Nokia Dials Back Time To Sell Mobile Phones Again (bbc.com)
Nokia said Thursday mobile phones carrying its brand will make a comeback via a new venture that will reunite the Nokia brand with veteran Nokia execs who aim to move into smartphones capitalizing on an existing operation that sells low-cost basic phones. From a report on BBC: It's thanks to a deal with a small team based at a business park on the fringes of Helsinki, who are engaged in what will seem to many a foolhardy mission. They call themselves HMD Global -- and they believe they can make Nokia a big name in mobile phones once again. I met Arto Nummela, Pekka Rantala and Florian Seiche in a cafe on what is still the Nokia campus. That very day Arto and Pekka had stopped working for the Nokia Windows mobile phone business owned by Microsoft -- because they had acquired both it and the Nokia brand to start their new business. Yes, it is complicated, but so is the recent history of what was just a few years back Europe's technology superpower and the biggest force in mobile phones. After the launch of the iPhone in 2007, Nokia faltered and by 2011 was on what its first American chief executive, Stephen Elop, called a burning platform. Then, the phone business was sold to Microsoft, which soon found it had made a disastrous purchase as the Nokia Windows combination failed to claim a significant slice of a market dominated by Apple's iOS and Android. Now, the Finnish business -- which remained a big force in telecoms infrastructure after the sale of the mobile unit -- has licensed the Nokia brand to HMD Global, which aims to take it back to the future.
Will he fix Nokia? More Trump news please!!!!
I hope they are successful. The Android vs. iOS competition has been giving most of us headaches for quite a while.
Nokia used to make terrific handsets. It was only when Elop, the worst CEO in history, took the reins that things went south precipitously. If Nokia starts designing handsets again, this time with Android, I'll be in principle interested.
As long as they bring back just the awesome hardware, I'm fine, and may even buy a new Nokia phone.
But please don't bring back that horrible Symbian OS.
There are a lot of people who don't want smartphones. Nokia is legendary for its cellphones. Does this herald the return of the dumb phone?
Linux ;-)
Overpriced S60 phones (800 Euros or so with a slightly bigger screen than a 6030 for 150 Euro). The S60 had only a supershitty J2ME API. No C++ Api available.
Then they had some Linux device. Instead of forging ahead, they created a second Linux platform and then buried both.
Maoist Surrender Monkeys, thats the Euro Elite these days. One of their favorite tactics is to hire INDIANS for SW engineering, while europeans have the shit jobs. I guess Obama teached them this tactic.
The 6030 had only a supershitty J2ME API. No C++ Api available.
Nokia made good phones back then. Phones consisted of strong plastic, antenna, and black and white LCD screen. Now smartphone needs good AP, OLED screen, camera, metal/glass casing, waterproof, good battery, etc. I don't think Nokia has skills on any of those. They'll probably come up with something similar to Blackberry Priv.
I'm sure Nokia has some talented engineers, but they are competing with Apple/Google/Samsung engineers who already has a decade of experience of building smartphones and extremely talented at that.
But:
1. It can run Angry Birds.
2. It can sync with a local PC, without depositing your address book and everything else on MS/Google/Apple servers
3. It used to be open source, before it became open ... for business.
4. It can run DOSBox.
Build phones with a replaceable battery, with actual keys to type in a phone number or to flip up/down in the phone book, with slots for SD cards and plugs for micro USB.
I know it sounds crazy, but I have that odd feeling that there just MIGHT be a market for something like this.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Ah, do you mean something like this?
Nokia already did "waste millions of Euros in R&D to develop a Linux phone distribution". They would just be returning to their own project.
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
For the last 16 years, I have been using Nokia phones except for 1 HTC phone in between. My current phone is a Lumia. I bought it mainly because it's a Nokia. If Nokia makes phones I again, my next phone will also be a Nokia - I don't care what software it runs.
We need a nickname like this for Trump. "Crooked Hillary" is totally apt and accurate, but Trump is equally bad, just in different ways (looking at his cabinet picks here at the moment...), so he needs a suitable nickname in the same vein.
Nokia Snake coming to Android soon!
Great Britain no longer consider themselves as part of Europe, as the Brexit vote so amply demonstrated. ARM is a triumph of the commonwealth and the crown. Rule Britannia!
TRIUMPHANT Trump!!! After his success w/ Carrier
TRIUMPHANT Trump!!! After his success w/ Carrier
Then "Carrier's B&*%h" is more appropriate.
We need a nickname like this for Trump. "Crooked Hillary" is totally apt and accurate, but Trump is equally bad, just in different ways (looking at his cabinet picks here at the moment...), so he needs a suitable nickname in the same vein.
"Trumpster fire".
Tweeter Trump
You just invented the late 90s cordless phone!
Firstly, Android is Linux. But in the sense meant here, no.
I think the parent poster might be referring to GNU/Linux.
Android does use the Linux Kernel, but slaps a completely different user space atop of it.
(Mostly written in "I Can't Believe it's Not Java(tm)" in addition a few core libraries replaced with alternatives that have non-GPL licensing, like the Bionic C library).
Bringing another OS into play in a market that is sewn up by two major players is pretty much guaranteed to fail
...except if that 3rd OS does run the Apps of one of the 2 major players.
