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Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

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Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#41
post #16
post #14

I predict this will last 5 minutes after the Nokia deal closes. This is a thumb in the eye to Microsoft by people who will also leave that part of Nokia immediately after the deal closes. They will leave with the knowledge and experience of how to integrate an Android based product with Nokia (maps, multimedia, app store) and Microsoft (Bing search, Skype) ecosystem elements. I would bet they know at least 5 OEMs in…

Honestly, it sounds like a bad proposition overall. What is Windows Phone lacking? Apps. What will the Nokia Android phone lack? The Google Play store. Hmm.

    >What is Windows Phone lacking? Apps.
What is the current perceived gap in the Windows Phone app store?

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#42
post #14

I predict this will last 5 minutes after the Nokia deal closes. This is a thumb in the eye to Microsoft by people who will also leave that part of Nokia immediately after the deal closes. They will leave with the knowledge and experience of how to integrate an Android based product with Nokia (maps, multimedia, app store) and Microsoft (Bing search, Skype) ecosystem elements. I would bet they know at least 5 OEMs in…

There may be interesting implications if Nokia ever ships Bionic and Dalvik, both, IIRC, under an Apache license with explicit patent clauses. Every Nokia patent infringed by Android risks being excluded of future litigation by whoever acquires Nokia.

Elop must be very pissed with the Nadella thing...

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#43
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, it sounds like a bad proposition overall. What is Windows Phone lacking? Apps. What will the Nokia Android phone lack? The Google Play store. Hmm.

>What is Windows Phone lacking? Apps. What is the current perceived gap in the Windows Phone app store?

Quality is very low. Apps are there, but features are usually lacking and incomplete, and curation is awful. NB: I have a Lumia.

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Android "not really a Linux ? It runs the Linux kernel. That means it's Linux. No, it's not a distribution of GNU/Linux, but it's a Linux kernel. It's really using Linux. It's as Linux as Ubuntu, as Ubuntu also runs on a Linux kernel.

Why would anybody have cared about Linux except as an academic exercise if not for GNU? If there had been another properly licensed kernel before Linux, we would all be using GNU bolted on top of that. Linux has been great and Linus is a great steward, but Linux without GNU is a base for creating an OS, not an OS.

I really like GNU, but are you sure that it is GNU that has succeeded and not Linux?

Linux + GNU = small marketshare

Linux + Android = big marketshare

So maybe without GNU, Linux would have gotten some other userland quicker and taken off faster? I don't think it's entirely fair to credit Linux's success to GNU at this point.

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#45
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Already happened with Skype.

While it's true that they didn't drop support for Skype when they acquired it, and even continued to update it, what are the chances they'd have said "Hey, let's port skype to qt and put it on linux!" on their own?

I think the spirit of Linus's quote was that Microsoft wouldn't necessarily set out to do so, but eventually be forced to develop for Linux in some way whether they wanted to or not.

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#46
post #17

I'll never understand why Nokia thought that going with WP was a better strategy than forking android like amazon did. Think about it: it would have the openness and stability of Linux with the single hardware configuration and quality of the iPhone, total win-win. Now they are going to android as the cheap option which means only crappy hardware that only "looks" like a lumia. Had Nokia gone the other way it would b…

Nokia can't compete with Samsung, because the latter's vertical integration means it can make money at prices other vendors cannot. Software is totally secondary to that. Nobody is going to pay more for a Nokia Android phone than a Samsung one. Apple and Samsung have set the price ceiling for the market, and at a level that is ruthlessly weeding out competitors who don't have their supply chain advantages.

Nokia's only hope was to make their phones non-fungible with Android phones, and get access to Microsoft's capital stash. If that doesn't play out, they're in the same boat as RIM, HTC, etc.

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#47
post #8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the verge has a write up of the paywalled report... it seems to be the same shell/hardware as the current windows phones. which is a huge let down. it will be yet another candy bar phone. if you had hopes of a n900 successor as well, it may be the time to give up already :(

For all those who dream of running emacs on their phone, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

I'm a vi guy, but I had to laugh at that. :-)

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#48
post #24
post #17

I'll never understand why Nokia thought that going with WP was a better strategy than forking android like amazon did. Think about it: it would have the openness and stability of Linux with the single hardware configuration and quality of the iPhone, total win-win. Now they are going to android as the cheap option which means only crappy hardware that only "looks" like a lumia. Had Nokia gone the other way it would b…

Or going full steam ahead with their Maemo / MeeGo which Elop killed. It was an excellent product: http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/22/2506376/nokia-n9-review . In fact, N9s still retail for pretty high amounts despite being unsupported and outdated hardware.

> In fact, N9s still retail for pretty high amounts despite being unsupported and outdated hardware.

So do Neo-Geos. Nobody cares how high you can price products that'll only be purchased by a few fanboys.

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#49
post #32
post #23

It's pretty odd. I think it's fair to say that the only handset makers profiting off of Android today are...Samsung...and...that's about it really. Meager pickings for the rest of them. I don't see this succeeding at all. And in any case it's dead in the water once the Microsoft deal goes through because it just muddies the waters. A person that buys one of these cheap Nokia/Android phones would reasonably expect tha…

Samsung, Xiamo, Huawei, Lenovo all appear to be making good profits off of Android. There are a few other smaller players also making good profits, although note that Huawei and Lenovo are pretty big players, easily bigger than RIM/Nokia/etc. So I don't think that argument holds much water - if Nokia made an Android phone that people wanted, they could very easily charge a premium (Sony does after all, but they just…

Lenovo made less than $500m net profit across the entire company last year, on $30b in revenue. These are margins you can sustain only if you're a Chinese ODM or a company like Samsung that makes money from all the parts in everyone else's phones too. It's certainly not the kind of money that supports expensive R&D. Apple can throw a billion at developing sapphire glass or a new tooling method, and beat their competitors over the head with it with phones that are lighter, stronger, etc. You can't play that game being a low-margin company like Lenovo.

Re: Nokia Releasing First Android Phone

#50
post #28
post #11

I'd read all those 'Microsoft should fork Android' discussions that have been appearing on HN lately, but I never remotely saw it coming to fruition. Interesting development...

this isn't Microsoft. This was Nokia's thing and started before Microsoft bought them.

"The coming Nokia Android phone won't promote Google's Play application store, from which Google takes a percentage of profits. Instead, the phone will come installed with a suite of services created by Nokia and Microsoft"

It may have started before Microsoft bought them, but it looks like it's not the complete truth to say 'This isn't Microsoft.' It's a little bit Microsoft, at least.

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