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Nokia Turns To Android To Regain Share In Emerging Markets
puddingebola writes "Nokia is preparing to release its first Android phone, as the lost market share in emerging markets from the death of Symbian has never been recovered. Windows Phone could never be adapted to the entry level devices that have driven growth in these markets, necessitating the move. From the article, 'Nokia was once the king of cellphones in emerging markets. But it has lost ground because it was slow to respond to Android's popularity in many countries. In India, where Nokia's Symbian-powered phones held a big share of cellphone sales just a few years ago, Android was installed on 93% of new smartphones shipped there last year, according to estimates from research firm IDC.'"
you cannot compete with free.
Seriously, who's going to buy a Nokia Android phone when you know they've been bought by Microsoft and won't care one bit about supporting it? Same as the Maemo/MeeGo based phones that Nokia released after the Nokia/Microsoft deal was announced, it's stillborn. And unlike those who might have some unique features this is yet another Android phone that you can get from other companies, so it makes even less sense. Nokia must be running out of feet to shoot itself in.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I guess selling your soul to the devil(Microsoft) did not work as well as planned did it Nokia?
---- GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
That is all.
And just how much of this can be laid at the feet of Microsoft?
Because once Stephen Elop got in there, he took what was a profitable company and turned it into a dog by changing their focus.
Microsoft doesn't care about Nokia, they care about having a division which makes Microsoft phones.
That Nokia is now realizing they might need to embrace Android to turn things around means it's going to be interesting to see when Microsoft finishes buying them. Because there's no way Redmond is going to allow them to make phones running anything but Microsoft stuff.
Microsoft has been nothing but bad for the viability of Nokia, and I don't see that changing in the future.
Because, really, these are appalling numbers:
Elop was either grossly incompetent, or was there to lower the price of the company for the take over. Because he sure as hell failed to actually grow the company or do anything good for it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If I can get a high-end Lumia and have Android, that would be amazing.
It's very likely that Nokia tested Android on its phones when it wanted Microsoft to close the deal, this is probably a false alarm born from those prototypes.
It makes no sense at all for MS to release an Android phone, and I doubt Nokia can release it and sell it in numbers before April (aquisition date), so I don't expect it to happen.
If it actually does come out, I see only two explanations. 1) Nokia is trying to scare MS from sealing the deal. 2) it's a thinly veiled attempt at saying "we tried Android but our customers would not want it". Most likely the former.
Whoever let this happen is going to be fired first thing in the new regime, I guess. If MS does not stomp it hard, it would look clueless. Unless MS wants to go Android, which I won't believe until I see it.
Nokia's smartphone ASP is almost half of the global smartphone market.
And since Nokia owns WP market share, the vast majority is low end.
Welcome back, old friend. There's a place set at the table for you; have a seat.
sig: sauer
Sorry but if you think that Android is free I have some land on the moon I'd like to sell you. I doubt that Nokia can just build a device and throw Android on it and it works out of the box. Nothing is that easy...
Do it right. your flagship phones, rip that garbage Windows OS off of them and install Android. I would LOVE your 900megapixel phone with a nice clean Android 4.4 on it.
you could get it to market in 30 days, no hardware to change. Want it faster?? contact the Android hackers and tell them how to unlock the bootloader and give them full details on the hardware. You will have android ported to it within the week.
You will INSTANTLY gain market share.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Given that Nokia's Hardware isn't too different from what's out there, Android would just work.
Seriously, who's going to buy a Nokia Android phone when you know they've been bought by Microsoft and won't care one bit about supporting it?
1. Wouldn't Nokia support it? Who says MS won't?
2. Most people want "cool" phones and don't a rat's ass about OS.
3 . Maybe that's all their carrier offers.
4. How many people pay attention to mergers and acquisitions and think "Oh shit! This phone I'm about to buy may or may not be supported in a way I suspect; which is highly unlikely." Or, how many people read the business press constantly to make sure that some appliance they may buy may be taken over by another company that may or may not support it.
5.The consumers are just going to want their smartphone in the color they want with the carrier they have.
I don't get most cell consumers: they obsess over the phone and then get screwed by the carrier. That is why cell carriers get away with their BS: they put some shiny fancy phone out there and people go "Ooo! Shiny!!" and then blindly jump into a contract and bitch that they get screwed.
One ALWAYS chooses the plan first and THEN choose a phone.
Now Ballmer is gone, will MS make the right decisions? This one could be the first sign of common sense at MS since a long time.
