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rakitw
I fully agree with that. If Nokia is going out of business than I beleive it is ...
shrads
and to add to that we get a chinese manufactured Android phone with bigger ...
Yoshida in NY: Too late to save Nokia?
Junko Yoshida
12/6/2012 2:01 AM EST
NEW YORK–Is it too late to save Nokia?
It isn't. Call me naive or in denial, but I’m not prepared to accept a “new normal,” where there exist only two big design sockets–Samsung’s and Apple’s–for the smartphone market.
It’s just too painful to watch these two handset giants–through their dominance in the only market with meaningful growth for semiconductors–shut out practically every chip company who designs modems and apps processors, except for Qualcomm and Samsung.
I suspect I’m not alone in this feeling.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not here calling for a Nokia bailout. Nokia’s where it is today through Nokia’s own doing.
Looking back, Nokia’s management screwed up royally on three fronts: 1) clinging to Symbian for too long; 2) losing the battle in China; and 3) not choosing Android as an operating system for the company's smartphones.
Many pundits pin Nokia’s failure on the company having been too slow to accept the emergence of smartphones. They believe Nokia’s lack of presence in smartphones has triggered its downfall.
I disagree.
Missed opportunities
Nokia’s grip on the feature phone market had begun sliding way before smartphones became mainstream. While spending a lot of engineering resources perfecting a variety of feature phones for the global market, Nokia unfortunately missed the cues for two key opportunities.
One was the advent of the dual SIM mobile phone, designed to hold two SIM cards. It took Nokia almost a decade before fully embracing this trend. Dual-SIM operation essentially enables mobile phone users to use two services without carrying two phones. Using multiple SIM cards allows a user to take advantage of different pricing plans for calls and text messages to certain destinations, as well as mobile data usage.
Nokia’s close relationship with mobile carriers, however, blurred Nokia’s vision. It stayed off the dual SIM bandwagon out of misplaced loyalty to large operators, who preferred customers to use one network exclusively.
“Symbian in China” was another missed opportunity for Nokia. Before Android took the world by storm, there was reportedly a groundswell of demand for Symbian-based phones among handset vendors in China. But the decision by Symbian (and by Nokia) to make Symbian an open source operating system was too little, too late.
By the time Chinese OEMs could have embraced Symbian, there wasn’t enough engineering talent left at Symbian to make serious inroads into the China’s smartphone ecosystem. Meanwhile, what’s left of Symbian was later acquired by Accenture.
Unpopular decision
Then, Nokia made the unpopular decision of going with Microsoft for its smartphone strategy.
Nokia’s sin, however, wasn’t in partnering with Microsoft. Rather, it was its stubbornness in not acknowledging the rising tide of Android.
Although industry observers understood Microsoft’s powerful influence on Nokia (Stephen Elop who replaced Nokia’s previous CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, in 2010 came from Microsoft), they could not comprehend how Nokia could possibly ignore Android. It seemed almost a willful act by Nokia’s management to miss Android’s unmistakable momentum so completely.
One engineering executive working for a leading mobile chip company said, "I just don’t understand why Nokia couldn’t develop Android phones--even in parallel with Microsoft’s Windows phones."
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sprite0022
12/6/2012 2:34 AM EST
apple is for only a small portion of customers (want to act cool, but acturally fool)
i just switched to a nokia, it's wm system not much different from android, just lil more tidy.
i hope nokia will put decent phone quality in it.
so far it's not disappointing me beside the zune software looks quite weird.
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asic_pal
12/6/2012 3:47 AM EST
Lumina 920 is pretty good smart phone, I think if Nokia makes a similar android phone I am sure they can regain some of their lost share to it's competition.
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GeeKv2
12/6/2012 4:54 AM EST
Thats right, had Nokia made Android phones, it would have given serious competition to Samsung. Nokia loyalists moved away from it just because of the software. Nokia makes the best hardware, but Windows is where it fails miserably.
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WW Thinker
12/8/2012 3:28 AM EST
Please think carefully. In Android camp, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Sony were IN from the very beginning. With practically very small market share in smartphones, Nokia probably won't get any preferential treatment from Google. So, would you suggest Nokia to be a 2nd or 3rd class citizen in the Android camp, or become the #1 partner in the WP camp? Nokia should perhaps consider Android as the 2nd smartphone OS. However, we should all admire the determination which Nokia showed by going all in with WP. It is too early to judge Nokia for the smartphone OS decision!
