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)."
no huge surprise .. nokia is engineered to fail (Score:5, Insightful)
thanks to the microshit idiot in charge, nokia will fail and microshit will pick up the remains for pennies on the dollar.
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?
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: (Score:2, Insightful)
> Nokia and MS have utterly failed in building ecosystem around what they decided to go with
There are 85,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace now, not stellar but nothing to sneer at either. With Windows 8, the software platform will be unified, and porting a Win 8 Metro app to Windows Phone will be super easy, with only the UI layer needing tweaks. Nokia going it alone would've faced much bigger challenges.
Re: (Score:1)
There are 85,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace now, not stellar but nothing to sneer at either.
Really? Let's see if it's nothing to sneer at. Here's [windowsphone.com] a list of the top apps in the entertainment category on the windows phone app store. It is a cesspool of misogynist "boob" apps, sex position apps, rip-off iOS and Android apps and the rest is just pure throw-away junk.
*sneer*
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
There are 85,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace now, not stellar but nothing to sneer at either.
Really? Let's see if it's nothing to sneer at. Here's [windowsphone.com] a list of the top apps in the entertainment category on the windows phone app store. It is a cesspool of misogynist "boob" apps, sex position apps, rip-off iOS and Android apps and the rest is just pure throw-away junk.
*sneer*
It's not much different in the Android Marketplace... excuse me... Google Play.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/ENTERTAINMENT?feature=category-nav [google.com]
However, I am sure "Pocket Girlfriend' is an app that you'd need.
Re:no huge surprise .. nokia is engineered to fail (Score:5, Insightful)
There are 85,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace now, not stellar but nothing to sneer at either.
The problem is more apparent when you look at what those apps actually are. I mean, WP is still the only platform that doesn't have a fully functional Skype client (what it currently has does not work in background).
With Windows 8, the software platform will be unified, and porting a Win 8 Metro app to Windows Phone will be super easy, with only the UI layer needing tweaks.
Since there have been no public statements on the future version of Windows Phone, so far this is just wishful thinking (or, if you're an insider, a leak).
In any case, the problem is the word "will". No-one cares about what "will" be there - it'll matter when it'll be there, which we still don't know yet. Meanwhile, iOS and Android are here already.
Re: (Score:2)
No-one cares about what "will" be there - it'll matter when it'll be there, which we still don't know yet. Meanwhile, iOS and Android are here already.
Sounds likes history repeating itself from what happened with iPod/Zune.
Re: (Score:2)
So they scrapped that and and copied it in WP7, which didn't look as good, but is still decent. At least as good as Android (yeah fanboys, flame on).
Then they copied it in Windows 8, where it looks downright horrific. And so does the next generation of Microsoft apps built to go with it (have you seen Visual Studio 2012??)
Every generation they copy gets worse. Sad.
Re: (Score:2)
And so does the next generation of Microsoft apps built to go with it (have you seen Visual Studio 2012??)
What you see in VS11 is not "Metro" by any measure, though. Making everything flat and monochrome does not make it Metro.
Also, don't render your final verdict yet. It's only a beta for now, and people have already been screaming their lungs out over the new theme - and yes, it did get heard. Wait and see.
Re: (Score:2)
As a side-note: I've been impressed with how stable VS11 is (used dev preview now beta). My previous job we used 2005 targetting CF 2.0 for WinCE. It was wa
Gray buttons? (Score:2)
>>And so does the next generation of Microsoft apps built to go with it (have you seen Visual Studio 2012??)
>What you see in VS11 is not "Metro" by any measure, though. Making everything flat and monochrome does not make it Metro.
Wait, what, they made the buttons in VS11 flat and greyscale? Anybody remember when they went from MS Word for Windows 1.1 to 2.0, and the buttons were 3D (i.e., had a shadow on the sides) and also were in color? That was supposed to be the new hotness.
It was theorized tha
Re: (Score:2)
Mind you I'm not trying to live debug on a WinCE 6 device anymore so it's kind of apples to oranges.
lol it's not the same at all!!
Re: (Score:2)
lol it's not the same at all!!
True, but it generally crashed just in the editor when writing code not when attached to the process on the device. 2005 was especially bad for that. I'd boot my machine up fresh in the morning, write code half the day then boom crash.With 2008 (on the same machine) that kind of behavior was a rarity (comparatively).
