It is not easier to build a great product at some imaginary 'built out field'- point. That simply is not true. Windows 95 wasn't a great leap forward considering there was a mature mouse-driven user interface already. Cliche time - Henry Ford didn't just build a faster horse.
Now the wireless companies laid cable (!). They built towers. What they didn't do was build anything that made the process of access better or more useable. I am not underestimating their willingness to build infrastructure to compete with other wireless companies. But they did very little to engineer decent multi-fuction phones. RIM did more than most of the big boy players.
There is a difference in how companies operate and think. Companies that basically build infrastructure are not the ones who are capable of designing things that look forward to how to use the infrastructure. In fact, I would say they are the worst at it as their POV is aimed at building towers and laying lines. But it is still amazing that they did so little in innovating any kind of decent hardware/software combination.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jahonen
Hmm. They just developed the whole mobile industry with that R&D to the point that you can now create a phone + computer + camera + iPod + Navigator + PDA from essentially a single chip + some memory. That's no small feat to accomplish.
It's much easier to come in when the palyground already exists and you can buy most of the components from the shop. Also you don't have any existing user base of your own that you risk to alianate and you can learn from existing deficiencies. Don't forget that as a phone (not talking about the other functions let alone UI), the iPhone is not that good (reception issues, power save issues, boatloads of signalling issues, 10second voice codec pauses etc.) especially compared to the established players.
It's also quite difficult to judge at what point is it worth it to alienate many of your existing user's by making a big drastic change in your user's use environment (for example OS9 ->OS X or G5 ->Intel or Nokia S60 -> Meego or Symbian^4). If you break backwards compatibility and change the UI, it becomes harder the larger your user base is (bigger user base to lose). Apple just made it mandatory for the existing players to act now (a good thing that is). It's interesting to see how they will react.
Many of the vendors have gone the reactionary route of copying the Apple UI and business model (Win 7 and Samsung Bada), some have done their own (Ovi was announced before Apple Store). 2 years is product development cycle after all is a short time. Especially if your aim is to compete, innovate and start over and not just quicly copy (as many of the asian manufacturers have done). Nokia isn't doing hot at the moment, but it does have potential. It remains to be seen if they can use that potential.
Hey, you're the one who quoted the thing back. In the Ugliest Products of All Time derby, the AMC Gremlin wins by a length (sorry Nokia!). Not only was it completely utt bugly both inside and out, it drove poorly and was miserably constructed. So what's not to love?
They certainly do. Between Android's feature dominance and Apple's loyal fans, Nokia is not in a good spot right now.
They have great products. And in most of the world, they own the markets. But the markets are changing, and they need to step up efforts to rebuild their lead.
Should we attribute the reported sale of 8.75 million $600 smart phones in one quarter to loyal fans or should we look at the product and see if it is actually the quality and utility of the device that are prompting people to purchase?
Hey, you're the one who quoted the thing back. In the Ugliest Products of All Time derby, the AMC Gremlin wins by a length (sorry Nokia!). Not only was it completely utt bugly both inside and out, it drove poorly and was miserably constructed. So what's not to love?
I know I quoted it back....just for shock and awe.
I personally think the pacer gives it a run for the title of fugliest car.
A matter of opinion of course, but I thought the Pacer was more strange than ugly. At least its lines went somewhere, and the design followed its own eccentric logic. The Gremlin was just a total mishmash.
But those were probably a few of the many 100s of phones they created. That is kinda important when you are in pretty much every country ......... etc
See, that's the problem right there. All pulled out of some silly 'go-to-market' handbook.
There are only so many sensible ways in which you can slice and dice a market and yet do it in a cost-efficient, consistent, high-quality way. Moreover, do it in a way that consumers don't get completely confused.
Apple makes the market come to it, rather than go-to-market.
