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Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

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Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#61
post #53
post #6

I don't know why manufacturers aren't using machined polycarbonate more the way Nokia and HTC do. It seems LG and Sony are just now trying to be where Apple was 2 years ago with the glass-back phones, which I think was a very poor material to use and a mistake on Apple's part. I think they quickly realized that, but it took them a while to create an aluminum iPhone the right way, because as we know aluminum is not gr…

>Nokia's growth is being limited a lot by WP's own growth right now According to Nokia they can't manufacture enough to satiate demand (components supply constriction). So even if they had chosen Android, they'd have the same unit sales. "Mr. Elop said the company has experienced supply problems, as certain mobile components have been in short supply, both for Nokia and other phone makers." Unless some of the unavail…

It's not about components being WP-only. It's about components where for WP there's just one option, while for Android there are multiple. Specifically they're locked to Qualcomm SOCs, S3s for WP7 and S4s for WP8.

(Everyone but Apple and Samsung have been getting fucked over by Qualcomm's supply issues for almost a year, but at least companies like HTC have an option of using Tegra 3s in countries where LTE isn't a hard requirement. Or even shipping modern software with a semi-obsolete S3 SOC like Sony has been doing.)

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is late and there is staying power. When Google's G1 came out people said "Has promise but the iPhone has too much of a lead." People said that Apple would never be compelling in the personal computer business again. People said RIM was too entrenched to be dislodged from the Enterprise. It goes on and on. Time and time again, making a good product, sticking to the mission and making it the best it can be, has…

>When Google's G1 came out people said "Has promise but the iPhone has too much of a lead." People said that Apple would never be compelling in the personal computer business again. People said RIM was too entrenched to be dislodged from the Enterprise. In each of those cases the new product that gained ground offered something significant that the existing product didn't. Android offered comparable quality for less…

> MacOS offered a significantly better user experience than desktop Windows

I have both system and I just got a Mac to be able to code for iOS. I don't find your statement true at all. Actually I have a better experience with Ubuntu (as buggie as it feels) than MacOSX. For instance, in my case, I never got used to the Dock / Exposé way to switch between windows. Maybe I am just too used to the task bar but whatever the reason is, I suffer a lot anytime that I need to work on a Mac.

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#63
post #16
post #6

I don't know why manufacturers aren't using machined polycarbonate more the way Nokia and HTC do. It seems LG and Sony are just now trying to be where Apple was 2 years ago with the glass-back phones, which I think was a very poor material to use and a mistake on Apple's part. I think they quickly realized that, but it took them a while to create an aluminum iPhone the right way, because as we know aluminum is not gr…

Samsung is the only manufacturer that is making money from Android, and Samsung doesn't advertise that they use Android anywhere in their marketing. Most Samsung phones don't even show an Android logo when you turn them on. Consumers don't know about or care about Android. "Normal" people do not go into a store looking for an Android. If Nokia had gone with Android, they would be in the exact same position they are n…

From personal experience you're completely wrong.

Every person I know - 9 out of 10 of which are average tech consumers - knows Android by name. They know it's a platform, they know it's separate from Apple and Microsoft, and occasionally they know there's some sort of connection to Google.

And if you ask said people, they will absolutely tell you they have an Android phone. In fact that's exactly how they define it as being separate from the iPhone or Blackberry et al.

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#64

I have a Nokia 920 and its solid, really solid. I went back to my iPhone over Christmas (I do mobile development) and I was thankful when I got back to the 920. Its very fast, very functional, love updating tiles. The only gotcha is music - the iPhone still crushes everyone on music apps / syncing / acquisition. Otherwise, the 920 was equal or better - even apps are coming along. Only missing Strava now for me.

Zune Pass, no wait it's now called X-Box Music Pass. Oh heck I don't know what it's called. The music rental thing, is actually pretty damned good. However like spotify it is missing some artists.

Except that on the desktop it only works with Windows and not on a Mac.

Their catalog size is 30 million songs IIRC, which is a lot more than Spotify.

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#65
post #60
post #5

Perhaps there's hope of them being a top-10 smartphone manufacturer someday.

They were top 10 before. They were #1 at some point too with the best phone back in the day: N95.

The N95 and the iPhone were both released in 2007, 3 months apart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_n95

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation)

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#66
post #9
post #4

Last I read, Nokia accounts for 75% of all WP device sales, which means we can estimate around 6 million WP devices were shipped (not sold) during Q4 2012. Unlike Apple (which also calls shipments "sales" in their quarterly report), Nokia devices aren't in incredibly high demand (other than perhaps the 920). I can't really see how this is good news for WP when Android and iOS activated 17.1 million devices on Christm…

To put that in perspective with Android sales, the whole of WP sold in a quarter as much as Android in 4 days. I still think Nokia made a huge mistake not making Android phones, too. 4 million Lumias (low-end and high-end ones) is not enough to make them recover on time. They'll still probably get acquired, possibly this year.

They can always go back to making boots. There's a large hipster market out there.

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#67
post #61
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nokia's growth is being limited a lot by WP's own growth right now According to Nokia they can't manufacture enough to satiate demand (components supply constriction). So even if they had chosen Android, they'd have the same unit sales. "Mr. Elop said the company has experienced supply problems, as certain mobile components have been in short supply, both for Nokia and other phone makers." Unless some of the unavail…

It's not about components being WP-only. It's about components where for WP there's just one option, while for Android there are multiple. Specifically they're locked to Qualcomm SOCs, S3s for WP7 and S4s for WP8. (Everyone but Apple and Samsung have been getting fucked over by Qualcomm's supply issues for almost a year, but at least companies like HTC have an option of using Tegra 3s in countries where LTE isn't a h…

That's a fair point. However, I don't think the author had that in mind as they specifically mentioned WP's growth affecting (stunting) Nokia's growth. Still, your point is quite valid.

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#68

I have a Nokia 920 and its solid, really solid. I went back to my iPhone over Christmas (I do mobile development) and I was thankful when I got back to the 920. Its very fast, very functional, love updating tiles. The only gotcha is music - the iPhone still crushes everyone on music apps / syncing / acquisition. Otherwise, the 920 was equal or better - even apps are coming along. Only missing Strava now for me.

I never understand when people say the iPhone is better for music. I'll grant you the Windows 8 Music app sucks on the desktop, but Zune was solid on Windows 7. The WP8 music app is great, the Zune Pass/Xbox Music Pass is basically the biggest reason I can't seriously consider switching platforms. $8/mo for 10 songs DRM-free and streaming/caching all other songs in their database is huge! Nokia Music playlists are hu…

Maybe I'm missing something - how do you sync music to your WP8? Or get the latest podcasts on your phone automatically?

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understand when people say the iPhone is better for music. I'll grant you the Windows 8 Music app sucks on the desktop, but Zune was solid on Windows 7. The WP8 music app is great, the Zune Pass/Xbox Music Pass is basically the biggest reason I can't seriously consider switching platforms. $8/mo for 10 songs DRM-free and streaming/caching all other songs in their database is huge! Nokia Music playlists are hu…

Maybe I'm missing something - how do you sync music to your WP8? Or get the latest podcasts on your phone automatically?

You can use windows phone software in Mac to sync your itunes playlists - https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/windows-phone/id415571499?mt...

Re: Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in 'solid' Q4 2012

#70
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of .NET developers so I don't think that will be an issue.

Isn't that like saying "there are plenty of Java developers so I don't think that will be an issue" when talking about RIM?

Not really, I think that WP will have a bigger userbase than RIM and I think that a better to compare against Android. I also assume that "phoneapps" will work on desktop/tablet windows 8 as well... But again, this is just my thoughts.
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