Another term whose meaning has become useless. "Entry level" used to describe the level at which a person started, and then subsequently grew out of. It's not an entry level device if the consumer buys it and never grows up. I mean it is an entry level device, but calling it one is meaningless since any first is an entry.
Entry level devices, loss-leaders, starters, basics; these all used to be items that a consumer new to the technology would trial. If it worked for them, they'd throw it out and buy the full-fat version. That's just not true anymore.
So stop calling it an entry-level device. It's just a cheap crappy device that makes zero profit for anyone. Call it a useless device.
TMobile has sold the Windows-based Nokia Lumia 521 for $100 (non contract) for half a year or a year now. It's supposed to be a pretty decent phone for the low-end. $100 is already pretty low, and surely with the continual progress of hardware they could install the phone OS on $50 hardware.
Android has become the de facto standard, and people would have to have some compelling reason to choose Windows phone over the system everybody else has.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
I thought Nokia sold its devices division to Microsoft. Also they already have their low end Asha platform
did you forget to take your meds?
There is an awful lot of vendor-supplied software on my phone I want to keep at arms length.
It was corporate suicide for Nokia to go with Windows Phone. Maybe Microsoft waved a large wad of money under their noses. Maybe Elop's intention all along was to drive the corp into the ground and clean up from its sale. Whatever happened, they really fucked up big time with their choice.
Nokia, you should have cried rape when Microsoft was with you. Now you're remembered as the company that let Microsoft use it and abuse it and liked it. Nobody wants that.
EEE.
(note: personal view, unrelated to anyone)
If someone would make a proper Android keyboard phone I would buy it.
Being a different presentation medium killed that chance right off the bat, sadly. Touchscreen input, specifically, makes it so you can change software keyboards at will. Apple, never offered hard keyboard support on their "hip" tablets and phones. The clickwheels on the moderately ancient iPod design should have been a hint that input tech trends would never be the same.
This is a losing battle for us everywhere. HPs and other low-end desktops opted for full size keyboards w/laptop-like blunders --for no sane reason, so even desktops are slowly losing the freedom we used to enjoy, and no good choices are being offered.
Today, ALL mobile manufacturers ignored Blackberry's coveted keyboard layout (probably due to patent issues?) and bypassed the Windows keyboard, altogether. Even a $650 high-end Samsung smartphone lacks hard keys. If even laptops are losing, and Mobile is even more bleeding edge than them, where can we go? Bluetooth keyboard layouts suck, and desktop-sized BT keyboards do not sell at brick stores even in large cities, no matter what price tier.
How long does it take for a market to fully emerge? They've been emerging for a long time now.
... since ~2009. The community, who seem to be in love with Qt, have ported Qt5: http://talk.maemo.org/showthre...
Sounds like the standard Microsoft "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" strategy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
Nokia was still making well-designed phones with full keyboards up until fairly recently, with the last holdouts in their Asha line. The X2 was very low-end but a good design (rugged as heck but tragically low onboard memory, slow processor, low-resolution camera, & no WIFI/3G), despite lackluster stats. Usability, ruggedness, & things other than "can it play [latest ad-revenue/money-harvesting game]?" or "does it [make money for] google?" is what's key.
As nice as keyboard slider phones can be, I personally think the best design is the Blackberry-style full-QWERTY bar phone with a d-pad (& a screen which can have the touch-functionality switched on & off (capacitive touchscreens can be *too* sensitive)). NEC *tried* to make an Android phone meeting some of these specs, but I understand it fell far short of expectations. I had high hopes.
The new Blackberries, & the NEC Terrain, both have full QWERTY, but lacked any other meaningful inputs than the touchscreen, like the ever-useful d-pad, which is also lacking in the HTC ChaCha/Status. Nokia made the last good phone design with their E6 (or N950/E7), but that was underpowered & had numerous flaws. So I've (personally) settled on what I consider to be the least worst phone around still, a Nokia E73. I still see people with them out & about in the world, & it works quite well for me, as my primary mobile. I can do most anything on it that I need to: I can use various social media/internet functionalities (whatsapp (which is amazing how a major company designs their software to be accessible on most device platforms, not just iDevices & Android!), facebook, synctxt, okc, goodsearch - an enlightened alternative to google, twitter, etc.) & have access to an excellent email client, Citrix support, FM radio built-in (lucky me, I live near Good radio stations), & an amazing GPS. The camera's decent, too. Sure, it's carrier-locked (T-Mobile) but it has better stats than the E72, has built-in WIFI calling & has better data/radio frequencies. It has an older processor & low ram, but I have a 64gb microSD card & if I offload messages semi-regularly it's great for intense everyday use. I have destroyed many mobiles with what I consider "normal" everyday use, so real durability is important, & lacking as a design consideration in most mobiles.