My biggest issue was moving from XP to Win 7. MS dropped Active Sync and replaced it with Windows Mobile device center. Active sync would always recognize the device first time. WMDC was hit or
Re: (Score:2)
I don't understand all the screaming. I use VS11 on a daily basis using the dark theme.
Therein likely lies the problem. Monochrome is pretty decently looking in dark theme, especially since people who use it want to focus on the code in the first place in any case (and the point of monochrome is really to let you do that - let the editor be the focal point due to its syntax highlighting being the only blot of color in the IDE). But have you tried the light theme for any considerable period of time?
What's needed is a theme configuration tool. That way people can create whatever they want and I can have an elflord style colorscheme.
For VS2010, there was this [microsoft.com]. It doesn't do all, but at least it lets you change colors. Matthew s
Re: (Score:2)
Either way, VS11 is super ugly. Maybe I should try the 'dark' theme. Although I also use Eclipse, which isn't known for its good looks.
My biggest complaint about VS11 is that they spent all that time changing the appearance and making it ugly, when they STILL haven't implemented C99. Idiots and their priorities.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd question how much time was put into changing the looks as it seems to be pretty close to 2010 other than their questionable color choices (which appear to be motivated by Win8/metro). It would be nice if they listed what their priorities were and what's being worked on. I'm sure CLR languages like F# are getting more attention than something lik
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, what, they made the buttons in VS11 flat and greyscale?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/02/23/introducing-the-new-developer-experience.aspx [msdn.com]
http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/suggestions/2623017-add-some-color-to-visual-studio-11-beta [uservoice.com]
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/726448/make-proposed-monochromatic-ide-changes-optional-in-vs11 [microsoft.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Therein likely lies the problem. Monochrome is pretty decently looking in dark theme, especially since people who use it want to focus on the code in the first place in any case (and the point of monochrome is really to let you do that - let the editor be the focal point due to its syntax highlighting being the only blot of color in the IDE). But have you tried the light theme for any considerable period of time?
I have to admit I never did spend much time in the light theme. I was hit by the bug where I ended up with a light editor window [microsoft.com] though. Easy enough work around and I was motivated to change it quick as I'm not a fan of sitting in front a white screen of long periods. Dark is so much easier on the eyes. When you are in front of a computer all day the little things make a difference (treating your eyes well, , having a good keyboard (such as a mechanical to ease strain) etc). [howtogeek.com]
For VS2010, there was this [microsoft.com]. It doesn't do all, but at least it lets you change colors. Matthew said in a comment there that he'll try to find the time to update it for VS11 sometime after the release.
Thanks for pointing out the "Vis [microsoft.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds likes history repeating itself from what happened with iPod/Zune.
You mean......
A squirting phone???
At least that explains the apps.
Re: (Score:2)
>
But it won't run on a WP7 phone. And Microsoft has been **VERY** silent on the upgradability of the current WP handsets to WP8.
Re: (Score:2)
And every other layer needs to be sized for a smartphone rather than a desktop. That's a rather big limitation, even if we assume that the UI for a non-trivial desktop program can be fit into a smartphone screen with just "tweaks".
If the application hasn't been designed to work on a smartphone from the beginning, it's going to be pretty much useless
Re: (Score:2)
You work for Microsoft or Nokia, right? Because otherwise you wouldn't be coming up with excuses for what those Nokia/Microsoft employees were posting.
Example: "it's one of the best phone available, iphone is so dumb compared to this"
Re: (Score:2)
anti-Nokia troll Tomi Ahonen
If there's anything Tomi isn't, it's anti-Nokia.
Re: (Score:2)
My first thought when I read this: Why not go with Android instead?
My second thought: Didn't that MeeGo phone outsell the current top Windows Phone model from Nokia, despite not being available all over the world, and despite Nokia doing basically no marketing for it?
Re:Meego (Score:5, Informative)
If only I could buy a new phone with Meego on it...
In some countries, you can, such as Australia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, etc. But not in the US, UK, Japan, or Germany (the Germans apparently are buying them from Switzerland). The Nokia N9 [wikipedia.org] runs on Meego "Harmattan", which is actually intermediate between Maemo and Meego. It's deliberately withheld from the larger markets, because it causes some embarrassment to the Lumia series of WinPhones.
