@Rafe
I think you're playing a bit fast and loose with stats:
[INDENT]1) By N97 do you mean both the N97's? [/INDENT]
[INDENT]2) I would love to see the return figs - I know this was why CPW dropped the N97 Classic, where do these returned handsets end up, dumped on another market? Who pays for them do CPW (or whoever) take the hitor do Nokia recompense them and how is this accounted for, do they still count as sold?
[/INDENT]
[INDENT]3) Also when Anssi talked about profitability of the N97 who's paying for all those returned N97's for Cam/GPS repair - mine was returned 3 times for total of nearly 8 weeks via CPW. Now if CPW are on fixed annual repair contract then they had a nightmare but they will ensure that it becomes Nokia's problem when they rengotiate their contract (don't imagine anyone else will be too keen to take it on) or is this coming out of a seperate budget from Nokia i.e. not attibutable to the N97's becasue this must have been an expensive operation and inefficient operation.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]4) Lastly because of Nokia's global reach and previous customer loyalty the N97 was picked up around the globe on automatic by many customers however because of the admitted problems as far as the highend goes I think they've spent their loyalty card now wheras Android is still only just making itself felt in certain markets. If you look at mature smartphone markets like UK Fra Ger then the picture is much less comfortable - Android only really became available in any depth in 2009 wheras it is going to be available in serious numbers of (top end too) handsets this year and down to cheaper levels (see Voda's new �130 'droid) . However despite it's relatively new status it ha made serious inroads into Symbian (even by some counts overtaking it on touchscreen smartphones) whilst the iPhone and Blackberry are slaughtering Symbian in these mature markets (on active users and I'm ignoring the USA as a special case). [/INDENT]
Is it possible that whilst Symbian and Nokia are twiddling their thumbs since 2007 and that SF^3 is the best they've been able to come up with in 3+yrs that the acceleration in these other platforms abilities is leaving it behind. The only refuge we here is that Symbian is uniquely available at low price points. Well Android is bascially there and all it requires is for Apple to bring in an 8GB version of the 3GS and sell it for �150 when they announce the new model this summer. It's all very well becoming a services company but a services and solutions company on what? - it's not going to be the bulk of the installed Symbian base of the oft quoted 200mill because as we've seen with Ovi maps 3.03 and the N95 getting these apps and services onto older sets isn't that simple; no it's got to come from new sales in 2010/11 and the products they shipped in 2009 (I would so love to see some retention data for the N97's) wheras so far becasue of reliability and backward upgrades it is provable that Apple users have been extremely "sticky".
I'm seriously concerned (and believe me as a shareholder I seriously am and unlike many fanbois and intersted parties I've got my money where my mouth is) that the delay whilst the Symbian Foundation was implemented and Nokia transformed itself into a "Solutions Providere" rather than getting on with devoping best-in-class software is seriously going to impact this year. The current handset range is being supported only by the low end, in pretty much every review of a new handset (X6 even here at AAS) the software is derided, there is no new product release in sight yet, when eventually SF^3 is released why on earth should someone buy it after waiting 3 months to ensure it's stable knowing SF^4 with a compatibility break is just around the corner (3months)? - I'm actually genuinely interseted/curious about this why would/how are Nokia going to persuade me, to buy an SF^3 handset rather than wait for SF^4 (bit like buying WM handset in July knowing it's irrelevant in 4 months)?
Meanwhile the only other handset manufacturer on Symbian (Samsung have dropped it for the moment despite protests otherwise - of course if it's successful they'll come back but they've no committment to it) is Sony who for whatever reason had huge problems with the Satio and still haven't got it stable seemingly and this is despite running the ancient (and awful) SF^1 and their very nice looking new handsets the Vivaz's have received moderately positive reviews but every one that I've read has mentioned the paucity of the OS holding back the nice design features and camera. Sony are in big financial problems and supporting three smartphone OS's must be a strain particulalry if they keep having problems and getting criticised for one, let's say their Android handsets go well, they're now committed to being an MS partner for WP7 will tthey not feel tempted to drop Symbian particulalry if the Vivaz's don't do brilliantly (personally I think they're only keeping Symbian so far as an insurance because they don't completly trust Google ).
Anyway let's say SE drop Symbian then what - we're left with only Nokia (and the Japanese market ) working on Symbian so no matter how open source it is it's still a blind alley for most devlopers and Nokia would have been better off not arsing around setting all this up and creating nothing from mid 2008.
At the moment the services/solutuions are simply not good enough (stability wise) Ovi suite is often a problem for me, Ovi store is not a patch on Blakberry Android or obviously Apple. All the other intersting stuff gets shown then stops like the Ovi messaging for IM (I guess to not tread on the toes of Fring, Nimbuzz etc.). But mainly it's stability And the services like Nokia Point and Find don't really work well enough (like Ovi social networking or Ngage by the time they've finally got round to sorting it some third party has got it fixed and got first mover advantage).
I know Symbian wants to put the emphasis on the Phone part of Smartphone but my N97 is just not reliable to use (I even get a drop out of 30% on phone calls) when it works it can be useful if slow compared to modern handsets but I simply couldn't rely on it always 100%. What a step back from my SE W800 in some ways.
Today's thought for flaming - Apple actually did open source the iPhone (in development terms) they provided a bare bones but super stable platform and the route to easily add features to it and let the users decide which features (Apps) they wanted and were willing to support and competition between Apps is creating the best for each function. All the other companies who have been adding more features have actually been dictating to us how we use the handset not the other way round (though when people bin the iPhone for it's feature shortage and yes there are some obvious areas although as one poster said they're well advertsied not things it turns out don't work like the N97 I'd just like to bring up threaded SMS conversations on S60 or integrating contacts data into calendar hmmmmmmm don't hear so much about that whilst people are raving on about multitasking, MMS or copy/paste).
Rant over - I do really enjoy this site