Anyone who thinks Nokia used to be crap forever doesn't know anything. Or else has only been in the US, where customers had to deal with locked-down crappy LG/Samsung phones while the rest of the world was enjoying great (at the time) Nokia phones. However, they forgot what made their stuff great (really really simple to use. The Nokia 3210 family ushered a new generation of simplicity in phones in the mid-late 90's with their single button interface).
Nokia's biggest issue (and the biggest change in paradigm, which yes, was ushered in by Apple) was that phones aren't about HW anymore. They are all about the SW. And I dont think Nokia has the SW capability to compete in this new generation.
They really need to buy Palm, before more of their engineers jump that sinking ship.
Not sure about Palm but at some point in the not too distant past Nokia phones were simply the best you could buy - quality hardware, well thought out and fairly consistent UI and great features. They were light years ahead of the crap peddled by Motorola, Sony Ericsson and the rest of the mobile industry.
What changed ?
I think they missed, completely missed, the possibility of people wanting constant access to their email, browsing rich content - to be sure they dabbled but christ was the web sh*t on wap.
Apple changed the whole expectation level in the mobile market - Nokia have some talented people but they are not at the top of the company so unlikely to be able to move fast enough to counter the changes occurring in the longer term.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees Palm's failure as a perfect opportunity for Nokia. They get a viable smartphone OS and a US presence with the Palm name.
Nokia may be faltering but they plenty of money and time to rebuild themselves. Will they be able to do it is another story, but I do want them to be the biggest thorn in Apple's side.
Ok guys let's take a chill pill and take a look.. and i'm not defending Nokia but let numbers talk..
Apple remained flat in market share at 17% and flat in sales (apple is flat at 17% for 3 quarters straight)
RIM increased market share to 21% and grew sales
NOKIA increased market share to 41% and grew sales (Nokia sold more smartphones than RIM, Apple and HTC combined)
So who won? what's more important long term? I don't know but I know one thing which is a no brainer, Apple will not grow out of that 17-18% with only one phone and at that price. Nokia may not be there yet software wise but they're catching up so if I were Apple I'd be scared right now and schedule my engineers into double shifts to bring out a couple more phones, one with a sliding qwerty keyboard and a mini version, that could easily double their sales in no time.
Hope your meal bought from parlaying market share tastes good!
Nokia and Symbian are still very big in Europe and Asia. Apple is, and will be, extremely slow to get to those markets, as it isn't quite the namebrand that you find here in the US.
I never thought I'd live long enough to say this: If what you're saying is true, Europe and Asia are really badly falling behind in terms of sophistication of the mobile handset market.
Finnish cellphone maker Nokia conceded this week that it faces "tough" competition in the high-end smartphone realm, as its disappointing quarterly earnings were a stark contrast from yet another blockbuster quarter for Apple and the iPhone.
Nokia this week revealed that earned 349 million euros, or $465 million, in the first quarter of 2010. Though that was an increase from the 122 million euros earned a year prior, it was also short of estimates expected by analysts due to lower-than-expected mobile device sales.
According to the Financial Times, Nokia conceded that its best handsets are struggling to compete in the high-end market. The company said the average selling price of its phones dropped to 62 euros, down from 66 euros. Smartphones prices saw a large drop, down from 190 euros a year ago to 155 euros in the first quarter of calendar 2010.
"We continue to face tough competition with respect to the high end of our mobile device portfolio," Nokia Chief Exeuctive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said
Nokia is still the overall worldwide market leader in both smartphones and total cell phones, but it has lost significant ground since Apple entered the market in 2007. Those losses are widely believed to have inspired Nokia to sue Apple over the alleged use of 10 patented wireless standards in the iPhone.
Apple responded to Nokia with its own lawsuit, accusing the Finnish company of infringing on 13 iPhone-related patents. The battle of the two smartphone giants is expected to drag out for years, with both companies looking for a court hearing to be held in 2012. The U.S. International Trade Commission -- the group with which the complaints were filed -- has agreed to look into both Nokia's and Apple's complaints against the other.
