The Case That Apple Should Buy Nokia 286
Hugh Pickens writes "Nokia has seen better days. The Finnish phone maker continues to struggle to gain traction in a marketplace dominated by Apple and Android, and its new flagship device, the Windows-powered Lumia 920, failed to impress investors when it was announced last month, subsequently causing the company's stock to dive. Now Tristan Louis argues that there are four good reasons Apple should dig into its deep pockets and buy Nokia. First Nokia has really powerful mapping technology. Apple Maps isn't very good, and Apple has been feeling the heat from a critical tech press but Nokia has been doing maps 'for a long time now, and they a have access to even more data than Google.' Next, Nokia has a treasure chest of patents and as Apple's recent smackdown of Samsung proves, the future of the mobile space 'will be dictated by the availability and ownership of patents.' Nokia's exhaustive portfolio of patents might be worth as much as $6 billion to $10 billion, a drop in the bucket from Apple's $100 billion war chest. Nokia could also help with TV. If Apple truly wants to dominate the TV arena, it'll have to beam shows and movies to iPhones or iPads in real time, and that's a field Nokia has some expertise in. Finally Microsoft has a lot riding on the release of Windows Phone 8, and Nokia is its primary launch partner. Buying Nokia would 'knock Microsoft on its heels,' says Forbes' Upbin."
NOOOOOO (Score:5, Funny)
Besides, isn't Nokia Microsoft's bitch?
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod parent up insightful. This is a real concern and has both benefits and risks. Look at how Google is doing with Motorola, they've bought both the patents and the associated lawsuits.
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:4, Insightful)
If anyone is going to buy Nokia, it makes sense for Microsoft to do so. It could become Microsoft's chief mobile hardware partner, and perhaps could offer something in the Xbox arena. The result would be a partnership similar to Google and Motorola.
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Given the fact that Microsoft want to make their own tablet hardware, it makes sense they might want their own mobile hardware as well.
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You mean like the Kin 1 and Kin 2, phones released and then almost immediately killed? Microsoft already bought a phone company, remember.
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really? apple seems to do just fine with just one phone and one tablet
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:4, Insightful)
One phone & one tablet?
iPad2, iPad3, iPad Mini (Soon), iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone5
I count that as 5, soon to be 6.
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:5, Insightful)
They already have made Nokia their bitch, and that only cost them one incompetent manager.
Remember Elop, the Troyan Horse running Nokia? He is handling all the good pieces to Microsoft on a silver plate for free, while scrapping everything not relevant to the Brave New Windows Smartphone Future(TM). Like Nokia's immensely profitable presence in the third world - Nokias featurephones were doing the smartphone revolution everywhere but the West. They had a headstart and were pretty much guaranteed to sell billions, until Elop came around and said 'does not run Windows, scrap it'.
So, they already have what they want, and are already scuttling the rest, so why would they want to waste more money on it?
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Is a Troyan Horse similar to a Trojan Horse but from Troy rather than to Troy?
I think he was trying to avoid jokes about calling Elop the Trojan man (mascot of Trojan Condoms) and M$ raping Nokia.
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Shame, since I find it easier to read the way you put it. ;)
Company having a problem? I know! Just merge it into another corporation and ensure even greater monopoly power.
I sometimes wonder what people are thinking. Don't they ever learn from history?
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone is going to buy Nokia, it makes sense for Microsoft to do so. It could become Microsoft's chief mobile hardware partner, and perhaps could offer something in the Xbox arena. The result would be a partnership similar to Google and Motorola.
Yeah, but Nokia's a publicly traded company. They're valued at about $10B... pocket change for Apple. And they have the best mapping data in the world... Apple has arguably lost more than $10B in valuation for not having such data.
Apple could buy Nokia, keep the mapping and patents, divest the mobile manufacturing to Microsoft and come out way ahead.
Re:NOOOOOO (Score:5, Insightful)
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I strongly suspect the EU would balk at such a purchase as anti-competitive as well.
