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Nokia Killing Symbian and S40 In North America
In an interview with AllthingsD, the head of Nokia's US operations declared that Nokia will be focusing exclusively on Windows Phone devices in North America. Reasons cited include the low profit margins of the ubiquitous low-end Series 40 devices and lackluster sales of Symbian based devices. This also means that the N9 won't be making it to North America either.
Nokia is still in business?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Dear Nokia, I love your engineers. But please ditch your marketing department, just soon as you fire your CEO Stephen Elop, the $hill from Micro$oft. I miss you lots.
It's a shame, really. My wife's 4 year old Nokia E65 is still doing its thing, with an OK web browser, wifi etc., and the battery life is roughly 5x what my LG Optimus gets. Nokia used to make some great kit if you weren't the type that had to have "Apps" that were just repackaging of websites or farting noises.
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
N9 is not symbian, its not S40 either. S40 is market segment of budget phones, which you can buy $20/device
Those devices are popular in africa and india etc developing markets.
The OS in N9 is Harmattan aka Maemo 6, you know one of the linux based Nokia phones. (No, not Meego)
It has nothing to do with symbian.
Only problem with N9 is, that it's 4 years too late.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
I just bought a Nokia C3-00 unlocked and for what I want to do with a phone (phone calls and texting) it works perfectly, plus I get a good week+ of battery life. It isn't glitzy, the UI isn't the flashiest, but the hardware is solid, the keyboard feels good and it just works.
Far, far too many of the android and Apple products are going for glitz and glamour and eschewing the basics of what a phone should be. That is to say, a phone. In addition, they get crap battery life.
'Microsoft to sell only Windows Phone devices under the acquired Nokia brand'. News at 11.
They've failed from a marketing perspective in the North American market. Partnering with a large US corporation which seems to know a thing or two about marketing could work out for them. Though it would be more reassuring if they partnered with someone who didn't define 'partner' as 'someone you work with until you eat them'.
Loose lips lose spit.
Does this mean they're dropping their smartbooks as well? N900 is worlds better than anything iOS/Android-laden: instead of a limited toy OS with a browser, media player and fart apps, it has a general purpose operating system in a smartphone-sized form -- effectively a very, very small laptop. Nokia failed to polish it so for ordinary users it doesn't have so much appeal, but for hardcore programmers and sysadmins it's godsent.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Nokia have turned Symbian OS into a joke. Every application you install including any freeware must be signed or your phone must be hacked. You also need a developer certificate - specific to the phone's IMEI to hack your phone. Ever since this June when Nokia changed Symbian Signed so that getting a developer certificate software for free is no longer possible, Way to turn a smart phone into a dumb phone. I'm locked into a contract until November. After that I'll never buy anything Nokia or Microsoft again. I am not big on brand loyalty but I have been using Nokia phones exclusively since 1998, and now I can't wait to ditch them. Up until a couple of years ago I was able to get good battery life and install the odd app to customise my phone without too much drama. Sure PC suite was buggy and made teathering difficult when it crashed (requiring phone or PC or both to be rebooted) and instead of fixing it it seemed to get buggier with every generation but I could live with that. For the most part the phones were just the right balance of smart phone at a good price. Now they are overpriced pieces of junk - you'd almost be better off with one of those crappy throwaway GSM only phones for all the capability the latest gen of phone give you. Bye bye Nokia, don't let the door hit your arse on the way out and take Symbian Signed with you.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Nokia said straight out that the N9 isn't coming to the US. The writer wasn't inferring anything. RTFA.
They wrote the article as if Nokia decided to kill the phones... it should be more like, AT LAST, Android and Iphone Completly crushed Nokia, or, Nokia resigned game over.. BTW this "news" have to be cloned, for blackberry in a few months... ( unless they start shipping their stuff with android ) anyhow Bye Bye S40 ! it was good while it lasted !