Nokia's earnings reveal this week is in sharp contrast to Apple's own record-setting second fiscal quarter of 2010. On Tuesday, Apple announced its highest-ever quarterly iPhone sales at 8.75 million, topping the previous holiday quarter, based on strong international growth of the handset. The strong iPhone sales propelled Apple to a nearly 90 percent increase in profits, exceeding analyst expectations and pushing the company's stock price to new heights.
Hi Folks,
Talking here as a Nokia employee, but not of course on behalf of Nokia. Also an ex-Symbian employee, so seen Nokia from outside and in.
So firstly I listen to a lot of the comments on Nokia and some are very valid, others less so. So I thought I would share a few thoughts:
I have to admit I too had written Nokia off before being acquired in Symbian days. However, having been in Symbian Devices org for a while I have been amazed at a number of things.
Firstly, the reason I joined the organisation and took a position was I saw in SD leadership a recognition that the organization could not compete in the way it did, and the organisation was putting in things to change this. As someone on here put it, changing the course of a large aircraft carrier.
Secondly, the organisation has an unbelievable amount of innovation. I mean for techies, truly incredible. Which is the life blood of a high-tech company.
Thirdly, we have slowly been transforming ourselves to a services and software company, which with Nokia history and hardware focus this is pretty major change. From a Symbian OS perspective, the OS is one of the most capable OSs in the world. From a Nokia historical perspective, it has been let down by the UI. Of course we have been so busy in this area, so watch this space.
Finally, Nokia should not be written off anytime soon, too much going on
Talking here as a Nokia employee, but not of course on behalf of Nokia. Also an ex-Symbian employee, so seen Nokia from outside and in. ......
Finally, Nokia should not be written off anytime soon, too much going on
Kevin
Thank you for a very measured, polite note, Kevin. Seriously.
I am curious to know, when you say you are transforming to a services/software company, are there any examples of successful outcomes here that you can point to? Also, will your transformation to a more software-based business continue to be based on Symbian?
On a (vaguely) related topic -- since Apple is now a Nokia competitor -- does anyone have a sense of why AAPL jumped another $6+ today (I don't think it was just the tailwind from yesterday's earnings announcement).
Ok guys let's take a chill pill and take a look.. and i'm not defending Nokia but let numbers talk..
Apple remained flat in market share at 17% and flat in sales (apple is flat at 17% for 3 quarters straight)
RIM increased market share to 21% and grew sales
NOKIA increased market share to 41% and grew sales (Nokia sold more smartphones than RIM, Apple and HTC combined)
So who won? what's more important long term? I don't know but I know one thing which is a no brainer, Apple will not grow out of that 17-18% with only one phone and at that price. Nokia may not be there yet software wise but they're catching up so if I were Apple I'd be scared right now and schedule my engineers into double shifts to bring out a couple more phones, one with a sliding qwerty keyboard and a mini version, that could easily double their sales in no time.
Apple will never, ever market a qwerty-style keyboard on a phone. Never ever. No 2 button mouse ever.
A matter of opinion of course, but I thought the Pacer was more strange than ugly. At least its lines went somewhere, and the design followed its own eccentric logic. The Gremlin was just a total mishmash.
Precisely. So is the Pontiac Aztec a modern day Pacer, or Gremlin?
Here's my favorite Aztec commentary:
"Looks like it was designed by two separate teams of engineers that started at opposite bumpers and worked their way towards the middle, each unable to talk to the other until they met at the center doorpost. - Nate"
On a (vaguely) related topic -- since Apple is now a Nokia competitor -- does anyone have a sense of why AAPL jumped another $6+ today (I don't think it was just the tailwind from yesterday's earnings announcement).
Haven't been able to find anything. Possibilities are poor Nokia results, poor Verizon (reflecting Droid) results, and potential ARM purchase rumors.
Or maybe it's Gray Powell's dad calling it a theft.