Re:Meego (Score:5, Insightful)
And, despite the lack of marketing, way more N9s have been sold than Lumias. It's a realy pity because Harmattan's swipe interface is lightyears ahead of anything Android has to offer.
--
Sundar Pichai is the asshole whose incompetence has resulted in the closing down of the Atlanta engineering office. Great work!
Re: (Score:2)
>And, despite the lack of marketing, way more N9s have been sold than Lumias.
Citation needed.
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: (Score:2)
Those also seem to be the worst available numbers, since it's from the disreputable anti Nokia troll pulling numbers out of his ass.
For example, lets look at Statcounter Data for mobile OSes in Finland.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-FI-monthly-201201-201203 [statcounter.com]
(click on the legend for other OSes to make them disappear from the graph).
You see that it's a straight up increase for the Lumia since launch in Feb and taking about 5% share in less than 3 months of launch and still uptrending, with the N9 pretty
Re: (Score:2)
>Yeah, and if you look behind [statcounter.com] a bit, you'll see that Meego took 5% in less than three months of launch as well.
I am sorry, I looked at that graph in the link but it's nowhere close to 5%. Please get your eyes checked.
Re: (Score:2)
Harmattan's swipe interface is lightyears ahead of anything Android has to offer.
Checked out some videos. Looks very similar to BB10 swipe interface. Unfortunately whoever gets most third party app support will win in the end.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually even *building* the N9 was marketing. Marketing isn't just about the ads you see on TV or buses, it's what products even get out the chute.
If you're making crap no one wants, FIRE YOUR MARKETING DEPARTMENT.
Re: (Score:2)
This is just some bullshit made-up stats pulled from someone's asshole. It doesn't become true through being perpetuated on internet messageboards.
This information brought to you from an N9 owner.
Re: (Score:2)
Sundar Pichai is the asshole whose incompetence has resulted in the closing down of the Atlanta engineering office. Great work!
lol what is that?
Re: (Score:2)
The same old fairy tale bullshit. Except that people would've complained about lack of apps and developer support. No Angry Birds, no Netflix, no nothing. Except for a few hundred geeks on Slashdot, nobody would've bought it since people would prefer Android for the apps. Remember OpenMoko?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Already warming up my "I told you so" dance. (Score:4, Insightful)
Just the beginning of the end. Nokia was doomed the moment Microsoft was whispered in the head office. Any company to work that closely with MS always gets burned.
Right now the mole is just tanking the company, making it cheaper for the inevitable buy out.
I'm dead serious about all of this. You'll mod me down now, but I'll be laughing when it happens 8-18 months from now.
Re:Already warming up my "I told you so" dance. (Score:5, Insightful)
> Any company to work that closely with MS always gets burned.
Lets see, Intel,AMD, Nvidia, HTC(who started out as a only-Windows Mobile OEM), Dell, HP, Sony, ASUS, Acer, Samsung, Lenovo... all of these got burnt and didn't make lots of profits because of their partnership with MS right?
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
Re: (Score:2)
>Oh, hi shill.
Oh hi, anonymous troll. Please get some balls and post with your real account especially when trying to call others shills.
>The above companies are OEMs that make generic hardware that can run Microsoft software. Not what I'm talking about.
You were talking about Nokia, which is definitely an OEM that makes hardware that can run Microsoft software.
From HTC's wiki:
The company has a rich heritage of many "firsts", including creating the first Microsoft-powered smartphone (2002) and the first Microsoft 3G phone (2005).[6] Their first major product was made in 2000 and was one of the world's first touch screen smartphones.
So your statement:
>Any company to work that closely with MS always gets burned. ..is bullshit and you know it.
Re: (Score:1)
Remember when SGI and MSFT partnered, and then SGI circled the drain? They sucked out the valuable bits, made directx better by ripping off GL? seemed like some fishermen cut sharks' fins off, and then "throw them back".
Re:Already warming up my "I told you so" dance. (Score:4, Informative)
I 100% agree right up to the bit where you mention laughing. This isn't a laughing matter, it's a tragic commercial suicide. They could have been winning, instead they stabbed themselves in the gut with the Microsoft deal and limped around the marketplace dripping their lifeblood on the floor.
