Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 10th Jan 2013 17:10 UTC
Nokia has just sent out a few preliminary comments about the company's performance during the fourth quarter of 2012. Nokia's figures are a good indicator for how well Windows Phone 8 is doing, and, in all honesty, I'm not exactly blown away. Apparently, neither was Nokia itself, since the company decided to redefine their Asha phones from feature phone to smartphone to prop up their smartphone sales figures.
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RE[3]: WP8 has only been out since November
by Thom_Holwerda on Thu 10th Jan 2013 18:43
in reply to "RE[2]: WP8 has only been out since November"
Member since:2005-06-29
The transition in just one year has been startling: in Q1, Nokia shipped almost 12 million "smart" phones (10 million symbian + 2 million WP devices). In Q4 they have managed barely over 6.5 million of the same category (2 million symbian + 4.5 million WP devices). So basically, Nokia managed to halve their shipments in the most profitable phone bracket. That is a catastrophic result under most reasonable metrics.
Exactly. It's astonishing that everybody is just parroting the press release gushing without actually looking at the figures.
Nokia's smartphone business HALVED this past year. HALVED. Arguing that's honky-dory is insane.
RE[4]: WP8 has only been out since November
by zima on Tue 15th Jan 2013 20:40
in reply to "RE[3]: WP8 has only been out since November"
Member since:2005-07-06
RE[3]: WP8 has only been out since November
by Nelson on Thu 10th Jan 2013 18:44
in reply to "RE[2]: WP8 has only been out since November"
Member since:2005-11-29
I am actually surprised with Nokia's symbian numbers for 2012: almost 22 million units sold, with basically zero marketing push. Whereas they only managed to ship over 13 million WP devices, and that is with a media/astroturfing blitz.
Symbian was established, had momentum, and had mindshare. It was definitely, and still is, falling off of a cliff.
People get lost in the numbers of the moment and don't look towards overall trends, in my opinion.
The transition in just one year has been startling: in Q1, Nokia shipped almost 12 million "smart" phones (10 million symbian + 2 million WP devices). In Q4 they have managed barely over 6.5 million of the same category (2 million symbian + 4.5 million WP devices). So basically, Nokia managed to halve their shipments in the most profitable phone bracket. That is a catastrophic result under most reasonable metrics.
But if you look at the trends, Nokia is growing Lumia and shedding Symbian.
They are in transition, this was expected. Anyone who didn't see this coming is dense.
RE[4]: WP8 has only been out since November
by tylerdurden on Thu 10th Jan 2013 18:59
in reply to "RE[3]: WP8 has only been out since November"
Member since:2009-03-17
You're conveniently picking the epoch between Q3 and Q4 to make your "trend" claim work. Lumia's shipments in 2012 have been all over the map, they have gone up and down from quarter to quarter in 2012: 2.0M in Q1, 4.0 in Q2, 2.9M in Q3, and 4.4M in Q4. That is a "zig-zag" trend at best.
The numbers in context are indeed catastrophic: If you combine the two best quarters for lumias (Q2 and Q4) they still sold less than symbians in Q1.
RE[3]: WP8 has only been out since November
by zima on Tue 15th Jan 2013 16:34
in reply to "RE[2]: WP8 has only been out since November"
Member since:2005-07-06
So basically, Nokia managed to halve their shipments in the most profitable phone bracket. That is a catastrophic result under most reasonable metrics.
Though (Symbian for most of the time) smartphones never were exactly "the most profitable phone bracket" for Nokia, when compared to R&D costs (2 or 3 years ago only Symbian division R&D costs were higher than entire R&D of Apple).
Symbian wasn't what kept Nokia afloat all those years, it was S40; its new revision seems to have relatively positive uptake.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
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Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."More News »
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2009-03-17
Welcome to Marketing 101. ;-)
I am actually surprised with Nokia's symbian numbers for 2012: almost 22 million units sold, with basically zero marketing push. Whereas they only managed to ship over 13 million WP devices, and that is with a media/astroturfing blitz.
The transition in just one year has been startling: in Q1, Nokia shipped almost 12 million "smart" phones (10 million symbian + 2 million WP devices). In Q4 they have managed barely over 6.5 million of the same category (2 million symbian + 4.5 million WP devices). So basically, Nokia managed to halve their shipments in the most profitable phone bracket. That is a catastrophic result under most reasonable metrics.
I would be interested in knowing the terms of the licensing agreement between Nokia and Microsoft. I seem to recall they were operating on flat fees, so I wonder if Nokia sold enough WP units to break even with regards to OS licensing costs.
Luckily for Nokia their stock price has gone up a bit in the past few weeks, so all is not lost.