Added: One more possibility. Consumer Watchdog calling for US Justice Dept investigation of Google using search to enter other businesses. "How it tweaks its proprietary search algorithms can ensure a business’s success or doom it to failure,” said John M. Simpson, a consumer advocate with the group.
Precisely. So is the Pontiac Aztec a modern day Pacer, or Gremlin?
Here's my favorite Aztec commentary:
"Looks like it was designed by two separate teams of engineers that started at opposite bumpers and worked their way towards the middle, each unable to talk to the other until they met at the center doorpost. - Nate"
Many of the vendors have gone the reactionary route of copying the Apple UI and business model (Win 7 and Samsung Bada), some have done their own (Ovi was announced before Apple Store). 2 years is product development cycle after all is a short time. Especially if your aim is to compete, innovate and start over and not just quicly copy (as many of the asian manufacturers have done). Nokia isn't doing hot at the moment, but it does have potential. It remains to be seen if they can use that potential.
No-one refutes that Nokia was the grandpappy of the mobile phone but they got paid for that many time over (in profits and licensing fees). No-one owes them anything, like no-one owes Apple for popularizing the GUI, laser printer et al. It is about what they do today and tomorrow and Nokia appear to still be all over the place - Maemo, Meego, Symbian^3/4/5 and their industrial design is also behind the curve. I used to love Nokia and had nothing else from 1995-2007 but now you couldn't pay me to use one since there are easily 10 phones I would rather have than an N97 or N900.
i love the design, but i'll hold onto my 3gs until the 4g network has been rolled out.
[and hopefully i'll be getting my next iPhone with a verizon contract, too]
Oflife: i bet you think these designs are inspired...
The best you can do is get some images from 2003? And why don't we post some of the many "funny" looking Apple products they have released over the years...
Comments
Now the wireless companies laid cable (!). They built towers. What they didn't do was build anything that made the process of access better or more useable. I am not underestimating their willingness to build infrastructure to compete with other wireless companies. But they did very little to engineer decent multi-fuction phones. RIM did more than most of the big boy players.
There is a difference in how companies operate and think. Companies that basically build infrastructure are not the ones who are capable of designing things that look forward to how to use the infrastructure. In fact, I would say they are the worst at it as their POV is aimed at building towers and laying lines. But it is still amazing that they did so little in innovating any kind of decent hardware/software combination.
Hmm. They just developed the whole mobile industry with that R&D to the point that you can now create a phone + computer + camera + iPod + Navigator + PDA from essentially a single chip + some memory. That's no small feat to accomplish.
It's much easier to come in when the palyground already exists and you can buy most of the components from the shop. Also you don't have any existing user base of your own that you risk to alianate and you can learn from existing deficiencies. Don't forget that as a phone (not talking about the other functions let alone UI), the iPhone is not that good (reception issues, power save issues, boatloads of signalling issues, 10second voice codec pauses etc.) especially compared to the established players.
It's also quite difficult to judge at what point is it worth it to alienate many of your existing user's by making a big drastic change in your user's use environment (for example OS9 ->OS X or G5 ->Intel or Nokia S60 -> Meego or Symbian^4). If you break backwards compatibility and change the UI, it becomes harder the larger your user base is (bigger user base to lose). Apple just made it mandatory for the existing players to act now (a good thing that is). It's interesting to see how they will react.
Many of the vendors have gone the reactionary route of copying the Apple UI and business model (Win 7 and Samsung Bada), some have done their own (Ovi was announced before Apple Store). 2 years is product development cycle after all is a short time. Especially if your aim is to compete, innovate and start over and not just quicly copy (as many of the asian manufacturers have done). Nokia isn't doing hot at the moment, but it does have potential. It remains to be seen if they can use that potential.
Regs, Jarkko
Whatever 'feature' dominance they have it is completely overshadowed by poor quality cases/hardware and a very troubled user interface.
I was open minded - I went to a store expecting to be impressed. I wasn't.
And Apple Fans are loyal due to feature dominance over both Android and Nokia.