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I dunno if bitch is the right term, but that arrangement tells us that the brilliant idea that the Forbes writer got - MS got there, oh, about 2 years ago.
These companies are going opposite directions (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple: it must look good, work out of the box, and be very simple so that even a hipster in skinny jeans and Ray-Bans can do it.
Nokia: it must be solid as a rock, work for 10,000 years, and the interface must exist. If it is convenient, that is a bonus, but not important.
These companies are opposites. Merging them together will just get us stylized Nokias that lack the legendary bulletproof Nokia quality.
Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:4, Informative)
I wonder why Nokia, of all companies, got this reputation for solidity. Most of their phones were not very solid.
There is consumer legislation in Norway that electronic devices "of a long-term nature" should function for at least five years. Nokia fought this tooth and claw, and insisted it was completely unreasonable for mobile phones.
Granted, many (not all) of the pre-touch phones were a lot more robust than most touch phones. And very many of the previous generation were in fact Nokias.
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Because the Nokia phones that most North Americans have had exposure to are from many years ago back when Nokia was popular here. LIke, *many* years ago.
I had an old Nokia 6160 more then a decade ago, and the thing was virtually indestructible.
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many years ago back when Nokia was popular here. LIke, *many* years ago.
Yep. Nokia's reign as king in the US died out right along with TDMA, more or less.
Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia: it must be solid as a rock, work for 10,000 years, and the interface must exist. If it is convenient, that is a bonus, but not important.
This was the old way; you are now out of date. Nokia has sold all of it's old factories (e.g Salo) where quality ruled. It is no longer using the Finnish design guys who were insisting on Scandinavian quality. It's now designed in the US and built in China by Foxconn (and that's the top end phones).
There is remarkably little of Nokia which is worth salvaging. You might sell off their Telecomms division to a big IT company. Apple would then get the mapping and the patents. The low end phones are still high quality and would go off well to Tata or some equivalent. After that there's nothing left. This wouldn't be a "merger"; much more a purchase followed by a total break up. A case like that is going to have no influence whatsoever on Apple's internal culture.
Nokia's strength was low-cost manufacturing (Score:2)
Apple has been making huge money in the other end of the market, high-end smartphones. That is a much higher margin business and still growing. Nokia has been losing market share, to Samsung among others. Also, as others have noted, they are deep in bed with Microsoft already, so that is another reason for Apple to pass.
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Nokia: it must be solid as a rock, work for 10,000 years, and the interface must exist. If it is convenient, that is a bonus, but not important.
This was the old way; you are now out of date. Nokia has sold all of it's old factories (e.g Salo) where quality ruled. It is no longer using the Finnish design guys who were insisting on Scandinavian quality. It's now designed in the US and built in China by Foxconn (and that's the top end phones).
You obviously never spent time with a recent Lumia. The 800 and 900 phones have the sturdiest build quality of any recent smart phone, including the iPhone.
http://www.knowyourmobile.com/blog/1385835/video_shows_nokia_lumia_900_will_survive_pretty_much_anything.html
Nokia software (Score:2)
Nokia: it must be solid as a rock, work for 10,000 years, and the interface must exist. If it is convenient, that is a bonus, but not important.
Maybe you are talking about their hardware from WAY back when. Nokia's software absolutely sucks. It's not solid, barely interfaces with anything, it is not well designed and certainly isn't convenient to use. I used Nokia phones for about 10 years before finally getting fed up. The hardware was ok, not great (and not rock solid) but acceptable at the time. Their software was horrendous.
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Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:4, Informative)
The back of their phones is made out of glass, I repeat, the back of their phones is made out of glass.
Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:4, Insightful)
Glass will shatter, but it is harder than plastic. All materials come with a tradeoff.
I think the material debate is kind of absurd anyway, since hardly anyone goes caseless. At this point, they really should just sell sturdy, ugly, phone "guts" and let any company sell cases for it.
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Being harder isn't always the best thing for a material.
Materials that allow for a certain amount of flex can absorb impacts better than something that is just hard and inflexible.
