I know we're all waiting with baited breath for 10AM, but of course, Nokia, being a public company, has had to release some news to the markets already, and so at 07:45 this morning, I heard on the news that Nokia are forming a relationship with Microsoft.
I suspect this won't effect the current crop of Symbian^3 phones, so we should still expect to get our PR2.0 and probably a couple of other updates but this does sound like the death knell for Symbian.
A sad day.
Regards
Neil
Indeed it is a sad day.
They may well be able to make it work, but all they needed to do was develop the Symbian front end to make it work.
At some point in the future we'll be at the mercy of Microsofts WP update schedule, which so far has been truly disastrous.
I mourn today.. for the death of Nokia.. My N8 will be the last Nokia phone for a while.
Long live Google Android.. Death to Apple and Nokiasoft!
only just got n8 its a good phone but looks like updates and support gone :frown:
thanks to zimon for image.
Doesn't bode well that Nokia shares have fallen almost 10% on receipt of the news!
UPDATE
Make that 14.35%
indeed a very sad day… heres prayin the n8 gets ample support (well, at least pr 2.0) for the next year or so before symbians death
all we need is a new browser (and for some reason some people reckon a portrait keyboard is essential, it would be handy but not really essential - but then again i grew up on a T9 keypad all the way up until my n8, i wasnt born on a touch screen like half the media seems to be) and then i have a near perfect phone anyways (for what i want at least)
I think stupid Elop must want to strike the death nail to Nokia on purpose!
First of all iOS consumers would NOT switch to WP
Android consumers would NOT switch to WP
RIM consumers would NOT switch to WP
Symbian consumers would def NOT switch to WP
Why would developers develop for Symbian when it's no longer being supported and is now considered a "franchise" --- THE CURRENT BIGGEST SELLING OS!!
If MR bloody Elop wanted to switch OS, why not Android, why WP, the crappiest OS out there that's even more closed up than iOS with a negligible fanbase.
So Congrats Mr Elop, Hope you enjoy your 1000 consumer base!
Come to think of it, Android doesn't look too bad now! Good bye Nokia, our 10yr love affair was good whilst it lasted!!
:s: :bawling: :bawling: :bawling: :bawling: :bawling: 😛uke:
MontyN95 wrote:
First of all iOS consumers would NOT switch to WP
Android consumers would NOT switch to WP
RIM consumers would NOT switch to WP
Symbian consumers would def NOT switch to WP
Real consumer (the "masses"😉 don't care. On occasion, they go looking for an iPhone, or for a "droid", but in reality most of them will shop for a phone like this:
- Does it look good?
- Does it have a camera?
- Can I go on the internet with it (or can I do Facebook with it)?
- Does it have games?
- Does it have an "app store"?
- Does it have an MP3 player?
- How much does it cost?
And if it turns out to be too expensive, they eliminate that model from their list of "likes" and start from the top question, again.
Real consumers couldn't care less (and shouldn't) about what operating system their phone happens to run.
Real consumer (the "masses"😉 don't care. On occasion, they go looking for an iPhone, or for a "droid", but in reality most of them will shop for a phone like this:- Does it look good?
- Does it have a camera?
- Can I go on the internet with it (or can I do Facebook with it)?
- Does it have games?
- Does it have an "app store"?
- Does it have an MP3 player?
- How much does it cost?And if it turns out to be too expensive, they eliminate that model from their list of "likes" and start from the top question, again.
Real consumers couldn't care less (and shouldn't) about what operating system their phone happens to run.
I agree with you. As it happens, I'm forming a blog post in my mind asking why anyone cares about oses on phones, when they certainly don't on radios. (My radio runs Linux, but I only know that because I discovered so on the manufacturer's web site). I didn't choose it because it ran Linux.
Regards
Neil
p.s. I have now written said post. Here is the link. http://bit.ly/hPEbXW
Nokia to customer:
We dont know what we are doing, but we going to change. But in the mean time buy our stuff which we will be dumping soon.
Customer to Nokia:
? ! ? ehh ? ! ?
Oooh that Android phone looks nice !
The rest of my comments with links to Tomi Ahonen's shock and surprised analysis and tenuous link to Egypt and ex-President Mubarak are here -> http://wp.me/p17ebX-5e 😊
I think you will find people prefer brands. Nokia is a powerful brand. I buy Nokia phones for the hardware quality primarily call making and receiving. This will not go away anytime soon. All the other smartphone stuff is an added bonus.