This is a sad day for me. I was an early adopter and huge fan of SIBO and EPOC, the predecessors to Symbian, when they were developed by Psion UK. Aside from the lack of a phone and wireless networking, the Series 3 family of devices were essentially the smartphones of the 1990s, a bit like like the Sharp Wizard or Casio Boss of their day... only much more useful. They were handheld computers that didn't even crash, which was something handheld OSes had a lot of trouble with in those days.
But Psion's inability to get a marketing beachhead in North America (thanks in part to the barrier tactics which 1990s Microsoft is so well known for), followed by a whole bunch of missteps in their partnering with Nokia and other companies in getting the OS into the phone market.... well, this is the result. It was really good software. I held onto my 1999-vintage Psion Series 3a, nursing it along with battery replacements and epoxy, until the iPod Touch came along, which was the first handheld computer I'd seen that I could switch it. It wasn't the same, but at least it wasn't a huge step backward in one way or another (yes, I'm looking at you, Palm and Microsoft).
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I've owned Nokia phones in the past, and have always considered them when it came time to buy a new one. But they just ensured that will never happen again. I can see maybe dabbling with Windows Phone and offering a few sets for variety... but when the news keeps showing that Windows Phone is DoA, I don't get why Nokia would bet everything on a sinking ship. Are they truly that suicidal?
Nokia spurns sanity, Elops with Microsoft. First thing that has to go: all low end phones where Nokia currently dominates. Search continues for shortest path to cliff edge.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
The interesting thing about Nokia today seems to be their patent portfolio.
They own 70% of relevant mobile patents.
You need to license them if you want to manufacture/sell mobile phones.
Their stock is extremely undervalued and even with the 12-month high/average(which is higher) takeover-protection, Nokia might be target for corporate takeover soon.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
How much lower will NOK shares sink before MS finally buys out the pieces left? They're now trading at 11 PE ratio, or $5.20 a share. They're valued at about $20B, and they have some $7B net cash. Any financial expert in the room who can advise us when to start buying?
To do list for Windows
I've owned Nokia phones in the past, and have always considered them when it came time to buy a new one. But they just ensured that will never happen again. I can see maybe dabbling with Windows Phone and offering a few sets for variety... but when the news keeps showing that Windows Phone is DoA, I don't get why Nokia would bet everything on a sinking ship. Are they truly that suicidal?
The article you quoted is rubbish. Here's a comment from there:
One should invest in a little research before writing.
1) The 38% drop stems almost entirely from users moving from Windows Mobile to another platform. Windows Mobile is to Windows Phone 7 what the Newton is to the iPhone. Yes, Microsoft is losing to Android but so is Apple. And it is misleading to imply, as you did, that customers are leaving Windows Phone 7. This just isn't the case.
2) Mango was released to manufactures last month. This was reported by this same outlet that allowed you to publish such drivel. On second thought, you were right to ignore it. I wouldn't trust eWeek as a source either.
As to why Nokia switched: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_24/b4232056703101.htm
Key takeaway is that hiring open source evangelists to design a mobile OS(i.e Meego) failed and they wouldn't have had enough devices running it. After the board realized that, they jettisoned the CEO and brought in Elop to get alternatives. Blackberry, HP and Google told him to take a hike so the only credible option left was WP7. Interesting angles that you don't see when you read Slashdot comments.
This space for rent.
And Nokia still knows a thing or two about selling mobile phones.
Bullshit. Their phones are not selling, even here in Finland. Consumers no longer want anything to do with their products.
Yeah, I'll get right on stuffing my iPad in my pocket.
I've never seen a sysadmin without a bag or briefcase.
Or the handlebar mount on my bike.
OK
why do you even mention the iPad?
Admins like large screens.
And being a hardcore sysadmin, I'll be glad that whenever the iStuff doesn't do something I want, let's say bluetooth mouse support, I can...
Why would you do all that instead of simply installing BTStack Mouse app?
Sysadmins supposedly being technical and all...
Well then fuck you, clueless person who makes idiotic recommendations with no clue what UNIX is even about.
I've programmed more UNIX (or near UNIX, like MPE) systems than you can even dream of, clueless idiot too stupid to use Google before planting foot firmly in mouth.
