Nokia Buys Symbian, Possible Google Android Delays

[speakerwizard]

I agree, in the UK most phones are free on a contract. I think the current iPhone will be its high end model, it makes more sense for apple to introduce a lower range model. Smaller device at least but wouldnt know what features they could drop though as in the UK most of Apple's feature (accept gps) are standard these days. The mobile phone market is very competive, and with the n96 coming out soon going to very challenging here.

It took 3 generations of ipods before apple introduced the mini, They like to establish a product before expanding, like with the mac range when jobs returned and cut most products down to ibook, powerbook, imac, power mac, clearly defined so a while before more than one iphone model, though i can see with the pricing they are trying to open up the one model to a larger market.

 

[swingerofbirch]

This is exciting! Since the mid-90s, nothing has really changed THAT much with personal computing. It's all been relatively minor evolutions in desktop computing (I know both Microsoft and Apple would argue that's not true)--but really have any of the fundamnentals changed?

Mobile phones are a new platform on which to start fresh, and the fact that Google and Nokia are wanting to get good OS's onto phones only legitimizes Apple's efforts further by showing it's the place to be right now.

 

[Sasha-1]

I don't get it. How is Nokia going to benefit of giving symbian for free for other manufacturers.

Well, Nokia is likely thinking that they are based in Symbian, and rather than leave it, they hope to get others interested in it so they can stand still. It's as I keep saying. These guys don't know how to combat Apple. They think they need their own OS. Which is only half true. They do need an OS. But it needs to be compelling. Symbian is not. In my opinion, even if they get what they want, it will not lead to the desired results.

My opinion remains the same. BlackBerry OS is no competition. Symbian, no competition. Palm, no competition. Android, yes that's competition. Windows Mobile in my view is also competition. Nokia, Palm, and BlackBerry should be very worried.

Alex

 

[ruutiveijari]

Nokia, Palm, and BlackBerry should be very worried.

Nokia isn't relying solely on Symbian, they have a big developement going on with different Linux based platforms.

 

[Project]

Well, Nokia is likely thinking that they are based in Symbian, and rather than leave it, they hope to get others interested in it so they can stand still. It's as I keep saying. These guys don't know how to combat Apple. They think they need their own OS. Which is only half true. They do need an OS. But it needs to be compelling. Symbian is not. In my opinion, even if they get what they want, it will not lead to the desired results.

My opinion remains the same. BlackBerry OS is no competition. Symbian, no competition. Palm, no competition. Android, yes that's competition. Windows Mobile in my view is also competition. Nokia, Palm, and BlackBerry should be very worried.

Alex

I agree with this.

Nokia is left with a very interesting strategic decision to make in terms of where they are headed. If we go under the premise that the mobile phone becomes more and more of a computer in the next decade, then the status quo is the worst position they can be in, as Windows Mobile, OSX and Android offer better platforms, with MS and Google looking to effectively duplicate the Windows model with OEM deals.

I think in doing this they made the right choice. They just need to hope that Android doesn't get too much traction and become "Windows" for mobiles in the sense that its the defacto OS that most other OEMs run and thus create an unparalleled ecosystem for software and hardware. Yes, Nokia make 1 out of every 4 phones sold in the world but 3 of the other 4 are targets for Microsoft and Google.

Apple will be Apple, happy with fighting in the 5-10% of the market that is the most lucrative. If they do a good job here and gain traction (20-30m units a year), Nokia will definitely feel the squeeze on the bottom line for their highest margin products.

Its definitely an interesting to business to watch now though. Arguably the desktop computer business is insanely boring at present. New speed bumps. Big deal. Mobile is where there is still a lot of innovation to happen as it plays catch up, both technically and from a UI standpoint. And the winners and losers 5 years from now is very unpredictable (except for Motorola, lol).

 

[BongoBanger]

Excuse me? Ever used the DLR or tubes at rush hour in London? Get on a train and tell me you can not spot at least 4 iPhones in a wagon, and I might say you're right.

Now count the Nokia units. Nokia dominate Europe and Indo-Asia.

and it's far from a flop in Europe.

Actually, going by comparitive sales figures it kind of was. The iPhone 3G should do a lot better.

Software Version 2.0 and the App Store will change this business totally.

Doubt it since it's not offering anything that the other manufacturers don't already.

And yes, I've been in the Sybian and Nokia E61 "business joke phone" territory and regret that phase.

Good for you. Shame you're not willing to try the newer units. It seems Nokia, like Apple, learn from their mistakes.

