More stats in: Symbian sales way up, share slightly down

KPOM wrote:
Symbian, for all its market share, has an extremely low share of web usage. That means, to me, that people aren't really using the functionality of the OS. They are buying a Nokia because they want a basic phone and the carrier is giving them a "deal" on a Nokia.

The web stats support my view. People don't really access all that many web sites using Symbian phones. Nokia phones sell because they are cheap and Nokia has negotiated good deals with carriers in most countries. As much as Europeans like to knock the American mobile market, it does serve a good illustrative purpose. In June 2007, Apple had 0% market share. Nokia was hovering around 10% (down from 28% in 2002). Android didn't even exist. Since then, Nokia actively marketed Symbian in the US, struck deals with AT&T and T-Mobile, opened two flagship stores, started selling phones in other retail markets, and has seen its share drop below 5% while Apple and Google have rocketed to 1 and 2 in the US. After a slow start in Europe, Apple has picked up since the 3G model was introduced, and Android is making inroads.

Sorry, which stats support your view? Are you talking about AdMob? The only use these stats have is for AdMob themselves and their clients and should not be used to 'prove' anything about web usage on smartphones. There are a large number of biases in there against Symbian (US-centricity, no AdMob API for Symbian, yet)

Show me some real stats, please. And not based on browser either. S60 Webkit is often second choice to Opera Browsers/Skyfire etc.

KPOM wrote:Yes, it is attractive.

KPOM wrote:Apple correctly saw the appeal of capacitive touchscreens, mobile browsing, and mobile apps, and put together the first OS that made it easy for the masses to figure out.

KPOM wrote:Sure other operating systems could do almost everything that the iPhone OS could, but not as easily.

KPOM wrote:Symbian, for all its market share, has an extremely low share of web usage. That means, to me, that people aren't really using the functionality of the OS. They are buying a Nokia because they want a basic phone and the carrier is giving them a "deal" on a Nokia.

KPOM wrote:Nokia actively marketed Symbian in the US, struck deals with AT&T and T-Mobile, opened two flagship stores, started selling phones in other retail markets, and has seen its share drop below 5% while Apple and Google have rocketed to 1 and 2 in the US.

KPOM wrote:I had an N95, N85, N97, and N900. I switched to a Nexus One and now wonder what took me so long. I tried to like Nokia, and defended (...).

"Sorry for using Google Translate's help...

Newton's Theory."

Smartphones have entered the mass market thanks to Nokia/Symbian, and yes, RIM, Microsoft, Apple, Google/Android, etc. This trend will gather incredible momentum and not just in Western Markets but in developing markets, as well. In fact, cell phone penetration levels are higher in countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria than many Western European countries. Nokia's deep product portfolio gives it many advantages, not just in sheer scale, but in retail distribution. Infrastructure like Nokia's is a strategic advantage for which US analysts have underestimated. It's democratization of the smartphone thru mid range Symbian^1 and lower range S40 will have a tremendous impact in emerging markets and capture significant uptake within the OVI ecosystem. Apple has one huge disadvantage in developing markets....you need to connect it to a PC to move files and add apps. PC's have one tenth the penetration of cell phones worldwide and no where near the growth rate. Outside of the US and certain markets, the big competition will be between Symbian and Android. Android has got the momentum right now, but one cannot discount Symbian's huge installed base and product pipeline.

Lee pointed out that Bada is not meant to compete directly with the existing platforms. It is also not an open source. Bada is open only in the sense that it allows developers to code their own applications, which is a different approach from Symbian and Android, and that's about it. What Bada offers are tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to tinker with certain functions of the phone, such as the motion-sensing capability, user interface and apps. For the layman, Bada sits on top of the phone's operating systems. The platform-agnostic approach itself is a unique one and highly scalable since it's not linked to any specific operating system

As all high tech stuff, one day or another M X. & Ms Y get access to it and it's not any more the property of just M Geek!

It's good to see that smartphones are becoming something of common use with everybody starting to have access to these sort of technologies.
It's call democraty!

Remember your first VHS, DVD, computer, etc? How much it cost to have one and how many people had one? Look now.

Yes, Nokia get it's stuff to low and mid tier market, but it's because they build a lot and therefore cost is going down.

After depending at what sort of things you are looking at, numbers are saying different things.
It's easy to make a big margin by selling a product that only people who are loaded can buy. But it's harder to give people the possibility to get access to new technologies for as less as possible.