An iphone like Nokia Linux phone would have been 100% win!
Re: (Score:2)
An iphone like Nokia Linux phone would have been 100% win!
You mean the N9?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but it would have had to been out 2-4 years ago. While nokia was still dicking around with symbian. They fiddled while their Rome burned and now they hope that this sale of the company to MS marketing will pay off better than just closing up shop. They have chosen a slow death over a quick one.
Re: (Score:2)
An iphone like Nokia Linux phone would have been 100% win!
You mean the N9?
I don't know. They don't market that thing and it's not in any of the shops near where I live.
Re:Already warming up my "I told you so" dance. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nokia was doomed several years ago. They ridiculed Apple while they failed to streamline Symbian app development, while they failed to research and develop touch-screen mobiles, while they failed to build a proper app store that was easy to use, while they failed to build.
Making a deal with Microsoft was just an act of desperation. They were already bleeding profusely from the consequences of all their dumb-ass decisions made around 2005-2007 when mobile internet was beginning to take off. The Ovi store could have been launched in 2005-2006 with over-the-air app downloads. Had Nokia remained on the leading edge and focused on making their products better from a consumer-point-of-view, then Apple would have had a much harder job in invading the mobile phone market.
But Nokia was not focused. Apple and Google had them for lunch.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've got a HTC Sensation (actually, two of them, one for my wife), and I'm pretty happy with it. It isn't perfect by any means; it has some glitches here and there, but overall it works great. The hardware, as you say, feels substantial, and most things work pretty well on it. Plugging in the charger just charges it; if I plug it into a USB port on a computer it asks if I want to charge only, or mount as USB drive, which is very handy. The GPS is accurate, the compass and gyro are amazing; the way they
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.
Re: (Score:1)
I think you will find plenty more evidence that Samsung's profit isn't too bad [google.com]. Having the dominant position in Mobile phones in terms of numbers also tended to lead to very high long term
Re:Turns out they had a great plan! (Score:4, Informative)
The only problem is that Samsung makes about a nickel on each phone it sells.
Okay, doing a quick search on "samsung ,mobile phone profits". I see things like:
"reported its highest quarterly profits since 2008, with net profit almost doubling to 5.05 trillion won ($4.5 billion) for the three months to March 31." (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/120427/samsung-profits-jump-mobile-phone-sales-outstrip-apple-and-nokia)
and
"Samsung’s quarterly handset division profits nearly tripled to 4.27 trillion won ($3.8 billion U.S.), accounting for 73 per cent of total profit" (http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1169494--galaxy-phone-powers-samsung-to-record-profit)
Now, maybe those reports are wrong. And very possibly Apple makes much much more on their phones (I haven't checke but I believe it) BUT I really doubt Samsung are crying over results like that. This looks like a very very succesful business for them.
Re:Turns out they had a great plan! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
You are mixing revenue and profits. Samsung sold 44.5 million phones generating $37.3bn in revenue, $16.7bn from the mobile division, and $5.1bn profit of which $3.8bn is from the mobile division.
Apple sold 35.1 million phones and made $11.6bn profit in total, but this includes 11.8M iPads as well as its iPods, PCs, OSX, and iTunes. If the iPhone made up 50% of Apple's profits (a guess as random as your 30% margin) this would make Apple around 25% more profitable than Samsung with the same profits for 3/4 o
Re: (Score:2)
You are mixing revenue and profits.
Read my post again. Samsung reported $3.8B in profit on 44.5M phones. Apple reported $22.7 in revenue on 35.1M phones. Apple does not report margin or profit on individual product lines. For a decent product, 30% margin is a reasonable number. If we assume 30% then Apple made $6.7B profit for an average of $194 per phone. I suspect Apple make more because Apple does report overall gross margin which as 47.4%
Apple sold 35.1 million phones and made $11.6bn profit in total, but this includes 11.8M iPads as well as its iPods, PCs, OSX, and iTunes. If the iPhone made up 50% of Apple's profits (a guess as random as your 30% margin) this would make Apple around 25% more profitable than Samsung with the same profits for 3/4 of the handsets.