I have talked to two people with WP7 and they said the OS was good and they liked using it. Both said the HTC hardware is rubbish and one of them wished he could have it with Nokia hardware. A good day for him I guess. 😊 Both of these people were given the phone through work.
HTC will not change either, a few of my friends went to iPhone from HTC because they were screwed over by the lack of warranty support for HTC, once they had an iPhone they started to complain about HTC build quality too.
I have an N8 so I am sorted for a good phone for a couple years, for me this will give Nokia time to build something else for me to lust after and iron out bugs until I am ready to upgrade again.
nbriscoeuk wrote:I agree with you. As it happens, I'm forming a blog post in my mind asking why anyone cares about oses on phones, when they certainly don't on radios. (My radio runs Linux, but I only know that because I discovered so on the manufacturer's web site). I didn't choose it because it ran Linux.Regards
Neilp.s. I have now written said post. Here is the link. http://bit.ly/hPEbXW
The OS a radio runs doesn't matter, because you still get the same service out of it. With phones, it has to do with which apps are available for it. Kindle Reader, Music Player, Maps, etc. Games can be important for certain segments as well.
To me, the OS in a phone is not as important as if it can run apps that I know and like. Honestly, an important decision in my next phone will be one that runs Gravity. If/when Jan Ole Suhr leaves Symbian and goes to another platform, I will strongly consider that platform. The sticker on the front does not matter to me, what matters is what I can do with it.
N/A wrote:Real consumer (the "masses"😉 don't care. On occasion, they go looking for an iPhone, or for a "droid", but in reality most of them will shop for a phone like this:- Does it look good?
- Does it have a camera?
- Can I go on the internet with it (or can I do Facebook with it)?
- Does it have games?
- Does it have an "app store"?
- Does it have an MP3 player?
- How much does it cost?And if it turns out to be too expensive, they eliminate that model from their list of "likes" and start from the top question, again.
Real consumers couldn't care less (and shouldn't) about what operating system their phone happens to run.
I don't agree with you mate. It's mainly to do with familiarity. People are familiar with the Nokia menu and OS system! and eventually take certain features for granted. What will eventually happen is people will buy a Nokia phone hoping for the same familiarity only to find a totally different structure with certain features they've come to take for granted no where to be found. Those features will now pprob define their next purchase which would prob not be a Nokia
Would have to disagree with you there MontyN95.
As already demonstrated, millions of users worldwide have already switched and familiarised themselves with new platforms/UI's as well as app's to cover their previous usage.
One thing is most of those were previously using feature phones (Nokia, Samsung, SE....) so the was really no previous "familiarity" in that sense
For every two buyers with an existing Nokia phone, one will buy a new Nokia phone, but the other will buy a phone from some other manufacturer. The other Nokia buyers are first-time Nokia buyers (either as their first phone, or they're trying out Nokia for the first time because of the looks, price or some other reason).
Extract from Stephen Elop's "Burning Bridges" memo:-
"Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands."
As if Stephen Elop, CEO Nokia, didn't have enough to deal with already, we learn that he is personally a big investor in Microsoft shares and doesn't own any Nokia ones as yet.
You can't help but feel sorry for the poor guy. To think, he could have bought a load of Nokia shares at a knock-down price after his announcement on Friday!
Despite hurried attempts by Nokia to talk up their "alliance" with Microsoft over the weekend and vague mentions of future symbian devices with 1GHz processors along with no year given for a Nokia WM7 device launch, the markets are still jittery.
Following last Friday's announcement, Nokia shares fell by 14.35%. This has been followed today by another 4% drop on their share price.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/14/nokia_mwc_investor_assurances/
It looks as though it's just not some of us who are not happy with Nokia's "alliance" with Microsoft.
I'm not sure what Elop could have done differently regarding his situation with MS shares. There were restrictions based on his leaving MS and then the start of negotiations with MS. He had a very small window of opportunity in which to sell of his shares in accordance with the law.
The share prices drop due to uncertainty. What happens this week is not going to be as important as what happens over the course of the next several months to a few years. The decision that Nokia made this week is made for the long term. As a (former) customer I have my own feelings about what direction I would like Nokia to take. I'm going give Elop the benefit of the doubt considering he has much better business expertise than I.
I have been disappoint in Nokia's offerings as of late. I have been eagerly awaiting for a MeeGo device since the fall. It looks like it will be late this year at least before we see anything of interest. A MeeGo product is due to come out this year, but I do not expect it to be anything really compelling. If it were, Nokia would not have decided to go WP7 as their primary platform for the future.