Hey, you're the one who quoted the thing back. In the Ugliest Products of All Time derby, the AMC Gremlin wins by a length (sorry Nokia!). Not only was it completely utt bugly both inside and out, it drove poorly and was miserably constructed. So what's not to love?
I'm not sure but the Pacer may be even uglier.
They certainly do. Between Android's feature dominance and Apple's loyal fans, Nokia is not in a good spot right now.
They have great products. And in most of the world, they own the markets. But the markets are changing, and they need to step up efforts to rebuild their lead.
Should we attribute the reported sale of 8.75 million $600 smart phones in one quarter to loyal fans or should we look at the product and see if it is actually the quality and utility of the device that are prompting people to purchase?
Hey, you're the one who quoted the thing back. In the Ugliest Products of All Time derby, the AMC Gremlin wins by a length (sorry Nokia!). Not only was it completely utt bugly both inside and out, it drove poorly and was miserably constructed. So what's not to love?
I know I quoted it back....just for shock and awe.
I personally think the pacer gives it a run for the title of fugliest car.
Oops looks like mstone beat me to it.
I'm not sure but the Pacer may be even uglier.
A matter of opinion of course, but I thought the Pacer was more strange than ugly. At least its lines went somewhere, and the design followed its own eccentric logic. The Gremlin was just a total mishmash.
But those were probably a few of the many 100s of phones they created. That is kinda important when you are in pretty much every country ......... etc
See, that's the problem right there. All pulled out of some silly 'go-to-market' handbook.
There are only so many sensible ways in which you can slice and dice a market and yet do it in a cost-efficient, consistent, high-quality way. Moreover, do it in a way that consumers don't get completely confused.
Apple makes the market come to it, rather than go-to-market.
Anyone who thinks Nokia used to be crap forever doesn't know anything. Or else has only been in the US, where customers had to deal with locked-down crappy LG/Samsung phones while the rest of the world was enjoying great (at the time) Nokia phones. However, they forgot what made their stuff great (really really simple to use. The Nokia 3210 family ushered a new generation of simplicity in phones in the mid-late 90's with their single button interface).
Nokia's biggest issue (and the biggest change in paradigm, which yes, was ushered in by Apple) was that phones aren't about HW anymore. They are all about the SW. And I dont think Nokia has the SW capability to compete in this new generation.
They really need to buy Palm, before more of their engineers jump that sinking ship.
Not sure about Palm but at some point in the not too distant past Nokia phones were simply the best you could buy - quality hardware, well thought out and fairly consistent UI and great features. They were light years ahead of the crap peddled by Motorola, Sony Ericsson and the rest of the mobile industry.
What changed ?
I think they missed, completely missed, the possibility of people wanting constant access to their email, browsing rich content - to be sure they dabbled but christ was the web sh*t on wap.
Apple changed the whole expectation level in the mobile market - Nokia have some talented people but they are not at the top of the company so unlikely to be able to move fast enough to counter the changes occurring in the longer term.
Sad.
I'd buy Palm for WebOS if I was them.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees Palm's failure as a perfect opportunity for Nokia. They get a viable smartphone OS and a US presence with the Palm name.
Nokia may be faltering but they plenty of money and time to rebuild themselves. Will they be able to do it is another story, but I do want them to be the biggest thorn in Apple's side.
Ok guys let's take a chill pill and take a look.. and i'm not defending Nokia but let numbers talk..
Apple remained flat in market share at 17% and flat in sales (apple is flat at 17% for 3 quarters straight)
RIM increased market share to 21% and grew sales
NOKIA increased market share to 41% and grew sales (Nokia sold more smartphones than RIM, Apple and HTC combined)
So who won? what's more important long term? I don't know but I know one thing which is a no brainer, Apple will not grow out of that 17-18% with only one phone and at that price. Nokia may not be there yet software wise but they're catching up so if I were Apple I'd be scared right now and schedule my engineers into double shifts to bring out a couple more phones, one with a sliding qwerty keyboard and a mini version, that could easily double their sales in no time.