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Neo1
12/6/2012 6:16 AM EST
Nokia, whew, what a darn waste of engineering competitiveness and money. They, like you say literally looked the other way when Android crept up from behind them. Instead of rectifying the gap, they thought smartphones was just a temporary gimmick which the world would quickly shake away to fall back on feature rich, solid hardware and simply good phones primarily. For good or worse we have moved far from having a phone in our pocket though we still find that use from time to time.
Now, Nokia with android- I guess would not make much of a dent to either parties.
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ak-eleon
12/6/2012 7:26 AM EST
Nokia must rethink back their phone strategy. They should choose either to stay focus on all type of mobile phone or just build up their line of smartphone and left out their feature phone. They can copy the likes of sony mobile to focusing on low end smartphone to high end smartphone
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genedp
12/6/2012 7:29 AM EST
Nokia sold its soul to Microsoft. The only thing that can save Nokia is for Microsoft to buy the company outright. Unfortunately, such a move probably would mean that all Series 40 phone development would die.
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WW Thinker
12/8/2012 3:35 AM EST
You made the conclusion too soon. A few years ago, Nokia spent 7B to acquire one of the two major map companies in the last 20 years. Nokia has been researching on mobile communications since 1980s, far earlier than Apple and Samsung. On the other hand, Microsoft and Palm (no longer exist, in practice) were the pioneers on smartphones. In theory, Microsoft and Nokia have more contribution than anyone except Motorola in the market. Of course, in practice, Microsoft and Nokia need to sync up really well to bring out the research done in the past 30 or so years. Therefore, Nokia didn't sell its soul to Microsoft. Technically, Nokia and Microsoft should join their souls together!
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Harvi
12/6/2012 8:51 AM EST
Nokia is a great company, they only want to be No.1.In current situation, all of you guys, do you think Nokia will be back to be Market Leader if they use Android?! Just to be follower you hope to be No.1? I am not sure, Samsung has already too far with Android, Nokia will slightly better if they use Android now but too far from the TOP.They choose Windows and some improvements for their product to give different alternative for market,excellent product with excellent OS. I am sure they have chance return to the top,begin with Lumia 920 and 820
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WW Thinker
12/8/2012 3:37 AM EST
Most people, analysts included, are very shallow. They typically look at the whatever appear on the surface and ignore whatever underneath.
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JAK620
12/6/2012 9:40 AM EST
You might want to fix the typo - "It’s not a slum dank"
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junko.yoshida
12/6/2012 9:49 AM EST
Thanks. Fixed.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
12/6/2012 9:46 AM EST
why would you want to save them, after all the Cortex line has been around for a while now, and yet Nokia always under performs on their phones spec's all the time, cable STB style, i dont want under performing SOC i want more cores inside for when I want to do stuff , thats why im looking at the newest and cheap hardkernel refreshes ;)
all i need is a small case to put a cluster of these 48x52mm ULTRA COMPACT 1.7GHz QUAD-CORE BOARD, 2GByte Memory and 8Gbyte eMMC Version 4.41 add-on [url=http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php]http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php[/url] in there and a power harness to power them all, and don't even need the fan's taking space and needless power and the noise as such, well perhaps use a single one if i overclock them all OC to be safe when Software decoding full HD video such as that last hard sample.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll5n2jNjriM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll5n2jNjriM[/url]
[url=http://com.odroid.com/sigong/_Files/2012/201211/images/u2.jpg]http://com.odroid.com/sig...2012/201211/images/u2.jpg[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3v0ydCG2yU&feature=player_embedded#]http://www.youtube.com/wa...;feature=player_embedded#[/url]!
ODROID-U2 XBMC 12.0 Demo at 1080p via HDMI
theres always MediaTek's new cortex Octo core to look at and consider when it arrives too.
who need Nokia today, their house might be nice though
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pica
12/6/2012 11:58 AM EST
I think, the Windows 8 (WinNT 6.2) ecosystem inluding cell phones will get a significant share of the professional market long term.
The question is: has Nokia enough fat to burn not to starve on that long way.