As for the announcemnt, been expecting this for a while. This will really push Symbian ahead as it'll become the biggest - and by a considerable margin - development community in the world. Suspect Nokia will focus on pulling together their distribution strategy now.

 

[gikku]

Apple has left room for higher specced iPhones at the $399 & $499 price points. Are we to get video iChat, a 3.2 MP camera, real bluetooth and 32/64GB capacities for the new iPhone Air (tic)

how about a low spec model, no camera, 3/4 size and weight, 2GB $89 or 4GB $129 iPhone nano (tic)

 

[gikku]

Now count the Nokia units. Nokia dominate Europe and Indo-Asia.

for phones and texting, yes, but almost no one is listening to music on their Nokia phone. Almost no one wearing Nokia earbuds.

 

[JayBee]

... I think the current iPhone will be its high end model, it makes more sense for apple to introduce a lower range model. Smaller device at least but wouldnt know what features they could drop though ...

I keep seeing this trotted out as fact again and again.

( This is a long rant, and it's not meant as any personal attack - this just happened to be the most recent time I saw this particular "fact" quoted. )

Just think about this for a minute - when has any electronic product been released that was both significantly smaller and significantly cheaper than the currently available model?

Making these things smaller costs more, not less. It's not like the thing's just full of gold bullion and if you take some gold out it gets cheaper.

Smaller is a feature, and it's a feature real people pay a premium for. Look at the iPod mini - much more expensive per gigabyte than its chunky sibling, yet it became the most successful iPod model (and, I'm guessing, hence the most successful MP3 player).

Apple won't release the iPhone nano (or air, or whatever) until the base iPhone runs at 32GB of storage at least. Then they'll re-release the iPhone G1 in a smaller case just like they did with the iPod. They might drop GPS, WiMax, Bluetooth modem, video conferencing, world peace and the laughter of a thousand children, or whatever they're shipping as "standard" on the iPhone in 3 years, but think about the iPod again - what features did they "drop" for the mini? I can't think of a one other than storage, and in fact they even introduced a feature (the clickwheel) that was exclusive to the mini. In fact, other than storage, I can't think of much that existed on the G3 iPod that wasn't on the G1.

I maintain that the iPhone is going to follow EXACTLY the same pattern as the iPod. Why the hell should Apple change it? All the naysayers said that the iPod was lame and would fail. Apple was right, we were wrong. Now all the naysayers come out of the woodwork again and tell Apple what they have to do to succeed, and none of them seem to stop to think about what they're saying.

Nothing revolutionary is going to happen with the iPhone for the next 5 years. The revolution already happened: smart phones are now being used by our mums and dads, by our kids, by everyone to whom this stuff (email, web, phone, video, music) is useful, but from whom it has been withheld by crappy user interfaces and mismatched software/hardware direction, driven by a lacklustre industry hell-bent on resting on its laurels.

Again, look at the iPod. With the exception of the iPhone/touch, the iPod hasn't been revolutionary since 2001, yet it's ubiquitous. Same with the iPhone. Expect no surprises - expect only that the user experience will get better and better and that nobody will catch up as the competition is too focussed on "Hey, check it out!! We've got an 8MP camera that automatically syncs with your flickr account!*" (* if you can figure out how the hell to configure it, and if you can trust it not to publish those "private" photos you took for your girlfriend)

Apple will do what it does best when it's on its game - ignore everyone, and then win.

 

[elppa]

for phones and texting, yes, but almost no one is listening to music on their Nokia phone. Almost no one wearing Nokia earbuds.

That's not fair at all, I've seen a solid two people wearing NOKIA earbuds and we're still only in June! Plenty of the year left…

 

[jfanning]

for phones and texting, yes, but almost no one is listening to music on their Nokia phone. Almost no one wearing Nokia earbuds.

Yet I see hundreds of people wearing Nokia earbuds in Ireland (and some using AD2P headphones...) yet have only seen one person with an iPhone here

 

[BongoBanger]

for phones and texting, yes, but almost no one is listening to music on their Nokia phone. Almost no one wearing Nokia earbuds.

That's because Nokia ear buds are horrible.

Saleswise they dominate the smartphone market too though.

 

[koobcamuk]

Yet I see hundreds of people wearing Nokia earbuds in Ireland (and some using AD2P headphones...) yet have only seen one person with an iPhone here

Lots of people all over use the radio in their Nokia and also listen to MP3s on there. Mostly due to price. I agree that sometimes it's not worth spending all that money on something (I say on my MBP)...

 

[countach]

Wtf?