Perhaps from now on you'll listen to those who know more than you before proving your level of inexperience. Oh, but that's why you posted AC, I dub you Clueless Coward. Sure no-one else knows it's you who are an idiot, but now YOU know... and that private shame will stay with you for some time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And it is misleading to imply, as you did, that customers are leaving Windows Phone 7. This just isn't the case.
Surely before customers can leave Windows Phone 7 they need to actually have some customers?
Talk about the walking dead... wow.
Nokia dumping Symbian in an age when lo-end CN knockoffs come with Android 2.x, and HP is putting WebOS on printers... actually makes a little sense.
Nokia dumping Harmattan/Maemo6, an in-house controlled solid full-scale OS with a UI that's 4 years too late.. seems lazy or poor judgement.
Nokia jumping on WinPhone7, with zero control of a third-party franchised OS that has a great UI but functionality 4 years behind the curve... seems genuinely self-destructive.
Bye, Nokia. Nice knowing you.
I think not...(*poof*)
I had a Nokia 5230 for while. It was a great low end smartphone: high res screen, battery that lasted forever, GPS with all the map data local. The only two flaws were no wifi, and a underwhelming app store. I never really understood what OS I was using. S40? S60? Symbian^3? Nokia really does a lousy job of marketing their brand.
>After the board realized that, they jettisoned the CEO and brought in Elop to get alternatives. I think you got it reversed, when Elop arrived the path was already chosen.
That is clearly bullshit. They didn't fail, as they have now delivered the N9.
They were late. They weren't late because of open source, they were late because the changed higher ups changed direction one too many times with the dropping of Maemo for MeeGo. But nonetheless they delivered. And they delivered long before Microsoft. They had a working Maemo based phone ready for the market place before Mango was Released To Manufacturing. If they wanted to ship a fleet of new phones ASAP, they should have done it using their home grown Maemo platform.
People from Microsoft understand the meaning of the term late better than most because they are familiar with Vista. It is a setback, not a disaster. What changed it from a setback to a disaster wasn't open source or engineering decisions, it was the board loosing their faith in the own company's engineering culture - something that Microsoft would never do. They hired a CEO that reflected that opinion and promptly declared declared all their products to be shit. Guess what? Their customers believed them.
It will be a great a lesson for business schools: it is indeed possible to destroy one of the worlds largest tech companies in 24 months or so. All it takes is a board consisting entirely of spineless, risk adverse morons who are willing to abandoning everything their company is built on and flee to the first exit offered as soon as the going gets tough.
RIP Nokia!
I don't think that's the key takeaway. The key takeaway is that Nokia had a winner on their hands but their own internal battles kept it from ever getting the focus it needed until now. Harmattan is the end result that finally had them taking what was growing since 2005 and turned it into a smartphone OS. It should have been done years ago, but it was never allowed to happen.
Your point comes across as someone looking for something to point at and blame on FOSS.
Actually, it sounded like they wanted different management who could cut through the stupid bureaucracy, not a wholesale abandonment of everything that made them what they were. But it looks like that bureaucracy was retained and the software outsourced.
Wait, do you have inside information no one else does? Links?
The introduction of MeeGo had no impact. If it did, the N9 would be running MeeGo, instead it runs a descendant of Maemo with Qt APIs which were planned since 2009. It likely would have been delayed further had they switched to MeeGo proper, but the bureaucracy internal to the company is to blame for the N9 and N950's extreme lateness.
The N9 was "running" MeeGo when it was due to be released in September 2010. Running is in quotes because it started swapping before it got to run a line of Qt code.
The MeeGo base it was standing on had to be thrown away. These one step forward two steps back manoeuvres take time to execute.
No, it wasn't. Then as now it was running Harmattan, which had been in planning since 2009. MeeGo was barely out of the gate in early 2010 and ticking with Xorg by September 2010. But I don't get your point regarding swap, and I doubt you can make it either.
I see you stating conjecture as fact. Do you have any evidence for the wild claims you are making?