As for phone cases, most people i know either have NO case [I've only had one case myself and that was for carrying convenience when I had to have two phones for a few months] or have thin 'cover' style cases that only emphasize protecting the phone from other things in their pockets.
Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:5, Informative)
since hardly anyone goes caseless.
How do you figure that? I very rarely see phones of any type in cases.
Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:4, Informative)
Re:These companies are going opposite directions (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, it's a tool - but it's a broken tool when it hits tile or concrete. Practically the whole first floor of my home is tile, and it eats smartphone screens (2 so far). Hardwood or carpet aren't so bad... I don't even blink when I drop a phone at work on the carpet.
I've yet to lose a screen since using the cheap rubbery-ish silicony case. It does nothing for scratches, since all sorts of odd grit gets in between the case and the phone and rubs. And of course, it doesn't protect the face of the screen. My wife has one of those Otter cases, but she works in a hospital and needs to sanitize it.
I think if you pay attention, you'll see lots of cases - especially the kind that clip on to a belt holster. Women all seem to have them - I think purses must be something like garbage disposals.
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You have got to be kidding. I was in a meeting yesterday and 6 of us had iPhones on the table, only 1 had a case on it. Most tech people I know don't use cases because they know how to handle their phones and not drop them.
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You have got to be kidding. I was in a meeting yesterday and 6 of us had iPhones on the table, only 1 had a case on it. Most tech people I know don't use cases because they know how to handle their phones and not drop them.
Wait, what? This is pure crazy.
Having tech-related knowledge doesn't make you immune to dropping things.
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The back of their phones is made out of glass, I repeat, the back of their phones is made out of glass.
And what is glass made of?
Antitrust issues anyone? (Score:3)
Pretty big drop (Score:5, Insightful)
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No you're being pedantic. I'm being picayune.
Would never be approved (Score:5, Insightful)
Not in the US, and especially not in the EU.
Too many anti-trust issues.
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The test that the competition regulators apply is "Will this reduce competition and consumer choice?" When Google bought Motorola Motorola was already a maker of Android phones and the immediate effect on the market was small. If Apple bought Nokia it would almost certainly want to kill Nokia's Windows phones, which would largely kill Windows Mobile, which would significantly reduce choice. There is no way that the EU would allow this and it seems unlikely that the US would allow it either (although that wo
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Apple and Nokia (through their partnership with Microsoft) are direct competitors in the end-to-end smartphone market, in which there are only a few players.
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You're going to have to prove that they've "abused" patents any more so than any other company out there. Remember, they had their asses handed to them on patent lawsuits from Creative, Kodak, and Nokia. And they're still being sued by Motorola.
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Apple and Nokia are direct competitors. Google and Motorola had a supplier/buyer relationship. That's the difference.
A supplier merging with their long term partner is integration. A company swallowing one of its biggest rivals is an anti-trust issue.
Nokia is more than just patents (Score:3)
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I dunno. Moving Apple in another direction resonates well with me.
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If Apple wants Nokia patents, then it can well wait for them. On the NYSE the stock is worth about what is was listed for twenty years ago. There may an auction soon and maybe the assets can be had fo
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The maps thing is trivial next to the other issues. Just a little bad PR.
"...knock Microsoft on it's heels..." = bad tactic (Score:4, Insightful)
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Agreed...Apple has absolutely nothing to fear from Microsoft. Microsoft is destroying themselves from the inside. For Apple to buy Nokia, that might cause Microsoft to wake the fuck up and start building their own phones, like Apple does.
If Apple really wants to see Microsoft fail, the best option is to let them continue down the path they are currently on.
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Are you smoking crack? Practically all hardware is proprietary. And every yearly update improves on the last, a strategy that has served the car industry for decades. Phones with ethernet? You really are smoking something (and plenty of smartphones are without memory card slots). Also: Marketshare is not money.
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Why do you think all Mac owners have MS Office? I sure don't. Plus, LibreOffice looks more like "good old" MS Office anyway.