No. Read Apple's Q2 results [apple.com]. iPhone does not include anything other than iPhone related finance
Re: (Score:2)
At about a nickle profit they must have sold 76 billion phones. That means everyone on earth bought 10 phones each.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Samsung copied the device shape of the iPhone (which wasn't terribly original to start with) - but the real technology, like the breakthrough touchscreen displays is developed by them. Which is the reason why Apple buys those from them - they'd go elsewhere if another manufacturer could make that.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, you fanbois are really great at supporting each other. A positive mod for this?
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:3, Insightful)
With Windows Phone Nokia has to do whatever Microsoft wants. They have very little wiggle room.
With Android they can go to any extreme, from working directly with Google to forking the whole thing like Amazon.
Using a poor platform like Windows Phone was a huge mistake for Nokia and it's probably going to be a fatal one.
Re: (Score:1)
This sort of cynical hardware marketing will ultimately doing Android in; as few customers actually care about nonsense tech-specs such "quad core" etc. Rather they blame the platform for slow-stuttery performance characteristics.
Before someone points at sales figures, check user satisfaction surveys on Android phones. Apple is making a mint selling "upgrades" to smartphone customers dissatisfied with their low-end Android phone.
Re: (Score:1)
Right and Apple is only marketing to foppish gay men.
Re: (Score:2)
With Windows Phone Nokia has to do whatever Microsoft wants.
This is half-true. Microsoft has very hard minimum specs, if any company attempts to undercut those, they can lose the licensing. On the other hand, there isn't a lot of incentive to make a more powerful Win phone because of how smoothly the core OS runs at those minimum specs.
This is wrong. I just checked the current Windows Phone 7.5 Systems. From the cheapest 195€ one to the most expensive 579€ Lumia.
ALL of them have 512MB RAM, a single core CPU, no SD card slot, a 800x480 screen and either 8 or 16GB flash storage. Every single one of them. These are all hard limits you can't go over or under when you want a license. Microsoft killed any product differentiation for the vendors. Even Apple has more differentiation.
Re: (Score:2)
Faster hardware != better phone
Faster hardware may lead to a better toy.
I still prefer my phone to be a phone first and a toy second. That also means no weird bugs/design flaws (Android's increasingly weird bugs come to mind, as does antennagate. WP7 had something as well, but I can't remember what...)
Re: (Score:2)
You're missing the big difference between Android and WinPhone7/iOS: with Android, a phone maker has a huge ability to customize or differentiate their phone. With WinPhone7, they don't: every WinPhone7 looks like every other one. The hardware may be a little different, but the UI is exactly the same, the way MS made it. Android lets phone makers radically customize their phones, so an HTC phone will look and feel different from a Samsung phone, using a different start screen, dialer, widgets, etc. Carr
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
>With Windows Phone Nokia has to do whatever Microsoft wants. They have very little wiggle room.
Nokia negotiated the right to change any part of the WP OS.
>With Android they can go to any extreme, from working directly with Google to forking the whole thing like Amazon.
You mean the same Google that also owns Motorola? Or the same Google that gave preferential access of new releases to Samsung first for the latest two major revisions?
http://androidandme.com/2012/04/smartphones-2/google-picks-samsung-fo [androidandme.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Say what you will about MS, but they never played favorites with or bought OEMs.
Nokia certainly like to claim that they got a favoured position due to their (at the time) market strength. Are you saying they didn't?
Re: (Score:2)
Nokia negotiated the right to change any part of the WP OS.
This is untrue.
Re: (Score:2)
Two things.. one, don't assume that Google gives a shit about Motorola, except for the patents. Once the patents have been stripped away, I would expect it to be sold on again.
And rightfully so. I will never buy a Motorola product ever again.
Re: (Score:2)
Sitting here with my Droid X and my Xoom Tablet I have to wonder, Why not?
Re: (Score:3)
Nokia is in a mess, but it isn't Stephen Elop (the CEO) who created it.
No, but he made it worse. Nokia had a decent strategy, but failed to deliver in time. That cost them dearly, but they still had a chance to recover. Now they swiched to another strategy putting all their eggs in one basket.