Which is exactly what *Windows* failed to do (Android apps never got supported, at least the technology got recycled into WSL)
Which is where HP/Palm's WebOS bid on the wrong horse (They counted on compatibility with classic PalmOS apps. It did make sense back when they started designing webOS - as PalmOS used to be a major platform back then. But didn't make any sense as webOS smart phones go released - as Android had became the main platform).
At the end of the day, end-user don't care that OS their smartphone run.
They only care if they can play the same games/use the same chat app as everybody else.
Thus it's the app availability which is the most important.
As long as your OS can run Android Apps and tap into its vast eco-system, you're golden.
and I really don't see what a Linux phone would do for the average consumer.
Lower spec requirement, as proven by Sailfish OS.
Thus :
- either being able to run on lower-spec smartphones (and that's the reason while SFOS is being considered by some 3rd party developpers)
- and in theory should able to have more headroom on flagship specs smartphones.
A few other advantages (Turing Industries apparently found it easier to secure).
Do really think Nokia/HMD Global should waste millions of Euros in R&D to develop a Linux phone distribution just to satisfy a handful of nerds?
In practice, they *ALREADY WASTED THESE EUROS*. Then Elop sacked the R&D team, who went to create Jolla and develop SailfishOS.
The Linux OS already exist.
Nokia already paid for it.
It would be a bad business idea not to at least consider using what they've already paid to develop.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
or it's going to be a slider, which have proven to have mechanical problems
3rd party have successfully designed keyboard which are magnetic slide.
(No mechanical parts. Just carefully aligned magnet that accept 2 stable positions. Either the keyboard stuck to the back of the smartphone, or stuck in "slide out position" with the keys available for typing and the pogo-pins aligned with the contacts).
I you don't want the keyboard, you just remove it (un stick it).
This of course requires the availability of pogo-pins.
Jolla's phone and Fairphone's phone 2 were both designed with extra pins so that 3rd parties could invent such gadgets.
Android OS and access to the Google Play store.
Technically, only the "access Google Play store" part is important.
It just happens that Android OS is the most straight-forward solution to run Android Apps, but...
Going with a non-Android OS is doomed to failure, because of the apps;
...unless this non-Android OS also runs android apps.
Like the Alien-Dalvik engine available inside the Sailfish OS - for whose development Nokia already paid, until Elop decided to drop that R&D team (who subsequently formed Jolla)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
No, not really. That's a good list and all, but "Hitler II" just doesn't have a good ring to it, the way "Lyin' Ted" or "Crooked Hillary" do, and more importantly, "Hitler II" doesn't actually have Trump's name in it! It's not obvious that it's referring to Trump because of this; someone could think you're talking about Erdogan or Putin. I'm looking for a catchy nickname that actually has either "Trump" or "Donald" in it, just like his nicknames for his opponents. Something with alliteration would be best (though "Crooked Hillary" lacked that). Maybe "Tyrannical Trump"? Though to be fair, it remains to be seen as he hasn't proven himself one way or the other, it's all just been rhetoric and bluster to this point.
BTW, the press really does lie. WaPo proved that when they sabotaged Bernie's campaign. Trump was exactly right about that. It's not just the leftist (really corporatist) outlets like WaPo either; the alt-right news outlets are at least as bad. They're all liars. Also, Hillary didn't give a shit about anyone else but herself too, so Trump isn't unique on that point.
has anyone actually demonstrated this is feasible,
As mentionned above, Myriad's Alien-Dalvik has and is the official commercial solution powering the Jolla Phone in my pocket (and what I use with countless android apps).
I think I remember that this was also the official solution use by BlackBerry back when they offered Android Apps support on their (non-android) OS.
This was also a solution considered for HP/Palm's webOS... but the whole platform went belly up before commercial deployment.
SFDroid is another solution for SailfishOS, but opensource and thus used successfully by the community ports (e.g.: on Fairphone 2). I haven't tested this one.
Shashlik is yet another one, but I don't know how far they've reached.
WSL is what microsoft tried, but unlike the above, they weren't successful (and recycled it into the form that we now know of).
is it legally possible (would Google lock out such an OS)?
Technically possible :
- yes, I'm doing it, and countless of other sailfish OS users.
Legally possible :
- murky. In theory Google requires a commercial license between them and the phone constructor, in order to allow them to use the full commercial "Google Play" experience (as opposed to simply using the opensource android).
e.g.: As Jolla has never secured such a license (and the fact that it runs on a completely different OS might probably contradict the usual terms about the "google experience") the Alien-Dalvik installation on Jolla phones doesn't come with Google Play, but with Aptoid (and optionnally Yandex).
By default they activate a couple of repositories containing a few apps that have been curated and known to work good on the phones.
In practice:
- Google has never done anything against end-user sideloading Googe Play Store into their phones (be it Cyanogen-modded, running Alien-Dalvik, etc.)
And you could understand clearly why :
- They DO have interest going against crappy no-name chinese clone-makers, because it might degrade the perception of their Google Play brand.
- They HAVE NO interest going against en users. On the contrary: As this is end-user installed, Google don't need to go at great length to insure support (I might have found 1 or 2 applications that don't work on my phone). And as it is an *apps store*, google can earn tons of users who are happy to install paid content on their phone (There's at least a couple of games that I've paid).
So google has very strong monetary incentives to let users keep installing Google Play Store on unlicensed platforms.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Everything Microsoft touches turns to shit. As I said back then, the execs at Nokia who went with Microsoft were either complete idiots or were traitors.