Meego/Harmattan was delayed due to continual direction changes by management. I believe Meego/Harmattan, if it had been shipped by February 2011, even with 1 device a year, would have been sufficient to make Nokia's Qt strategy successful.
But, too many devices leads to a lack of hardware accessories from 3rd partie
Re: (Score:1)
Decent kit is going away :( (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
But ... but ... (butt ... butt ... ;-)
What would I do without farting noises? That's the pinnacle of funny. The acme of funny even. How can you not have farting noises?
Re:Decent kit is going away :( (Score:5, Funny)
Learn to make farting noises yourself. Be a producer, not a consumer!
Re: (Score:2)
Dude, I've been a vegetarian for over a decade, and I eat a fair amount of beans and legumes ... I know how to make my own.
The idea is to make fart noises without the accompanying gaseous emissions -- it's generally safer for those around me. ;-)
Re: (Score:1)
Thanks for confirming!
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: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
I have seen a many amazing chunks of hardware to be instantly crippled by windows implementation
we will see what happens this round
Re: (Score:2)
Mango is not going to magically give you 3x battery life compared to iOS or Android. It's still a smartphone OS, that requires beefy hardware and sucks battery like there's no tomorrow. GP is right - S40 devices absolutely have their niche, which is quite different from smartphones. I carry a high-end Android smartphone daily, but I also do take my old Nokia with me when travelling - just in case I don't find place or time for that daily charge of my 'droid.
Re: (Score:2)
Mango is not going to magically give you 3x battery life compared to iOS or Android.
Its also not gonna give you multi-tasking. Nor any of the myriad of things developers have gotten used to in Android.
Re: (Score:2)
Reviewers who have seen it seem quite impressed by Windows Phone 'Mango',
I've seen the usual fawning puff-pieces by those parts of the media whose business depends of Microsoft advertising dollars, but no genuine reviews showing anything Mango does better than iOS or Android.
Remember, just being better than the previous iteration isn't good enough in this market. It has to be better than the actual competition as well.
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.
The fact that Nokia said so. (Score:3)
Nokia said straight out that the N9 isn't coming to the US. The writer wasn't inferring anything. RTFA.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You assume it will be available via retail channels. Elop is gunning hard to make sure the N9 is difficult to get.
Re: (Score:2)
You assume it will be available via retail channels. Elop is gunning hard to make sure the N9 is difficult to get.
Not hard for the kind of guy who wants an N9 (who probably has an N900 already). Just hard for the kind of guy who can't walk into a US carrier's retail outlet and get one with a 2-year service commitment -- actually, impossible for that guy.
Re: (Score:3)
If you ever had N9 in your hands, you'd know that no, it's not. Hardware needed to make N9 run like it does didn't exist four years ago and neither did software stack that advanced.
Seriously, find a friend with the said phone and try it before you moan about it being late.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple fanboys disagree with a lot of things. Many of these disagreements make no sense whatsoever. This would be one of them.
Re: (Score:2)
Which part of "iPhone four" in GP's post you did not understand?
FWIW, most of what you list (that still applies) is absent from iOS for deliberate design reasons, not because it requires some beefy hardware. Quite obviously you don't need powerful hardware for e.g. Bluetooth file transfers, it's just that Apple can't be bothered to implement that. As for multitasking - stock iOS apps multitask just fine, so the OS and hardware can do that; they just lock out third parties (outside of a few limited backgroun
Re: (Score:2)
My apologies, I did indeed misread the post myself.
Fine, so let's take any other phone that did everything listed 4 years ago. Most S60 smartphones would do.
Re: (Score:2)
It will be missed... (Score:3, Interesting)
I just bought a Nokia C3-00 unlocked and for what I want to do with a phone (phone calls and texting) it works perfectly, plus I get a good week+ of battery life. It isn't glitzy, the UI isn't the flashiest, but the hardware is solid, the keyboard feels good and it just works.
Far, far too many of the android and Apple products are going for glitz and glamour and eschewing the basics of what a phone should be. That is to say, a phone. In addition, they get crap battery life.
Re:It will be missed... (Score:4, Interesting)
Far, far too many of the android and Apple products are going for glitz and glamour and eschewing the basics of what a phone should be. That is to say, a phone. In addition, they get crap battery life.
Well, it kinda depends. For me, an android isn't a phone with crap battery life. It's an ultraportable computer with good battery life and telephony tossed in for free.
Telephony is almost useless to me, since all you can do with it is talk to people, and that's no fun. But computing on the go... oh yeah, that's where it's at.
But if you're in the place of "gotta have a phone, can't be cut off from the crowd", yeah, smartphones are neither smart nor phone.
BTW, in my case also, glitz is irrelevant. It's an HTC Desire, possibly the least glitzy android phone ever made with adequate capability. So, the glitz argument isn't universal either.
