The article doesn't consider India where Nokia is the dominant player. But most of the phones they sell here are low-end to mid-range. They aren't that popular for smartphones. I don't have any statistics to show for this just my experiences.
A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
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Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#22Isn't there quite a bit of data though to make this very static picture of the market somewhat irrelevant? I'm not trying to spread FUD. I would seriously like enlightenment if I'm wrong, but these are the conceptions that I have with respect to the more fluid nature of the market: -The trend, throughout the world, is going heavily against Nokia -Nokia's margins on each unit is a fraction of the competition -Nokia's…
Betting against high-selling low-margin products would be like betting against Wal-Mart. You can co-exist with them but you can't beat them at their own game, and their game is around to stay.
Android phones are getting pretty cheap, too.
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes the penetration of smartphones is increasing, but I personally know a lot of people who don't want smartphone. For example, 2 out of 3 of my friends who owns iPhone said to me that "...but my previous nokia [dumbphone] was better", and are not planing to buy another smartphone. So it's still an open question what the ratio between smartphone and dumbphone will be in the future. But Nokia's dumbphones are certainl…
Wait until the internet capabilities on smartphones get realised. On a bus for 30 minutes? Use the phone to browse HN. etc
Almost any phone can browse the web today.
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#24nokia is ubiquitous in India.heck the subaltern has a song about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjpKodZMQr8
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#25Until I can get a proper asian localization (on a shoestring budget) Nokia can have 100% market shere over there. It won't be of any use to me :(
I believe that Android does a pretty good job if you can find a good 3rd party soft keyboard. I havent used done much more than kick the tires in hangeul but Android seems to be pretty popular here in Korea.
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#26Any tales of HN-ers experience with Symbian?
[HN meta]
Btw, why is the parent comment being ranked as the second-to-last? It's got enough upvotes and discussion that, intuitively, it should be higher.
Has something changed about the HN comment ranking algorithm lately?
[/HN meta]
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#27Nokia has a pretty unparalleled manufacturing/delivery/logistics chain for low end phones. They like to claim they can put a phone on a shelf anywhere in africa for less than competitors' manufacturing costs. That's pretty impressive, if true. But we're talking about phones that retail for $35. The smartphones are a joke. But the software! I sure hope Qt is starting to pay some dividends for them. When i was dealing…
Just writing to agree.
I have started learning native development at first. That was good experience from the point that you get some inner understanding how Symbian works but overall it is too hard to develop using native code.
As well I am developing actively two Qt based Symbian applications during my free time currently. I really love it because I can in relatively small time develop nice and working applications. There are some problems still (e.g. kinetic scrolling, problems with QtMobility on some phones, like flagman N8, full screen issues and etc.) but it looks like those problems will be solved in the future.
I love that development on Linux is possible as well.
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#28Isn't there quite a bit of data though to make this very static picture of the market somewhat irrelevant? I'm not trying to spread FUD. I would seriously like enlightenment if I'm wrong, but these are the conceptions that I have with respect to the more fluid nature of the market: -The trend, throughout the world, is going heavily against Nokia -Nokia's margins on each unit is a fraction of the competition -Nokia's…
Smartphones won't be Nokia's nemesis - indigenous innovation will.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/hardware/nokia-...
A new generation of feature phones by Indian brands, at mid-low price points, with features designed specifically for the rural Indian consumer is kicking Nokia's butt in the fastest growing mobile market. The story can easily repeat itself in Africa and the Middle East.
Some of these features include dual sims for patchy coverage, bigger battery to feed 2 sims, flashlight for when the power goes out every day, FM radio which doesnt need headphones because Indians dont mind loud music and saris don't have pockets for them anyway.
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#29nokia is ubiquitous in India.heck the subaltern has a song about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjpKodZMQr8
About 3 years ago in the UK, business people had Blackberrys and everyone else had Nokia or Sony Ericsson phones. Fast forward to now and business people have iPhones or Blackberrys while teenagers tend to use Blackberrys (they're cheap and good at messaging). Others have iPhones or Androids with the exception of people who haven't upgraded their phone in a while who still have Nokia or Sony Ericsson devices.
Re: A brief glimpse of Nokia's popularity outside the Western world
#30Any tales of HN-ers experience with Symbian?
The only way to do productive Symbian development in a non-deprecated environment is to use Qt. Run away from anything that says "Symbian" but isn't Qt. The latest Symbian ships with a version of Qt (4.6.3) that isn't the cutting edge, but is good enough. In typical Nokia manner, they've managed to make a dog's dinner of the SDK options: there's a regular Qt SDK, a Nokia-branded Qt SDK, a Symbian^3 SDK, a technology…
Smart Installer works with old phones indeed. At least with Nokia E51 which is S60 3.1 and is almost 3 years old.
Edit: What's fun. E51 does not have Qt support officially while works like a charm.