http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/ Engadget Comments for Nokia slashing smartphone lineup in half for 2010 http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Back on topic: Nokia's smartphones are horribly outdated. Anyone expecting Flash to create their apps is living in the 90s. I hope they get to work on making something modern, or they'll be an also-ran this time next year.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 4:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 5:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 5th 2009 11:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Will it sell more that their current products?]]>Dec 3rd 2009 4:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Would take some time till Nokia could deliver something good and also the company does not want Android.

They have stated over and over that Android will not be part of the lineup (but of course if it starts to be desperate like Motorola then its a possibility) and they are already with 2 big OS'es.

And IMHO, its good for us that Nokia dont go into Android wagon. More competition, more innovation :)]]>Dec 3rd 2009 4:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Motorola aren't desperate. They found a free, open O.S. that seems to be better than what Motorola had so they took advantage of that. Motorola has made some smart decisions recently. I would suggest buying their shares now, it's currently undervalued at the moment.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 4:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
What I meant was, Motorola WAS desperate. They have implemented perfectly the Droid and took a breath of fresh air with it...

But you have to admit that it was a very risky game what they did, betting on Android, and also that if Android wouldnt have been created Motorola probably would be just a footnote in history of Mobile Phones.

Thankfully, for them, they succeeded in implementing the Droid. I have worked for Motorola when they started to descend. And I would point that they had, at that time, Motorola had the same problem with its OS as Nokia has with Symbian now. People just started to think it was too clunky and odd.

Thank God for Maemo :P]]>Dec 3rd 2009 5:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
As much as I'd like the idea of an OS being super popular -to easily get every cool little app in the world- Android might not be the best choice. Too much Google, for one. Then it was (last I saw) kinda slow on recent hardware and I heard it's not the easiest to develop for. But I won't make any hard claims yet, just a feeling I got..

On the other hand Maemo (or even a redesigned Symbian) looks like it could be free-er (as in freedom) than Android and Nokia can -since they are big- afford to leave it open, by not succumbing to every silly demand by the carrier. It could -if I got some of the technical rumors right- also be more performing and optimized than Android.

So we can be happy that we have a big competitor doing the catching up (in _some_ aspects, not in everthing), since it can afford to make something good and doesn't have to fear about being squashed by the bigger players.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 6:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
I have bee talking about this for a long times with the manag.. guys around here. Hope it will speed up development for more features and bug squashing.

Besides that they should focus also in Ovi services. Integrating in a better way with the phones (widgets dont count) would be awesome.

N900 already goes very far in that way but it still not as seamless as I would like.

Chris is in a good mood today... Just made 2 little jokes about nokia? :) I think it was the hot chick from the laser-printing-kindle-factory that helped with his mood. :P]]>Dec 3rd 2009 4:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 4:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/If properly subsidized, high end phones are plenty affordable, some are even free or close to free on contract in europe.
And if you are going to have to shell out the data plan costs whether it be a high or low end phone, might as well have the best hardware.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 4:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
But you're right, if you're going to do it, you might as well do it properly..!]]>Dec 3rd 2009 5:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/See the problem is, most of Nokia's high end phones in the past 2 years have been failures. The N900 is probably the only decent device they've released in that time period, and it still doesn't have one USA carrier yet. They obviously are so behind and don't know what they're doing that they have to rebuild their image and lineup...If you fail with a midrange phone, no one really pays attention; but if you fail with a high end device, then people get angry.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 10:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
"Free on contract" and free aren't even distant cousins.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 10:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Sure, the N95 and E71 were total failures.

Dolt.]]>Dec 4th 2009 2:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 5:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Crap hardware?

The only things that are not about top of the line (hardware wise, for a phone) in the N86 are:
1. small-ish screen
2. no qwerty keyboard

Both of these are pretty much only relevant if you want to do a lot of internet on the phone or if you do a lot of messaging.
And both of those have the advantages of respectively consuming less battery with a smaller screen (I _don't_ want to charge every day or even more than once per day) and a more compact size without a full qwerty.

If you just need a phone as a phone and a bit of camera and general multimedia functionality it's a great phone. Did you see the video recordings made with that phone? Pretty good quality..
GPS, WiFi are there if you need them, too (I used GPS on a N79, which has an even smaller screen and it was usable), so as other less known but handy features like an FM transmitter...]]>Dec 3rd 2009 6:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 5:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
1 low end phone.

2 mid level phones (slider and touchscreen).

3 high end (slider keyboard, touchscreen .. and a third i dunno triple touchscreen .. foldable with two touchscreens inside like the DS plus a touchscreen on the outside .. with a snap in mechanism for overlaying a physical keyboard that the phone can be closed with)

That's all they need to focus on. Also all phones need to have dual cameras standard (i found out that the low end front facing camera costs less than $1 in bulk from a chinese supplier .. apparently they are as cheap to stamp out as a few pennies).
]]>Dec 3rd 2009 5:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
What a great vision you have.. Do you really think that 6 phones will fit to everyone on earth? (Reminder: Nokia is selling phones to the entire planet, most of phones are tailored for local needs & fashion)]]>Dec 3rd 2009 5:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
I find that some Nokia phones are very similar in features. Maybe a mono screen as opposed to a colour screen or different keypad or the camera type could make the difference between model numbers. If they can't cover the world with six phones or even five then they need to do more research.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 6:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Yes, it would fit everyone on earth's need and more. Look at how well the iPhone is blew away competition in the high end phone space.
And it doesn't even do video .. the browser doesn't support flash .. there is no notification LED to tell u that you have texts or voicemail waiting etc.!