There's a phone for that (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I am happy that I am not the only one with that attitude. It is also the reason why I've been using phones with Windows Mobile from 2004 to 2010. They were exactly that, ultraportable computers with additional phone functionality. Now I still have got my Windows Mobile phone, but it runs Android instead.
Re: (Score:2)
Far, far too many of the android and Apple products are going for glitz and glamour and eschewing the basics of what a phone should be. That is to say, a phone. In addition, they get crap battery life.
You get "crap" battery life if you use all the features that actually make it into a smartphone. I was abroad this summer, turned off all data transfer so I wouldn't get a nasty phone bill and suddenly my iPhone used 8% battery from one morning to the next - 12 days if it'd keep going like that. I didn't really get to test how long it'd last because I drained it by gaming, but probably longer than I care to be without electricity under normal circumstances. And for the extraordinary, there are ways to recha
In other words (Score:2, Insightful)
'Microsoft to sell only Windows Phone devices under the acquired Nokia brand'. News at 11.
Re: (Score:2)
Might work (Score:4, Interesting)
They've failed from a marketing perspective in the North American market. Partnering with a large US corporation which seems to know a thing or two about marketing could work out for them. Though it would be more reassuring if they partnered with someone who didn't define 'partner' as 'someone you work with until you eat them'.
Re: (Score:2)
If you meant Microsoft as the 'large US corporation which seems to know a thing or two about marketing" I can only refer you to the doctors who have a nice white coat with long arms for you.
This is the company that did the Bill Gates/Seinfeld wiggle advert.
Windows 7 parties.
The 'get teens to text nude pics of themselves" Kin adverts.
The 'really?' advert for WinPh7 that said everyone else's phones were so great you'd pick them up out of a puddle of piss but you wouldn't bother using your windows phone.
"Cloud
Re: (Score:2)
Did you just refer to the company that thought Bill Gates and Seinfeld would be the perfect pair to sell an already hated OS as knowing "a thing or two about marketing"? I suppose I could agree that they know literally one or two things, but I'm not sure that that'll be helpful to Nokia.
and what about N900? (Score:2, Interesting)
Does this mean they're dropping their smartbooks as well? N900 is worlds better than anything iOS/Android-laden: instead of a limited toy OS with a browser, media player and fart apps, it has a general purpose operating system in a smartphone-sized form -- effectively a very, very small laptop. Nokia failed to polish it so for ordinary users it doesn't have so much appeal, but for hardcore programmers and sysadmins it's godsent.
Re: (Score:2)
Nokia failed to polish it so for ordinary users it doesn't have so much appeal, but for hardcore programmers and sysadmins it's godsend.
Just get an iPad, a keyboard case, and buy one of the MANY VNC / SSH applications for the iPad.
Or an iPhone and a small foldable Bluetooth keyboard...
Re:and what about N900? (Score:4, Interesting)
You don't need to pay extra for a proper keyboard on N900.
You have MANY VNC/RDP to choose from and ssh application for free on N900.
You can get N900 for $200 used.
Those two devices are worlds apart.
Re: (Score:1)
There's the scared little apple fan who just about had an aneurysm cause someone does not NEED the new SJ toy!
I was starting to worry
Re: (Score:2)
Or worse, has the temerity to consider a non-Apple solution!
Apple fans can go on and on about their stuff, but dare suggest something not from them, Google, or MS and you get chewed out.
Consideration (Score:2)
Or worse, has the temerity to consider a non-Apple solution!
I'm just trying to propose what I see at the best solution with the most flexibility and out of the box ability. Certainly he can consider other devices; but I am sure he would be ill-served by the recommendation of them as a truly solid platform that will hold up well for any length of time. Sysamins have enough to maintain on systems they work on already without needing to screw with yet another platform - what they need, even if they will not
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Uhm, VNC/SSH stops working the very second you get away from a reliable network connection. Which usually means going out of home.
Do you want a computer on the train, bus, plane? Or one when going in the boonies? Or in the middle of a freaking city but somehow with no network coverage at all (my uncle's house, 500m from the center of a population:50k town)? Or near a thick concrete wall?
Not to mention phone companies claiming that $150 for 3MB of data is a fair price -- this is what roaming costs these
Re: (Score:2)
Do you want a computer on the train, bus, plane? Or one when going in the boonies? Or in the middle of a freaking city but somehow with no network coverage at all (my uncle's house, 500m from the center of a population:50k town)? Or near a thick concrete wall?
I do not like them
in a train.
I do not like them
with a plane.
I do not like them
here or there.
I do not like them
anywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, don't buy the device that readily acknowledges you as the owner, buy the one that presumes you are a hostile to be contained.
Security (Score:2)
Buy the one that presumes you are a hostile to be contained.