I'll buy mine from cash flow and market value.
Nokia and Symbian are still very big in Europe and Asia. Apple is, and will be, extremely slow to get to those markets, as it isn't quite the namebrand that you find here in the US.
I never thought I'd live long enough to say this: If what you're saying is true, Europe and Asia are really badly falling behind in terms of sophistication of the mobile handset market.
Finnish cellphone maker Nokia conceded this week that it faces "tough" competition in the high-end smartphone realm, as its disappointing quarterly earnings were a stark contrast from yet another blockbuster quarter for Apple and the iPhone.
Nokia this week revealed that earned 349 million euros, or $465 million, in the first quarter of 2010. Though that was an increase from the 122 million euros earned a year prior, it was also short of estimates expected by analysts due to lower-than-expected mobile device sales.
According to the Financial Times, Nokia conceded that its best handsets are struggling to compete in the high-end market. The company said the average selling price of its phones dropped to 62 euros, down from 66 euros. Smartphones prices saw a large drop, down from 190 euros a year ago to 155 euros in the first quarter of calendar 2010.
"We continue to face tough competition with respect to the high end of our mobile device portfolio," Nokia Chief Exeuctive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said
Nokia is still the overall worldwide market leader in both smartphones and total cell phones, but it has lost significant ground since Apple entered the market in 2007. Those losses are widely believed to have inspired Nokia to sue Apple over the alleged use of 10 patented wireless standards in the iPhone.
Apple responded to Nokia with its own lawsuit, accusing the Finnish company of infringing on 13 iPhone-related patents. The battle of the two smartphone giants is expected to drag out for years, with both companies looking for a court hearing to be held in 2012. The U.S. International Trade Commission -- the group with which the complaints were filed -- has agreed to look into both Nokia's and Apple's complaints against the other.
Nokia's earnings reveal this week is in sharp contrast to Apple's own record-setting second fiscal quarter of 2010. On Tuesday, Apple announced its highest-ever quarterly iPhone sales at 8.75 million, topping the previous holiday quarter, based on strong international growth of the handset. The strong iPhone sales propelled Apple to a nearly 90 percent increase in profits, exceeding analyst expectations and pushing the company's stock price to new heights.
Hi Folks,
Talking here as a Nokia employee, but not of course on behalf of Nokia. Also an ex-Symbian employee, so seen Nokia from outside and in.
So firstly I listen to a lot of the comments on Nokia and some are very valid, others less so. So I thought I would share a few thoughts:
I have to admit I too had written Nokia off before being acquired in Symbian days. However, having been in Symbian Devices org for a while I have been amazed at a number of things.
Firstly, the reason I joined the organisation and took a position was I saw in SD leadership a recognition that the organization could not compete in the way it did, and the organisation was putting in things to change this. As someone on here put it, changing the course of a large aircraft carrier.
Secondly, the organisation has an unbelievable amount of innovation. I mean for techies, truly incredible. Which is the life blood of a high-tech company.
Thirdly, we have slowly been transforming ourselves to a services and software company, which with Nokia history and hardware focus this is pretty major change. From a Symbian OS perspective, the OS is one of the most capable OSs in the world. From a Nokia historical perspective, it has been let down by the UI. Of course we have been so busy in this area, so watch this space.
Finally, Nokia should not be written off anytime soon, too much going on
Kevin
Hi Folks,
Talking here as a Nokia employee, but not of course on behalf of Nokia. Also an ex-Symbian employee, so seen Nokia from outside and in. ......
Finally, Nokia should not be written off anytime soon, too much going on
Kevin
Thank you for a very measured, polite note, Kevin. Seriously.
I am curious to know, when you say you are transforming to a services/software company, are there any examples of successful outcomes here that you can point to? Also, will your transformation to a more software-based business continue to be based on Symbian?
Ok guys let's take a chill pill and take a look.. and i'm not defending Nokia but let numbers talk..