Re:"...knock Microsoft on it's heels..." = bad tac (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'd rather have revenue that comes from hardware than software. Software is sort of like a bubble because once free alternatives crop up that are of sufficient quality, the bubble pops. In the long term Microsoft has to change their business strategy because they won't be able to maintain that Office lock-in forever. And once they lose the Office lock-in (which LibreOffice and Google Docs are already working on doing), they put Windows in vulnerable situation to lose its lock-in to a Linux variant.
There was
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Software has a $0 replication and distribution cost, thus driving the price to $0 dollars. Hardware will never have this issue.
Following that line of economic thought, all prices are driven towards marginal cost. You don't make any more money selling $100 hardware units at $100 each than you do selling $0 copies of software at $0 each.
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all prices are driven towards marginal cost
Yes, that is the promise of the theoretical construct called the "free market".
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Hardware will always have a cost, whereas software doesn't necessarily.
If hardware costs $100, and you're willing to pay $100, then it is also probable that you'll be willing to part with $101 (and the company will make a profit).
If software costs $0, and you're only willing to pay $0, it's very difficult to convince you to even pay $1.
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I'd rather have microsofts revenue than apples, even if apples is larger. Reason? Apples revenue comes from consumer electronics. That can change overnight if Apple just blows it once with a new release. Microsoft has a huge corporate revenue stream as well as a lot more lock-in from software. To put it another way: microsoft can release vista fiv times over without losing much revenue to e.g. Mac OS. If the iPhone6 is crap and samsung's offering is brilliant then Apple is in trouble. Apple have to deliver continuously, MS not so much.
Worse, Apple's value is entirely coupled to the close association of a narrow set of consumer hardware to a walled garden set of media. Loss of market in either will start to very quickly erode the other because they, effectively, have all their eggs in one big basket. Microsoft has several *thousand* products. (Half of which, I'd hazard a guess, virtually no one outside of a fairly narrow space has ever even heard of.)
As someone with a fairly large investment in both companies, I think you're absolutely ri
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The last time Apple collapsed, it was because they were arrogant and hostile towards third party application developers and sought to control every aspect of the software channel. Steve Jobs, the genius who push Apple to its dominant position in the early 80's also, as the control freak he was, laid the foundation for the collapse. They also sought to squash third party peripherals providers by tightly controlling the hardware interfaces and BIOS. You could not expand the R
Consumer electronics in multiple fields better (Score:2)
I'd rather have microsofts revenue than apples, even if apples is larger. Reason? Apples revenue comes from consumer electronics.
That's misleading though, since Apple's revenue comes from electronics in multiple distinct fields:
1) mobile connected devices (iPhone)
1.5) tablets/iPad
2) Laptops
3) Desktops
4) iPod class devices (iPod, iPod Touch)
5) AppleTV (weak by growing).
I grouped them that way because even if one of those areas suffered a severe blow to sales, the other aspects would remain untouched without
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Not really. Apple's portfolio begins with an little 'i'. Microsoft, as tgd points out, has a much broader base.
Apple sells to consumers. Consumers have this herd like behavior that allows them to rapidly change directions quickly. In fact, Apple is much more vulnerable than Sony because, like Microsoft, Sony has huge monetary stakes in things you've likely not even heard of (CMOS imager fabs, medical stuff - Sony is huge).
Apple is just a couple of PC clones and a phone and a tablet. Hey, they're doing
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Not really. Apple's portfolio begins with an little 'i'
That is only two of the categories I listed, and to a small degree the desktop space.
Apple sells to consumers. Consumers have this herd like behavior that allows them to rapidly change directions quickly.
What do you base this on? Consumers have shown that over time if anything they prefer to stick to brands they like, and that such consumers are very hard for other brands to win over. It usually takes major failures on the part of a company to drive
Oh Great, Another One of These Stories (Score:5, Insightful)
Tristan Louis is an Internet veteran, having worked in the Internet industry since 1993. Throughout the years, Mr. Louis has been known as the founder of Internet.com, a co-founder of Earthweb's developer.com, the interim CTO for Boo.com, and has held many other roles at start-ups during the first dotcom boom.