$410 million for half a share in that piece of crap? Seriously, mobile linux blows the doors of this junk, its value in 2008 is basically nil, because nobody will touch it. That's $410 million down the crapper. Who are these idiot CEOs?

 

[garty]

Now count the Nokia units. Nokia dominate Europe and Indo-Asia.

Nokia dominating Europe and Asia does not make the iPhone 1 a flop. Especially if your target was what - 1% of the market iirc.

 

[jfanning]

Nokia dominating Europe and Asia does not make the iPhone 1 a flop. Especially if your target was what - 1% of the market iirc.

Yes, but they are going for 1% of previous years market, not this years. There has been a huge growth in mobile sales and they will have to in excess of 15 million sales to meet the 1% now

 

[BongoBanger]

Nokia dominating Europe and Asia does not make the iPhone 1 a flop. Especially if your target was what - 1% of the market iirc.

Except the target was expressed in sales units, wasn't met and resulted in improved tarrifs and reduced costs to shift units.

It wasn't a total disaster but it wasn't a success either.

$410 million for half a share in that piece of crap? Seriously, mobile linux blows the doors of this junk, its value in 2008 is basically nil, because nobody will touch it. That's $410 million down the crapper. Who are these idiot CEOs?

It's posts like this that make me want to cry.

Symbian has two-thirds of the smartphone market. Nokia have 40% of the entire phone market and understand that the market is moving towards convergence. No-one will care about mobile Linux now because it's dead before it began.

So when you say 'nobody will touch it' you're about as wrong as you can be.

 

[elppa]

Yet I see hundreds of people wearing Nokia earbuds in Ireland (and some using AD2P headphones...) yet have only seen one person with an iPhone here

That's because the “deal” is terrible in Eire.

 

[Hattig]

$410 million for half a share in that piece of crap? Seriously, mobile linux blows the doors of this junk, its value in 2008 is basically nil, because nobody will touch it. That's $410 million down the crapper. Who are these idiot CEOs?

It seemed like a reasonable price, simply because they're buying (52% of) 2/3rds of the smartphone OS market and 6% of the overall phone OS market. There's a lot of mobile expertise here, lots of per-carrier applications are running on it already, and now it will become cheap to integrate - thus it will move down into non-smartphone areas and take over even more of the marketshare. There's also an established software ecosystem, even if it is likely that Apple will come in on the first try and nail how is should work straight away.

Where will Nokia make its money back? Not directly, that's for sure. Having a single unified Symbian ecosystem will encourage developers again who have probably been migrating to the iPhone due to the ease of development. It will also get rid of possible issues in Symbian due to multiple ownership, allowing Nokia to drive development forward with a singular vision.

 

[Mac Player]

Everyone i know that codes for symbian says it's a pain in the ass.

 

[28monkeys]

Blackberry has to be the most worried

 

[blakespot]

Nokia CEO: "...it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation."

Riiight...



blakespot

 

[wheezy]

I keep seeing this trotted out as fact again and again.

( This is a long rant, and it's not meant as any personal attack - this just happened to be the most recent time I saw this particular "fact" quoted. )

Just think about this ..... Apple will do what it does best when it's on its game - ignore everyone, and then win.

Great Post JayBee. I know Steve Jobs isn't perfect, he's still human... but he has incredible foresight on both seeing current, and creating future trends. When the iPod came out, it was predicted a failure. Oops. We were wrong, he was right. The iPhone is changing everything, all the pieces are in place. The most amazing gadget ever, a solid core OS, lots of new and experienced developers, and the App store built right into the core software of the phone. They've covered all the bases from the beginning to the end.

I think the App Store is the sleeping giant of iPhone 2.0, as soon as people, regular people (not smartphone geeks) start seeing everything you can do on your iPhone, all the other developing platforms are going to have to scramble to hold on to any kind of ground and marketshare.

 

[Rot'nApple]

Nice to see the rest of the industry isn't sitting on its hands waiting for Apple to make its next move. Let's hope this means better software for all!

Too bad it's a shame the cellular industry had to wait for Apple to make a first move in order to act, the heck with the next one.

 

[sjo]

Too bad it's a shame the cellular industry had to wait for Apple to make a first move in order to act, the heck with the next one.

what the heck are you smoking? cell industry has been innovating for the last 20 years, the devices available today are nothing what they used to be and the innovation has only been accelerating in the recent years. apple's contribution is one over-hyped device that has had decent sales in one market.

other than multitouch apple's phone has nothing that wasn't available five years ago and lacks pile of innovative technologies that have are expected in cell phones.