Apple remained flat in market share at 17% and flat in sales (apple is flat at 17% for 3 quarters straight)
RIM increased market share to 21% and grew sales
NOKIA increased market share to 41% and grew sales (Nokia sold more smartphones than RIM, Apple and HTC combined)
So who won? what's more important long term? I don't know but I know one thing which is a no brainer, Apple will not grow out of that 17-18% with only one phone and at that price. Nokia may not be there yet software wise but they're catching up so if I were Apple I'd be scared right now and schedule my engineers into double shifts to bring out a couple more phones, one with a sliding qwerty keyboard and a mini version, that could easily double their sales in no time.
Apple will never, ever market a qwerty-style keyboard on a phone. Never ever. No 2 button mouse ever.
A matter of opinion of course, but I thought the Pacer was more strange than ugly. At least its lines went somewhere, and the design followed its own eccentric logic. The Gremlin was just a total mishmash.
Precisely. So is the Pontiac Aztec a modern day Pacer, or Gremlin?
Here's my favorite Aztec commentary:
"Looks like it was designed by two separate teams of engineers that started at opposite bumpers and worked their way towards the middle, each unable to talk to the other until they met at the center doorpost. - Nate"
http://www.cartalk.com/content/featu...minations.html
... and now back to the regularly scheduled thread.
On a (vaguely) related topic -- since Apple is now a Nokia competitor -- does anyone have a sense of why AAPL jumped another $6+ today (I don't think it was just the tailwind from yesterday's earnings announcement).
Haven't been able to find anything. Possibilities are poor Nokia results, poor Verizon (reflecting Droid) results, and potential ARM purchase rumors.
Or maybe it's Gray Powell's dad calling it a theft.
Added: One more possibility. Consumer Watchdog calling for US Justice Dept investigation of Google using search to enter other businesses. "How it tweaks its proprietary search algorithms can ensure a business’s success or doom it to failure,” said John M. Simpson, a consumer advocate with the group.
Precisely. So is the Pontiac Aztec a modern day Pacer, or Gremlin?
Here's my favorite Aztec commentary:
"Looks like it was designed by two separate teams of engineers that started at opposite bumpers and worked their way towards the middle, each unable to talk to the other until they met at the center doorpost. - Nate"
http://www.cartalk.com/content/featu...minations.html
... and now back to the regularly scheduled thread.
I'd go with Aztek being like a Gremlin. Definitely mixed-up lines.
This whole mini-thread is making me feel sick.
Think $7.23. (Amount an AAPL share went up today.) Actually, it was $7.25. Even better.
Many of the vendors have gone the reactionary route of copying the Apple UI and business model (Win 7 and Samsung Bada), some have done their own (Ovi was announced before Apple Store). 2 years is product development cycle after all is a short time. Especially if your aim is to compete, innovate and start over and not just quicly copy (as many of the asian manufacturers have done). Nokia isn't doing hot at the moment, but it does have potential. It remains to be seen if they can use that potential.
Regs, Jarkko
Ovi store was announced Feb 2009 - way after the App store was released and had 50,000 apps. http://www.i4u.com/article23241.html
No-one refutes that Nokia was the grandpappy of the mobile phone but they got paid for that many time over (in profits and licensing fees). No-one owes them anything, like no-one owes Apple for popularizing the GUI, laser printer et al. It is about what they do today and tomorrow and Nokia appear to still be all over the place - Maemo, Meego, Symbian^3/4/5 and their industrial design is also behind the curve. I used to love Nokia and had nothing else from 1995-2007 but now you couldn't pay me to use one since there are easily 10 phones I would rather have than an N97 or N900.
i love the design, but i'll hold onto my 3gs until the 4g network has been rolled out.
[and hopefully i'll be getting my next iPhone with a verizon contract, too]
Oflife: i bet you think these designs are inspired...
The best you can do is get some images from 2003? And why don't we post some of the many "funny" looking Apple products they have released over the years...