And this guy is commenting on why Apple should buy Nokia? Really? That's "news" to us? It's basically a list of half baked points. I know how this works, I've seen it in my uncle. He used to play sports in high school and when we watch a Vikings game he is just exasperated at how terrible the coaches are. Why, if he was in that game, he'd know exactly what plays to call and he could probably even be the quarterback and throw this football clear over them mountains.
The piece fails to explain why Apple shouldn't merely license Nokia's map services instead of kicking $10 billion out for it (oh, by the way, 10% of your total liquid assets is not a "drop in the bucket"). It fails to analyze many of the other assets of Nokia (oh, come on, like Apple would continue making Nokia's candy bar phones) and just assumes Apple would like to pay for all that stuff. It doesn't consider all the EU approvals that Apple would need and he ends this list with Apple doing "a double-reverse with a flip" which sounds a lot like the plays my uncle would call in a professional football game.
In short, build your own $100 billion dollar empire and then you can throw it away yourself. Until then, I don't think this shallow "analysis" of two phone makers was ever worth my time. It could at least be comprehensive and delve into the financials of the deal and possible repercussions (like yet another little guy dying and the market becoming more inbred with less options).
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I'm with your uncle. F'in Vikings can't call plays, and I get all my news from Forbes. Excuse me while I churn the butter.
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Is this [al.com] your uncle?
Re:Oh Great, Another One of These Stories (Score:5, Funny)
Tristan Louis is an Internet veteran, having worked in the Internet industry since 1993. Throughout the years, Mr. Louis has been known as the founder of Internet.com, a co-founder of Earthweb's developer.com, the interim CTO for Boo.com, and has held many other roles at start-ups during the first dotcom boom.
But, he's an Internet veteran! He's set up over five and a half websites! They don't just let every Tom, Dick, and Harry set up a website these days.
Question. Does his laundry list of titles include "Social Media Entrepreneur"? Because then we'll know he's the real deal.
One more thing... (Score:2)
No one has yet mentioned one other important thing if Apple bought Nokia. Nokia is Microsoft's flagship handset manufacturer for it's Winphones. If Apple did nothing more than announce they were considering buying Nokia, that would generate a tremendous amount of FUD that could decimate Microsoft's mobile plans.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually HTC is making the "signature" WP8 devices, not Nokia.
Re:One more thing... (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually HTC is making the "signature" WP8 devices, not Nokia.
You should know better than to bring facts to a Slashdot Microsoft-bashing!
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What bashing? If I hadn't been completely wrong, I would have had a perfectly valid point!
Arsenal of patents... oh yeah... (Score:2)
Lately, we have been seeing a LOT of attention on the problem of patents. Not just software patents, but patents in general. If Apple bought Nokia now, they will either have to exploit those patents now or face losing all of their value.
When I start hearing lay people discuss the problems of patents, (and I have heard this recently) I know it's not just geek interest any longer. Now it's getting in the way of their next gadget purchase and they are taking notice.
Sadly for Nokia, Not Necessary. (Score:3, Interesting)
Fantasyland (Score:4, Interesting)
Not so fast (Score:2, Informative)
Nokia's exhaustive portfolio of patents might be worth as much as $6 billion to $10 billion, a drop in the bucket from Apple's $100 billion war chest.
However, Nokia the company would cost significantly more, perhaps more than Apple would be willing to spend. Currently their assets+equity comes in at about $48 billion and they have an annual revenue of $38 billion. Nokia wouldn't sell their patent portfolio as it'd leave them crippled.
Finally Microsoft has a lot riding on the release of Windows Phone 8, and Nokia is its primary launch partner. Buying Nokia would 'knock Microsoft on its heels,'
If Apple bought Nokia, then Nokia the legal entity would still exist. All their existing contracts would still be valid. So they'd be contractually be obliged to continue with the Windows 8 launch. Further in the future you
Nokia is a sinking ship (Score:2)
Ridiculous (Score:2)
Never get past EU regulators.