If it assumed you were hostile jailbreaking would not be possible. Apple could close down local physical jailbreaks pretty well. Yet they do not; in truth Apple thinks of the jail breakers as a kind of external R&D - to the extent they hired a jail breaker to port the jailbroken notification system as the official one for iOS5.
No, it simply assumes that you need help maintaining the security of a system, which many do ; but leaves hidden door
Re: (Score:2)
What is possible is more than you think (Score:2)
Yeah, I'll get right on stuffing my iPad in my pocket.
I've never seen a sysadmin without a bag or briefcase.
Or the handlebar mount on my bike.
OK [seidioonline.com]
why do you even mention the iPad?
Admins like large screens.
And being a hardcore sysadmin, I'll be glad that whenever the iStuff doesn't do something I want, let's say bluetooth mouse support, I can...
Why would you do all that instead of simply installing BTStack Mouse app [iphonehacks.com]?
Sysadmins supposedly being technical and all...
Well then fuck you, clueless person who makes
Re: (Score:2)
Proof that just because something's a bad idea doesn't mean nobody will make it.
The iPad is not as large as you think, I'd be perfectly willing to bike mount it - it would be great for maps.
To use is not to understand. If you think an iPhone is equivalent to an N900, you do not understand.
I totally agree, I just think you are the one lacking full understanding of which way the scales tilt.
You've programmed UNIX, and yet one cannot program an iCrap which proudly proclaims its direct lineage from Bell Labs by
Hold on just one moment - a MOUSE for a sysadmin?? (Score:2)
Because there wasn't one of those at the time; I believe I was the fourth person to get a mouse working at all
I just thought about this for a bit more - what kind of competent sysadmin would even WANT to use a mouse? You aren't really a sysadmin at all; I doubt you even know one!!
The terminal is where it's at man. Not that it changes what the iPad can do, it simply renders that point moot.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Teenage girls seemed to love the thing so I disagree with that. Most had never heard of it though, but those with an N900 showed them off to anyone they could.
Re: (Score:2)
SSH / VNC / RDP support on Android is pretty damn good, all with free apps. I'm disappointed I've never found an NX client for Android, but I can live without it. Since I do real work on my Android phone, and it has entirely eliminated my need for a laptop, you've failed to
Re: (Score:2)
Well of course the Android doesn't have an NX client. It doesn't even use the X Windows system. It uses a custom, single purpose Java based Windowing system. Hell, it doesn't even have a full set of GNU libraries. Way to make porting a bitch. Googles determination to butcher the standard Linux way of doing things is pretty obvious. I mean what's this "Jailbreaking Android phones" I keep hearing about? Why would a supposedly completely open phone need to be jailbroken? Try searching "Jailbreaking N900". What
Re: (Score:2)
Android is at most a thin client, N900 is a computer on its own.
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: (Score:2)
Really, they did that?
That's stupid. Last year they actually had a rational certificates policy: easy to get and free, at least according to their website.
I guess the Stephen Elop dumbification of Nokia proceeds apace.
Nokia killed it ? (Score:2)
Alas poor Symbian! I knew him.... (Score:2)
This is a sad day for me. I was an early adopter and huge fan of SIBO and EPOC, the predecessors to Symbian, when they were developed by Psion UK. Aside from the lack of a phone and wireless networking, the Series 3 family of devices were essentially the smartphones of the 1990s, a bit like like the Sharp Wizard or Casio Boss of their day... only much more useful. They were handheld computers that didn't even crash, which was something handheld OSes had a lot of trouble with in those days.
But Psion's ina
Well, there's one brand I'll never be buying again (Score:2, Interesting)
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?
Re: (Score:3)
They own 70% of relevant mobile patents.
You need to license them if you want to manufacture/sell mobile phones.
Their stock is extremely undervalued and even with the 12-month high/average(which is higher) takeover-protection, Nokia might be target for corporate takeover soon.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
And it is misleading to imply, as you did, that customers are leaving Windows Phone 7. This just isn't the case.
Surely before customers can leave Windows Phone 7 they need to actually have some customers?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
That is clearly bullshit. They didn't fail, as they have now delivered the N9.
They were late. They weren't late because of open source, they were late because the changed higher ups changed direction one too many times with the dropping of Maemo for MeeGo. But nonetheless they delivered. And they delivered long before Microsoft. They had a working Maemo based
Re: (Score:2)
The introduction of MeeGo had no impact. If it did, the N9 would be running MeeGo, instead it runs a descendant of Maemo with Qt APIs which were planned since 2009. It likely would have been delayed further had they switched to MeeGo proper, but the bureaucracy internal to the company is to blame for the N9 and N950's extreme lateness.