They just need to make the phone customizable (language specific etc). Also as far as local fashion .. that's what the phone cover is for.

All these crappy phones Nokia is making is ruining their brand. You never know what features to expect in a Nokia phone. There are quite a few $200+ Nokia phones available with a crappy QVGA display and horrid UIs. They may be laughing about getting away with selling 'em but I can tell you that the next phone the people they rip off buy won't be a Nokia.
]]>Dec 3rd 2009 6:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/"Yes, it would fit everyone on earth's need and more. Look at how well the iPhone is blew away competition in the high end phone space."

Nokia is still beating Apple by some margin in the smartphone stakes. And remember that half of the iPhone's sales still come from one carrier in one country. The sales figures from India and China (two massive markets for Nokia) have been especially disappointing. One model won't please the entire world.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 7:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 5:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/$50 - $100 saved doesn't quite make a difference enough in the long run to go for something that's not as high-end (think hd2 vs samsung jack). ]]>Dec 3rd 2009 5:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
I doubt they will cut that much im development. Some will stay to enhance the devices they will make, and some will go for some new lines I hope. There isn't much room for growth in cellphones for Nokia as it's marketshare is 40%ish. If it want's to grow only route is to diversify to some other product line.

The netbook is a new opening for Nokia. I think some of the hardware developers from smartphones will move to new netbook designs as there will be a new one as current one seems a success. Maybe they will do a good laptop too....

But Nokia has the big company dilemma. They want to grow but there's practicly no room for growth in the cell phones. 40% marketshare is acceptable but any more is going to be hard to push for, and might get the Bell/Standard Oil treatment. They need to diversify to other devices but until now they have had a real tunnel vision on cell phones, selling all other branches.

Buw what Nokia really needs now is a branch, and stay with it. They have been able to get a big piece out of cellphone market, instead of going for the unobtainable bigger piece why not go for a big piece out of some other market.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 6:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
I think they realize they have a winner with Maemo, after their relatively long investment in it, for what they've been calling a portable computer or whatever. So they're going to continue to invest in Maemo by having only a couple models (just like the iPhone), which should help with software development; they're going to work on Symbian (of which they are partial owners) for devices between a regular cellphone and a Maemo device; and they're going to kill off a lot of smartphones they had planned before they saw the positive response towards Maemo 5. Nokia is now in a position to make more goal-directed decisions than they were last year, and it's a result of their diverse activities over the past 10 years. All this malarkey about not understanding what Nokia is up to... blah.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 7:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/It's nasty to use plain and simple.
Series 40 phones on the other hand are actually pretty good. Simple to use, intuitive, reliable. Those £20 nokia phones are far and away the best products they make.
I've had the misfortune of using S60 phones since they launched it and it's always been buggy and totally counter intuitive.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 7:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
correction: s60 is horrible for touchscreens. the e71/e72 are great examples of where s60 does well.

For the rest of the market they need to either get the ball rolling on Maemo or use Android, and I could imagine Nokia making a pretty baller Android set or two]]>Dec 3rd 2009 8:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/S40 is ... ok ... as a non-smartphone OS. They're meh. Performance isn't great - they do what's required of them and do a good job at that. However, as far as a great non-smartphone OS goes, Sony Ericsson's is one of the finest. Incredibly responsive, great multitasking, solid framework and UI. It's too bad SE seems to be so lost (UIQ, S60v5, WinMo, Android?) when it comes to a smartphone OS.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 10:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 10:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Err... the E61i is vastly inferior to the E71 and now the E72. Just because something looks like something doesn't mean it's the same.

People buying E series phones usually don't have web browsing as their top priority either I'd point out. ]]>Dec 4th 2009 2:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 4th 2009 3:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Well, the e61i is nearly 3 yrs old, and it is slow. Did BB, for example, even have 3g 2 yrs ago?
Anyway, e71 and 72 are speed demons, and plenty able for most tasks. ]]>Dec 4th 2009 5:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/The only SE symbian phone (S60v5) is the newly released Satio. UIQ is symbian - but a different flavor and those would be the P990, W995, G900, and M600 and all their variants.
The OS on the majority of their cell phones; ie. W810, K790, W995, C905, Aino, etc are all proprietary]]>Dec 5th 2009 10:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
detailed sources: http://bit.ly/nokia-900-full-specs-details-best-or-worst]]>Dec 3rd 2009 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 9:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Err... the N95 is on v31 firmware, the 5800 on v30, the N96 on v20 something.

I think you'll find they do.]]>Dec 4th 2009 3:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/
Try going to the Nokia official forum page, you will see that their software upgrades to not solve their phone problems, N97 included, since I own one.]]>Dec 4th 2009 9:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/nokia-slashing-smartphone-lineup-in-half-for-2010/Dec 3rd 2009 10:18PM