Fix Maps, only? (Score:5, Informative)
why-apple-should-buy-nokia-to-fix-their-mapping-disaster
Maps is a disaster. But what about the other iOS6 problems (some here [macworld.com]). What about the recent Apple lack of innovation, and the reported lack of staff motivation? As a owner of 2 Macs, 2 iPhones and an iPad, I'm just worrying. During the past year, new devices are mere incremental updates, and nothing revolutionary came from the software dept (OSes and applications). And the general update trend slowed down, compared to 2 years ago. This appears to me as a management problem.
To be fair, Tim Cook has to be vigilant - Apple sells a lot thanks to the nice and innovative ergonomics and design inertia coming from the iPhone 3~4 era. Taking a different direction would definitely mark that new era as the real beginning of the Cook epoch - and at the same time end the Jobs one forever. And who knows what would be the outcome of that.
In my opinion, Tim Cook will keep sticking to the Jobs background for a while - maybe 2 years - while Apple staff will feel more and more the gap between what image Cook wants to show to the world (ie Jobs-like) and the day-to-day internal management. Updates slowness, substantial mistakes and bugs will increase over time, while disheartened (and good) people will leave the company. It will be a hard time for Cook, having to choose between working (hard) to maintain that fading image from the past, or cope with a dramatically different management requirement.
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I find level of detail nicer, 3D mode useful (Score:3)
1. the level of detail isn't as nice
I find it nicer, I think the maps are more readable. The detail is generally there if you zoom in a bit more. Also if you change the map font to "small" the map will show more details on screen.
2. the GIS database appears to have a higher rate of error
I know this is true for some, but I have not found this to be the case in my area. I have been using Apple Maps steadily for navigation since the later betas, and it's been working pretty well for things you actually loo
Re:Fix Maps, only? (Score:5, Insightful)
How much innovation do you want on a per-release basis? I think they did a lot -- newer, larger screen, thinner design, completely new interface port (with zero adapters available until some started shipping YESTERDAY), completely new mapping system.
That's a lot of "innovation" even if it doesn't necessarily translate into new, glitzy things you want or substantial, obvious changes. An MMC slot would have been nice, but Apple really doesn't/hasn't supported external storage as a matter of policy/design philosophy. It's purposeful, not because they don't know how.
And they have to balance substantial changes against consumer desire -- if the 4/4S was very popular, it's a reach to assume that Apple could sell a radically different physical device or one with some other radical change.
IMHO, smartphones generally are kind of running out of obvious, low-hanging fruit without some substantial leaps technology and functionality wise. The thing I'm waiting for is a wireless (NOT 802.11) display protocol that enables touch functionality on a larger, external display.
Re:Fix Maps, only? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fix Maps, only? (Score:5, Informative)
Oh dear, Slashdot, look what you've done. You moderated the only nice comment in the entire thread as "Troll". Hundreds and hundreds of comments talking about mapping "disasters", fucking over Microsoft, patent trolling, ass-fucking Google, the unspeakable incompetence of Tim Cook, the creepy toadyism of Elop, and other bits of nasty, bitter, unfocused nerd rage.
And then some guy comes along and says "you know, those apple maps are pretty good, if you, like, actually use them", which may be the only bit of actual first-hand knowledge offered in the entire thread.
TROLL! TROLL! BURN HIM!
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And then some guy comes along and says "you know, those apple maps are pretty good, if you, like, actually use them", which may be the only bit of actual first-hand knowledge offered in the entire thread.
The plural of "anecdote" isn't "data." So one guy got lucky with Apple Maps, good for him. There have been a ton of stories - with examples - demonstrating just how large a disaster Apple Maps have been.
You're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than "[i]t's all media hype, b/c some neighborhood names in San Francisco were not the most popular names" to demonstrate that Apple Maps are anything other than a disaster.
There are stories of towns entirely missing off the maps, streets that don't exist bei
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Yeah, Apple's maps are accurate here in Oslo, Norway, too. For instance, in my neighborhood they have a new roundabout that Google hasn't put in yet.
