Amidst the doom and gloom, interesting to see numbered (i.e. not Nseries or Eseries) devices making up such a large share of S60 sales. Could that be because of the 5800 released in selected markets late last year?
I suspect numbered devices will make up an even larger proportion of S60 sales in 2009 thanks to the 5800. Even after the N97 comes out, the 5800 will still be a much cheaper and more mass-market alternative.
Apple need more products, starting with a smaller more portable version of the iPhone. It's enormous.
It depends what Apple really wants. Historically they've tended to stay in expensive niches, which mean smaller sales but higher profits per sale. Of course if the economic downturn worsens Apple may reconsider this strategy, if people start buying cheaper devices instead of expensive high end ones.
This is why Rafe was saying comparisons with Nokia are difficult, because they're really two totally different companies. Nokia's profits and sales come mostly from cheap feature phones, while Apple doesn't even sell cheap feature phones. The average Nokia phone sells for about 70 euros SIM-free, whereas Apple's phones sell SIM-free for about 500 to 600 euros, so they're in totally different parts of the market.
It would be like trying to compare Toyota and Rolls Royce, they both make cars but they're not really going after the same customers.
On the subject of touchphone sizes, one of the things I'm appreciating about the 5800 and S60v5 is that it really can be operated with one hand. I think it's because Nokia is essentially a phone company, while Palm, Apple etc are essentially computer companies, so Nokia's devices tend to be more centred around actually making calls.
No great surprise, considering. The North America numbers have got to be a worry though. Could a bad year see Nokia disappear from the US altogether?
I think this is one of the big red herrings, Nokia's North America numbers have been tiny for about five years now yet globally Nokia has grown very well. If they've managed to get this far without the US, it's hard to see why the US really matters on a global scale.
Conversely, Apple's iPhone has done much better in the US than it has elsewhere.
This could be an example of what some journalists have said about the difference in the US and other phone markets, that Americans seem to want pocket computers with phones attached while others want phones with pocket computers attached. It could be that different markets have such different tastes in phones that no manufacturer or model will ever do well in every country.