It sounded crazy to me from the start, but fair enough: you don't really know before you tried. They did try though, and they do know now. The only reason they are hanging on to the Windows-only strategy is becaus
Still longing for something... (Score:1)
I find the current state of the smarphone market less than appealing. I'm not interested in iPhone (too restrictive, dumbed down, etc), and not so much Android (you basically have marry Google to make good use of it). Symbian was great for its time, but with Nokia as the sole user and distributor, have been too slow with updates and appealing user interfaces. Even Belle (which I find more appealing overall than either iOS or Android) suffers from slow update cycles and bug fixes.
So I had great hopes
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you need to marry Google to get good use out of an Android phone?
It quickly sets up not only Gmail but Corporate Emails, Yahoo, Hotmail and pretty much just about anything.
You can make one account to use the Google marketplace (Play) or you can forgo that and use Amazons market.
If you choose you can have it linked to a Hotmail account and get apps from Amazon. No Google needed.
How exactly is that any worse than any other smartphone platform? Better than some.
Re: (Score:2)
Google Calendar.
Contacts.
Not everybody has a corporate Active Directory server to hook into.
When I was looking to get out of upgrading to Lion, I looked at the Android system (I have an iPhone currently) - the only way to get a contacts / calendar / email system that you could sync with other devices was to fall into the Google machine.
I upgraded to Lion.....
Re: (Score:2)
Umm.
First you can get separate calendaring apps.
Second you can put contacts directly into your phone.
Thrd with iPhone you are locked in.
coincidence? (Score:2)
Lessee.... Nokia bets heavily on Windows 7, a few months later Samsung overtakes Nokia. Coincidence?
Instead of linking to a random blog post... (Score:5, Informative)
There are better sources at BBC News [bbc.co.uk] or Bloomberg [bloomberg.com].
Re:Instead of linking to a random blog post... (Score:4, Insightful)
But then how is the blogger (probably Soulskill's friend) going to make advertising dollars?
Stephen Elop (Score:1)
That 's it.
Every time I read something about Nokia I miss my beloved n900.
And I miss the GREAT Nokia6120 too.
Huawei? (Score:2)
Huawei should not be ignored. They're going to come onto the world market in a big way this year. For instance, I am truly looking forward to their new flagship [gsmarena.com] coming later this year -- 1.5GHz, 1280x720 and 2500mAH without crazy Android customization that every big manufacturer seems to be in love with. Samsung may make nice displays but they focus more on a diaspora of handsets rather than making exceptional ones.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd prefer that only a relatively small part of my phone's price were used to finance the people's republic of china. Better yet, not at all (too bad that's no longer possible).
Call me paranoid, xenophobic, fascist or whatever, but I do not trust them.
Also, past experience with carrier-branded phones made by them has been pretty bad, so it's not just paranoia.
Re: (Score:2)
China would have to work VERY hard to make me trust them less than I trust the USA, my friend.
Re: (Score:2)
At least we all know more or less what the US wants. China? They could be after cash (no big deal), world domination (big deal) or just have no plan at all (depends on what happens).
Re: (Score:2)
If world domination means economic power commensurate with their population (1 billion +) I fail to understand how you can deny the Chinese people their due.
If, on the other hand, you have nightmares of the Han people imposing race-based slavery on the rest of the peoples of the world, with non-Han toiling in factories and mines while the Chinese "design" stuff in offices, that's quite paranoid and ridiculous. Not to mention the irony in who actually toils in mines and factories today vs. "designing" stuff.
Re: (Score:1)
Samsung may make nice displays but they focus more on a diaspora of handsets rather than making exceptional ones.
I believe you meant "plethora", but I'm not really sure.
Walmart (Score:3)
"Biggest handset manufacturer" (Score:1)
Puh-leez. Why should we care about who manufactures the biggest handsets?
Apple can beat them easily (Score:2)
Apple just needs to make the iPad into a phone and they will easily be the biggest handset manufacturer.
I've had to deal with Nokia support before. (Score:2)
I won't be buying a Nokia product again.
Piss the wrong customer off and they'll rail on you for life, I will not only never buy your products, I will tell people never to buy your products. Nokia and Gigabyte will never, ever see a dollar from me again. Ever. Remember this companies, remember it.
They also make the biggest handsets (Score:2)
The Galaxy II S is retarded large. Man purse large.
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't nokia also sell big iron for telco backends and other non-phone related goods? Did they spin that part of the business off? Do they make razor thin margins on that line of business?
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent up, +1 Insightful, then -1 Bummer