Meh. Here we go again (Score:2)
Stupid idea (Score:3)
1)Microsoft would almost without question fight any buyout offer for Nokia by Apple tooth and nail and Microsoft has a war chest big enough to buy Nokia themselves. There is no way Apple would be able to buy the company for a reasonable price. Microsoft needs Nokia worse than Apple does right now.
2)Nokia has committed to the Microsoft platform and changing direction at this point would be tremendously costly. In fact it would probably kill the Nokia to try at this point.
3)Nokia does a lot of business with low margin products that are definitely not in Apple's wheelhouse. Apple already makes most of the profit in the cell phone industry. They would have to take on a lot of products in markets that they don't know well that make essentially no profit if they bought Nokia.
4)There would be huge company culture issues. Apple has a very unique company culture and a big acquisition would bring a lot of problems.
5) If Nokia goes under, Apple can probably buy assets it needs without the extra baggage of the rest of a troubled company
6)Apple's problems with their Maps is a fixable problem without involving Nokia. Yeah, they dropped the ball but they have the resources to make it work so long as they don't screw a lot of other things up at the same time.
Hiddent costs? (Score:3)
Let's say Apple buy Nokia for those reasons (Maps, patents and Fuck Microsoft). Apple now has to fire 95% of the company (they only keep the IP lawyers and the mapheads). Nokia has 122,000 employees, many of them in Europe were they cannot be fired easily. That's 116,000 pink slips. A $100000 redundancy payment per person seems about right ("Apple is loaded"). That's about $12 billions. Combine that with Nokia's market cap (about $10bn) and the price rises to $22bn. I guess Apple could technically afford it, but the damage to their image could cost them even more.
Idiots. (Score:2)
Nokia & Windows Phones (Score:2)
The stock didn't "dive" after the 920 announcement (Sept 5th) and it didn't go down because of any disappointment. If that was the case, explain the bullish stock run from the 7th to the 16th. If investors were so disappointment with the announcement, why would people be buying the stock?
Most tech stock exhibit a similar pattern right after a product announcement. One of the sayings in the stock market today is "Buy the Rumor, Sell the News". Rumors and expectations create buzz that influences stock pri
Beginning of the end (Score:2)
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You mean like when Google bought Android Inc.? :)
Dumb idea (Score:3)
What a crappy post. Nokia would be an extremely poor fit for Apple culturally, technologically, logistically, and managerially. Chalk me up with the other posters who suspect the author of wanting to cash out their Nokia stock.
This guy is something stupid (Score:2)
It's cheaper to set up a mapping agreement (Score:2)
I think it would be far cheaper and more effective for Apple to "contract" their map data (and services?) from Nokia than to buy Nokia outright. I could see Nokia liking such a "buy" for the cash-flow it would bring them while they try to figure out how to survive the lambasting they've been getting for their Windows 8 phone series.
I'm sure Apple would like to acquire Nokia's patents, but buying the whole company to get them when they could lease the map data would be crazy, not to mention it would be r
The Hakapelitta iPhone Case (Score:2)
Great idea! Apple could use those Nokia Hakapelitta snow tires as shockproof cases for iPhones.
Power iUsers could stick studded Hakapelitta cases down their pockets.
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"Maps will get better with time"
Customer's tempers won't.
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Maps? The installer for it can't possibly get any worse.
Currently it opens up a browser button with two buttons, both of which do nothing.
Nokia just can't do software.
Re: (Score:3)
The core IP that makes a smartphone a smartphone is held by companies such as Motorolla, Bell Labs, Nokia, Eri
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if you are actually going to back those "prior art, obviousness or lack of originality" claims up (assuming they are anything more than just pissanting), you have your work cut out for you since they churning out more of them [freshpatents.com] all the time.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple is in a distant second place in the smartphone market, acquiring Nokia wouldn't involve antitrust at all. Hell, even google could acquire Nokia without problems (because the Android industry is already very diverse).
I support Apple buying Nokia, only because it would fuck Microsoft over.
And fucking Microsoft over can only be a good thing for everyone.