Re: (Score:2)
The N9 was "running" MeeGo when it was due to be released in September 2010. Running is in quotes because it started swapping before it got to run a line of Qt code.
The MeeGo base it was standing on had to be thrown away. These one step forward two steps back manoeuvres take time to execute.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it wasn't. Then as now it was running Harmattan, which had been in planning since 2009. MeeGo was barely out of the gate in early 2010 and ticking with Xorg by September 2010. But I don't get your point regarding swap, and I doubt you can make it either.
I see you stating conjecture as fact. Do you have a
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think that's the key takeaway. The key takeaway is that Nokia had a winner on their hands but their own internal battles kept it from ever getting the focus it needed until now. Harmattan is the end result that finally had them taking what was growing since 2005 and turned it into a smartphone OS. It should have been done years ago, but it was never allowed to happen.
Your point comes across as someone looking
Re: (Score:3)
Only a shill would interpret this statement...
...to mean
The arrogant attitude of expecting to have a built in advantage as the biggest player in the industry is exactly why Nokia is failing in the market, and that the new CEO holds this attitude is the reason why
Re: (Score:2)
That's not true. It's right there on the first page that Nokia told Google to take a hike, when Google refused to give them a competitive advantage over other phone makers:
So instead they go with Windows Phone 7? What?
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry you don't like that particular article I picked. Here's another:
http://hothardware.com/News/Microsoft-Continues-To-Bleed-Mobile-Market-Share-Despite-WP7/ [hothardware.com]
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
And Nokia still knows a thing or two about selling mobile phones.
Bullshit. Their phones are not selling, even here in Finland. Consumers no longer want anything to do with their products.
Headline: Nokia Elops with Microsoft (Score:2)
Nokia spurns sanity, Elops with Microsoft. First thing that has to go: all low end phones where Nokia currently dominates. Search continues for shortest path to cliff edge.
Re: (Score:2)
In America Nokia does not dominate.
I cant find a single Nokia phone (dumb or smart) listed on the web page for Tracfone, Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint.
The AT&T page lists ONE, the Nokia 6350. Thats ONE nokia phone across all 4 major carriers plus the largest seller of prepaid dumbphones.
Nowhere does it say Nokia is killing off the dumbphones in those markets where Nokia dumbphones actually make money...
There's only one question left here (Score:3)
How much lower will NOK shares sink before MS finally buys out the pieces left? They're now trading at 11 PE ratio, or $5.20 a share. They're valued at about $20B, and they have some $7B net cash. Any financial expert in the room who can advise us when to start buying?
Re: (Score:2)
Damn, I should have bought NOK last week. It's up 20% today after the Google-Motorola announcement.
Asymptotically circling the drain... (Score:5, Insightful)
Talk about the walking dead... wow.
Nokia dumping Symbian in an age when lo-end CN knockoffs come with Android 2.x, and HP is putting WebOS on printers... actually makes a little sense.
Nokia dumping Harmattan/Maemo6, an in-house controlled solid full-scale OS with a UI that's 4 years too late.. seems lazy or poor judgement.
Nokia jumping on WinPhone7, with zero control of a third-party franchised OS that has a great UI but functionality 4 years behind the curve... seems genuinely self-destructive.
Bye, Nokia. Nice knowing you.
Never figured it out (Score:1)
the end! (Score:1)
Lose the developers and you lose the market (Score:3, Insightful)
Nokia has made some fundamental errors in their business strategy the last couple of years. Around 01/02 (correct me if I'm wrong) they were the largest manufacturer of mobile phones, they had the largest market share on the mobile phone market, AND they had the largest global market share on the GSM technology market. The GSM department is still thriving, but their focus on the mobile devices market is somewhat shaky.
They had a good run with Symbian, but they got "too comfortable" in the leading position. The iPhone came in 2007 along with Android in 2008 and the market showed that the following years. Their crisis they face now is economically comparable to the one the whole industry was facing in 1995/6 when there was a shortage of semiconductors.
The failing of their strategy is seen in a few places:
1) The high entry barrier for developing for Symbian: license fees, tools, lack of freely available frameworks
2) The rather rough UI compared to iPhone/Android: the menus are not intuitive, the applications are inconsistent in UI, the whole thing runs rather slow
3) Failure to adopt higher-end technology: They had only resistive screens until 2010 afaik even though their phones cost the same as competitors with capacitive.
4) Failure to address the lacking application support: They should have reacted WAAY faster and more aggressive. They should have brought more innovation to the platform, made the tools freely available including the certificates (or for a nominal fee), implemented an appstore AND made the developing environment attractive.
They lost the developers, therefore they lost the applications. With the applications the content soon followed, and without the ability to consume content your smartphone is not a smartphone; it's a paper-weight that happens to have the ability to call people.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure the N9 will be a great investment in an already dead platform.