I'm sure the N9 will be a great investment in an already dead platform.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Nokia has made some fundamental errors in their business strategy the last couple of years. Around 01/02 (correct me if I'm wrong) they were the largest manufacturer of mobile phones, they had the largest market share on the mobile phone market, AND they had the largest global market share on the GSM technology market. The GSM department is still thriving, but their focus on the mobile devices market is somewhat shaky.
They had a good run with Symbian, but they got "too comfortable" in the leading position. The iPhone came in 2007 along with Android in 2008 and the market showed that the following years. Their crisis they face now is economically comparable to the one the whole industry was facing in 1995/6 when there was a shortage of semiconductors.
The failing of their strategy is seen in a few places:
1) The high entry barrier for developing for Symbian: license fees, tools, lack of freely available frameworks
2) The rather rough UI compared to iPhone/Android: the menus are not intuitive, the applications are inconsistent in UI, the whole thing runs rather slow
3) Failure to adopt higher-end technology: They had only resistive screens until 2010 afaik even though their phones cost the same as competitors with capacitive.
4) Failure to address the lacking application support: They should have reacted WAAY faster and more aggressive. They should have brought more innovation to the platform, made the tools freely available including the certificates (or for a nominal fee), implemented an appstore AND made the developing environment attractive.
They lost the developers, therefore they lost the applications. With the applications the content soon followed, and without the ability to consume content your smartphone is not a smartphone; it's a paper-weight that happens to have the ability to call people.
Or worse, has the temerity to consider a non-Apple solution!
I'm just trying to propose what I see at the best solution with the most flexibility and out of the box ability. Certainly he can consider other devices; but I am sure he would be ill-served by the recommendation of them as a truly solid platform that will hold up well for any length of time. Sysamins have enough to maintain on systems they work on already without needing to screw with yet another platform - what they need, even if they will not admit it, is something that Just Works.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Buy the one that presumes you are a hostile to be contained.
If it assumed you were hostile jailbreaking would not be possible. Apple could close down local physical jailbreaks pretty well. Yet they do not; in truth Apple thinks of the jail breakers as a kind of external R&D - to the extent they hired a jail breaker to port the jailbroken notification system as the official one for iOS5.
No, it simply assumes that you need help maintaining the security of a system, which many do ; but leaves hidden doors for those that desire greater capability.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Because there wasn't one of those at the time; I believe I was the fourth person to get a mouse working at all
I just thought about this for a bit more - what kind of competent sysadmin would even WANT to use a mouse? You aren't really a sysadmin at all; I doubt you even know one!!
The terminal is where it's at man. Not that it changes what the iPad can do, it simply renders that point moot.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nokia had a few little portable computing devices where the user can get full root access with Nokia's blessing and even boot off other media. The other stuff that requires a jailbreak or extra hardware is no more of a customisable computer than a Nintendo DS and the vendors are actively trying to prevent the device users from doing it. One thing Nokia had going for them was that updates did not lock the users out of their devices while users of jailbroken devices had to either give up on updates or give up on full access until the next exploit was found.
Only a shill would interpret this statement...
...to mean
The arrogant attitude of expecting to have a built in advantage as the biggest player in the industry is exactly why Nokia is failing in the market, and that the new CEO holds this attitude is the reason why they will continue failing, whatever OS they choose to put on their phones.
That's not true. It's right there on the first page that Nokia told Google to take a hike, when Google refused to give them a competitive advantage over other phone makers:
So instead they go with Windows Phone 7? What?
Instead of being just another company distributing Android, they're just another company distributing Windows Phone 7. Awesome upgrade! Get-in on the ground-floor of something no-one wants, in exchange for, still, no exclusivity to speak of.
Of course we know what they got... Over a billion in payouts from Microsoft. And people say it's hard to beat "free" (Android).
Nokia was horribly mis-managed. Who were the open source evangelists in management and director-level positions that are singularly to-blame for everything bad that happened to the company over the past half-decade?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Sorry you don't like that particular article I picked. Here's another:
http://hothardware.com/News/Microsoft-Continues-To-Bleed-Mobile-Market-Share-Despite-WP7/