Nokia slashing smartphone lineup in half for 2010
By Chris Ziegler 
posted December 3rd 2009 4:21PM
posted December 3rd 2009 4:21PM
One of the natural side effects of being the largest maker of cellphones in the world is that you produce a lot of different models -- a lot -- which makes it way too easy for product planning, engineering, and marketing to all have corners cut for even the most important devices in the herd. Nokia seems to be coming to terms with that, though, announcing that it'll scale back from "around 20" smartphones released this year to roughly a half of that in 2010, allowing it to give each phone the TLC it so desperately needs. Interestingly, the company says that it's looking to the low- to midrange smartphone realm as a hot new competitive frontier -- and an area where it'll "have tools to play offence [sic] as well as defense," possibly thanks to its continued involvement in Symbian even as it looks to Maemo to grow the high end. By any measure, it sounds like Nokia's starting to get the hint -- but it's still anyone's guess what kinds of products will ultimately see out of these guys over the next 12 to 18 months.
@Vendettx
Right. Because the iPhone isn't 'kust one model', is it?
Well, it's not I suppose - it's actually three although most sites seem to froth on about total iPhone sales rather than splitting them down (because if you do the numbers aren't quite as impressive - they're roughly equivalent to N95 and 5800 numbers and way off N73 numbers) but you get my point.
Besides Nokia have commited to launching another Maemo device in 2010 anyway.
while youre at it, why not slash prices for some of the phones!
I don't see why Nokia can do what Palm did.
Just pull a 180 in six months! They have the resources and the money.
Nokia's exec's need to be fired and replaced.
All of their UI's seem to be shitty and have no promise except for Maemo.
Unless they want to keep selling monochrome prepaid candy bars in America.
Go right ahead Nokia.
@joaqdelx
Right on, right on.
"Interestingly, the company says that it's looking to the low- to midrange smartphone realm as a hot new competitive frontier"
Well, yeah, that's been their strategy for well over a year now.
As for all the people rabbitting on about Symbian being doomed, may I remind you who's still the Daddy and by a huge margin?