I also have an N900, & bought a spare for when I can buy the Neo900 upgrade. I think that is still too slow (1ghz processor, 1gb ram (but a good sight better than the old specs (which still work decently well)), & the 3-row QWERTY is a setback, but I can do a lot with it, & it's an amazing device in essentially every other regard (admittedly, it's not my primary mobile). The N900/Maemo was/is too touch-driven, interface-wise, &, at least in theory, a Moto Droid or some other 4+ row QWERTY slider phone (Android seems to be the only option, as I don't think anyone's making non-Bluetooth (seriously, why waste even more battery with that when you can make a battery hutch/slide-out keyboard that plugs into the microUSB port (or Lightning port on i
Short Term:
- Start by making near stock (all Google app.) phone.
- Raise patent licensing fees for all Android phone makers other than MS/Nokia.
- Use cost advantage + internal Exchange/Office interoperability to grow userbase of consumers and businesspeople respectively; make MSNokia _THE_ brand to get for users that concurrently like Android & MS Windows.
- Start user conversions by first running MS apps alongside Google ones and giving incentives {free MS docs, Exchange, web storage, MS Live single sign on.}
Long term:
- Wholesale replacement of all Google apps.
- Integrate maps to gain data collection. Nokia already had mapping dept. that MS bought earlier.
- Bing (Cortana???) voice search for greater user base & data mining.
- Increase MS patent fee on other Android OEMs.
- Sell license to MSNokia "Android" at sweetheart price.
- Use market share to introduce & push new MS specific features/products.
I'd like to imagine there will be heavy growth in augmented reality; the above tactics could ostensibly help MS capture a signfiicant smartphone user base , but strategically may leave market wide open for Apple/Google/Samsung to gain first mover advantage in emergent non-phone continuously/immersively-networked consumer field...
-- The Walter Gretsky quote "skate where the puck's going, not where it's been" would be partially applicable in that case leaving MS playing catchup WRT creating, integrating, and tuning new communication/computing usage modalities. If MS focus must be split between native MS os phone, Nokia Android, and emergent markets; the combinatorial use cases could result in significant user-experience consistency issues along with QA & time-to-market headaches for MSNokia product management.
Winkia, sounds more like MS took over a certain Korean car company.
http://www.cellphonetec.com/re...
ROTFLMAO @ "Chumpy" -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
(You sure "talk a good game" -> http://games.slashdot.org/comm... but you can't even produce a MERE SCRIPT!, windbag...)
You aren't even on the leve of a "script kiddie", & full of HOT AIR!
You certainly won't reply there in that 2nd link I posted either, as that would remove your downmods to my posts like this one you can't validly disprove or justify your downmod on -> http://games.slashdot.org/comm...
Oh, I suspect that IS the case here (simply logging out of a registered account & trolling by ac is a common troll trick around here OR using alternate registered 'luser' accounts sockpuppets to do the job will also, & Lumpy is LOADED with those & trolling - which doesn't matter: He PROVES he's all talk, no action (or skills, OR brains, lol))
(You're all TALK, & NO action "CHUMPY!)
* :)
(You know it, I know it, & so does anyone reading AND laughing their asses off @ you now... lol!)
APK
P.S.=> Answer the question in the subject-line Lumpy - since you had to "eat your wrods" in the 1st link above flavored with your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH + the "bitter taste of SELF-defeat", lol...
... apk
ROTFLMAO @ "Chumpy" -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
(You sure "talk a good game" -> http://games.slashdot.org/comm... but you can't even produce a MERE SCRIPT!, windbag...)
You aren't even on the leve of a "script kiddie", & full of HOT AIR!
You certainly won't reply there in that 2nd link I posted either, as that would remove your downmods to my posts like this one you can't validly disprove or justify your downmod on -> http://games.slashdot.org/comm...
Oh, I suspect that IS the case here (simply logging out of a registered account & trolling by ac is a common troll trick around here OR using alternate registered 'luser' accounts sockpuppets to do the job will also, & Lumpy is LOADED with those & trolling - which doesn't matter: He PROVES he's all talk, no action (or skills, OR brains, lol))
(You're all TALK, & NO action "CHUMPY!)
* :)
(You know it, I know it, & so does anyone reading AND laughing their asses off @ you now... lol!)
APK
P.S.=> Answer the question in the subject-line Lumpy - since you had to "eat your wrods" in the 1st link above flavored with your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH + the "bitter taste of SELF-defeat", lol...
... apk