At the moment it is the only commercially supported OS, which scales from cell phone to servers. As a result a single tool chain supports cell phones as well as servers. Code can be reused. Existing programs, developed with desktops in mind, "only" need an adapted UI and can be used on cell phones. New programs can offer an scalable, adaptive GUI to support cell phones, tablets and desktops. I think this will pay out long term.
pica
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rwik78
12/6/2012 8:12 PM EST
I think the point really is "do everything". All the other phone makers have Android and Windows. Why not Nokia?
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przemek
12/7/2012 4:41 PM EST
Microsoft was wiggling this 'end-to-end' promise for years, and it just wasn't ever true. WinCE wasn't the same as WinNT, and Windows RT is not the same as Windows 8.
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Simon7382
12/7/2012 8:47 PM EST
I fully agree. Compatibility between my phone, tablet and laptop is a big advantage, at least in my opinion. We have Android phones and tablets in our family and W 7 laptops. I will switch to W 8 phones and tablets as soon as the initial bugs are fixed in W 8.
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ejprinz
12/6/2012 7:26 PM EST
I just acquired a $100 Android 4.0 (Samsung Galaxy) phone from VirginMobile ($35/month pay as you go) and they had the cheapest Android phone (without plan!) for sale for $20. So, I think "feature phones" are a thing of the past, thanks to Moore's law. Also, my phone is fully integrated into the Google ecosystem which Nokia can't match and whose importance they probably underestimate. I also believe that content consumer tablets and workstations need different operating systems (e.g. Android vs. Ubuntu) due to different optimizations required, so Windows 8 for large volume (i.e. cheap) tablets is also troubled.
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Simon7382
12/7/2012 8:44 PM EST
What is someone does not want to be "fully integrated into the Goog ecosystem"?
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rwik78
12/6/2012 8:11 PM EST
The worst part is, there are millions of eager customers that still swear by Nokia's build quality, photos and brand-value. I think an Android from Nokia would be a best-seller in no time. Its time they swallowed their pride.
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Simon7382
12/7/2012 8:43 PM EST
As an Android user for the past 3 years I cannot wait to buy a W 8 phone when my contract allows it. Android is a buggy and not simple to use operating system. It is worth as much as it costs.
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WW Thinker
12/8/2012 3:42 AM EST
One of the build quality which Nokia is good at, consistently, is casing. The case of Lumia 9xx/8xx is simply awesome. In the world, Apple has demonstrated similar know-how but fail in terms of the colours offered. The colours offered by the Lumia-series are so attractive and so special.
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sprite0022
12/6/2012 10:34 PM EST
hey guys, it's time for you all to get down on your foot and try a real Nokia with Win8 or 7.
don't blame it blindly like a group of monkeys.
Anodriod is too boring and simple. I am total sick of the ten's if not hundreads of icons I have to filter through to find an app.
Win7/8 is just more elegant and professional, (of cause I hope they could improve the date exchange experience)
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siyuluuu
12/7/2012 12:21 AM EST
Signed a deal with Microsoft like this, it probably had some other term excluding it from developing Android phone.
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sprite0022
12/7/2012 1:01 AM EST
I don't see any need to develop a android if you have win8 already.
It's just almost same kind of stuff, maybe WIN8 will cost $ 18 per piece, but not many people cares I guess.
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Timesee
12/7/2012 3:40 AM EST
Anyway whatever is cheap will sell until the news leak out that it is just not good enough.
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Andre BRAZ
12/7/2012 11:35 AM EST
Life is a cycle...
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timbo_test
12/7/2012 12:28 PM EST
I'm not sure why we are having this discussion right now. Win8 mobile is out and looks pretty good. It cetainly is 'up there' with IOS and Android and will hugely change the design paradign of the UI from the 25 year old icon based interfaces. Come back in two years - the scenery will have changed for sure!
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Thomas Chongruk
12/7/2012 12:36 PM EST
Nokia is going down & RIM is going to thrive?
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WW Thinker
12/8/2012 3:43 AM EST
Do you live in Mars or Mercury?
