Samsung Passes Nokia As Biggest Handset Manufacturer 133
rtfa-troll writes "Tomi Ahonen reports that Samsung has become the largest manufacturer of smartphones (overtaking Apple) and of mobile phones (overtaking Nokia). During the first quarter of 2012 Samsung sold 93.5 million phones, with 44.5 million (48%) of those being smartphones. Apple would still lead on 'smart mobile devices' with 52 million sales including iPads, but not iPods. The last time the lead in mobile phone sales changed was in 14 years ago, in 1998, when Nokia overtook Ericsson. Ericsson never recovered and began leaving the mobile phone market three years later, creating Sony Ericsson, later Sony Mobile. It looks like the mobile phone market is going to be brutal, with Apple and Samsung crushing everybody else except possibly HTC, which is still rising, and Motorola (which has Google to look after it)."
Re:no huge surprise .. nokia is engineered to fail (Score:5, Interesting)
thanks to the microshit idiot in charge, nokia will fail and microshit will pick up the remains for pennies on the dollar.
That would be a repeat of Microsoft's Sendo strategy [theregister.co.uk] and would make sense. Sendo seems to have ended in court with a loss / really expensive settlement though; I'm just wondering how Eliop got a worse deal than that past the Nokia board and lawyers though?
Turns out they had a great plan! (Score:3, Interesting)
Copying Apple was the best plan Samsung even devised. Not only is it a really cute move, but it has paid off in the market. The only problem is that Samsung makes about a nickel on each phone it sells.
Motorola, Nokia (Score:5, Interesting)
Secondly.. Nokia is in a mess, but it isn't Stephen Elop (the CEO) who created it. He inherited the mess from the previous CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who basically doomed the company after borking the launch of the N900 and the Maemo platform. Elop sent out his now famous "burning platform" memo and chose to leap off the platform into Microsoft's lifeboat rather than the Android one. Why? Well, Nokia has much more influence over Windows than it would do with Android and has a chance of building a decent ecosystem.
Honestly though.. if Nokia made a decent Android handset, then I would probably go and buy it.
Re:Meego (Score:4, Interesting)
The best available numbers are on the site linked to Who Wants Numbers? Lumia on T-Mobile? Lumia 800 vs Lumia 710? How Many Nokia N9? [blogs.com]
Nokia could just publish the activation numbers as Google and Apple do, but instead they seem to only publish the number of phones sent off to operators and even that they do rarely. I wonder why?
Re:no huge surprise .. nokia is engineered to fail (Score:5, Interesting)
The board realized that the strategy of trying to create another incompatible ecosystem and trying to attract developers was doomed to fail from the get go and installed Elop as the CEO to do what he did.
When Elop took over Nokia I was still a software engineering student and I currently work for a company that develops smartphone apps.
When Nokia was still developing Meego, there was a lot of buzz about it all around the world: Other students (who're now also developers) mentioned it quite often, considered installing it on their netbooks, etc... Nokia was making very good progress at creating the ecosystem. Whether or not it would have soared like an eagle or crashed to the ground will remain forever unseen but what we do know is that Nokia and MS have utterly failed in building ecosystem around what they decided to go with.
That said, the article you linked was pretty interesting. I think that some parts were worse than others (I nearly laughed when I read how good Elop is at transparency) but it's still a nice point of view.
Re:Already warming up my "I told you so" dance. (Score:5, Interesting)
LG. In February 2009 Microsoft Corp. signed a multiyear agreement for Windows Mobile to be included on devices from LG Electronics Inc. LG would use Windows Mobile as its "primary platform"for smartphones and produce about 50 models running the software.
What happened? LG made a few Windows Mobile devices but with WinMo uncompetitive, they abandoned the platform and moved to Android losing years of market presence and all their profits.
Motorola. In September 2003, Motorola and Microsoft announced an alliance. "Starting with the introduction of the new Motorola MPx200 mobile phone with Microsoft Windows Mobile software, the companies will collaborate on a series of Smartphone and Pocket PC wireless devices designed to create a virtual "remote control" for the Web-centric, work-centric, always-on-the-go mobile professional." In addition, the alliance includes cooperation on joint marketing and wireless developer programs.
What happened? Motorola launched a series of Windows Mobile phones culminating in the Motorola Q "Blackberry killer". As Motorola hit the rocks in profitability new management reached for the Android liferaft. The company now relies exclusively on the Droid franchise.
Palm. In September 2005 Palm and Microsoft announced a strategic alliance to "accelerate the Smartphone market segment with a new device for mobile professionals and businesses. Palm has licensed the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system for an expanded line of Treo Smartphones, the first of which will be available on Verizon Wirelessâ(TM) national wireless broadband network."
What happened? Palm shipped a few Windows Mobile, famously dismissing Appleâ(TM)s potential entry as something "PC guys" could never achieve. A new CEO, a private placement and an acquisition later the company is a division of HP making its own operating system.
Nortel. When Steve Ballmer was famously laughing at the iPhone and saying that he likes the Windows Mobile strategy "a lot" he was sitting next to the then-CEO of Nortel (Mike Zafirovski formerly of Motorola) with whom the company had just closed a strategic deal. "an alliance between Microsoft and Nortel announced in July 2006 ⦠includes three new joint solutions to dramatically improve business communications by breaking down the barriers between voice, e-mail, instant messaging, multimedia conferencing and other forms of communication".
What happened? Nortel declared bankruptcy two years later.
Verizon. In January 2009 "Verizon Wireless has selected Microsoft Corp. to provide portal, local and Internet search as well as mobile advertising services to customers on its devices. The five-year agreement will go into effect in the first half of 2009 when Microsoft Live Search is targeted to be available on new Verizon Wireless feature phones and smartphones." The deal would ensure Bing distribution to all of Verizonâ(TM)s smartphone customers.
What happened? Bing did ship on some devices but in October 2009 Droid came to Verizon.
Ericsson. In September 2000, "Ericsson and Microsoft Corp. today launched Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Venture AB. This previously announced joint company will drive the mobile Internet by developing and marketing mobile e-mail solutions for operators. The first solutions are expected to be on the market by the end of the year. The company is part of a broader strategic alliance between Ericsson and Microsoft"
What happened? Ericsson divested itself of the mobile division forming a joint venture which would go on and make more strategic alliances with Microsoft over Windows Mobile culminating in a loss of profits and eventual flight to Android. Sendo. In February 2001, Microsoft announced a partnership, in which Microsoft bought $12m of Sendo shares an