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JRHami
12/7/2012 1:39 PM EST
Remains to be seen if WP will become a viable 3rd OS for mobile, but so far Nokia has the upper hand in whatever future might come (see link). Not bad for a company that was on the ropes. Consumers win if there is a third strong player.
http://winsupersite.com/windows- phone/interesting-windows-phone-stats
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JRHami
12/7/2012 1:41 PM EST
http://winsupersite.com/windows-phone/interesting-windows-phone-stats
dumb editor doesn't capture whole URL string
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Simon7382
12/7/2012 8:40 PM EST
Nokia would make a huge mistake to jump on the Android bandwagon now. They missed that train but W 8 based phones will be a big winner for them if they execute well and have some patience.
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BobsUrUncle
12/7/2012 9:04 PM EST
There's no room for 3 OSs in the mobile space. Windows phone will die a slow death along with Nokia.
iOS already dominates. Andriod is a buggy, ripoff copy.
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jdesbonnet
12/7/2012 9:10 PM EST
If they had adopted Android in the beginning when many others had, they would have had *much* more leverage in negotiating with Microsoft. I think the MS deal did make sense, but they should have waved their plan B (Android) in Balmer's face during negotiations.
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WW Thinker
12/8/2012 3:44 AM EST
You must be joking, if you were Nokia, would you jump on Android when HTC was the only one embracing Android back in 2007? At the time, Nokia's shipment was way ahead of everyone!
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Galaxis
12/8/2012 12:26 PM EST
So, I use both the Nokia 6310i and the iPhone 5. Both fullfill in what they need to do: An ancient dependable cellphone and a state of the art well integrated smartphone. Don't like Android phones because these are too much of a hack job. That's why Windows phone might actually be a smart move. In Holland and France the Nokia Lumia 920 pre-orders already have beaten iPhone 5, so for now their future looks bright.
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xorbit
12/10/2012 1:29 PM EST
Weird that nobody mentioned how Nokia screwed up Maemo yet. Before Android and iOS, Nokia had the very best mobile OS, but through poor execution they failed to cash in on that advantage. At the time, Maemo was lightyears ahead in mobile web access and was establishing a thriving developer ecosystem.
Only, Nokia at first didn't put it in a phone, but made internet tablets only. Then they did make a phone (the legendary N900), but didn't really market it. You couldn't find it in brick and mortar stores. They were still pushing their Symbian phones.
Then Nokia bought Trolltech, and decided the Maemo GUI should be switched from GTK to Qt. Then they decided to merge with Intel's Moblin and Maemo became Meego, again switching internal technologies (like DEB to RPM packages). Then they decided all this was taking too long, and with an ex-Microsoft guy at the helm, they decided to ditch Meego and go to Windows. Of course through this whole mess they demolished their developer base, especially since most of them came from a Linux background.
I've never seen such a determined effort to fail. Windows 8 is a dog, and there's no way it's going to do Nokia any good. It's only going to drag them down more.
If only they had realized what a gem they had and given it the love it deserved, they would be at the top of the smartphone game now.
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junko.yoshida
12/10/2012 1:56 PM EST
I am glad that you laid this all out. I do remember the days when Nokia actually had a lot of software options -- like Maemo and QT. But none of them really got the proper attention from the management (or they probably didn't know what to do with them) and they ended up being viewed as "taking too long" before turning into gold.
I never understood then why Nokia was making so much investment in so many different software options...
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rakitw
12/16/2012 10:59 AM EST
I fully agree with that. If Nokia is going out of business than I beleive it is the lack of the management to understand that software is the key which makes the differen. I still beleive having hardware without own OS will not keep you alive for ever. If I look in Asia everyone can build a smartphone even never knew how it even works. Qualcomm, Mediatek they all have reference designs. So what differentiates someone using the same form factor turnkey solution? I believe this will be also the loss one day for Samsung and Co. What's the difference between them and anyone in the world. By the way one day might be Google waking up and decide not to give Android to the open market or stop development than everyone will be running out of options.
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shrads
12/11/2012 9:24 AM EST
i think eventually microsoft will buy it.
i don't agree that they should have gone with android.
and i own a Asha phone, its no fun accessing it on a small screen, facebook application is waste, and nokia store is joke.
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shrads
12/11/2012 11:52 PM EST
and to add to that we get a chinese manufactured Android phone with bigger screen and with touch at same price range.
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