Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"We need a digital camera that can be switched on and fire off that first shot fast. It's not a commonly tracked statistic on any review site, and nobody seems to have this information for every camera. We were hoping other readers could inform us as to what small digital cameras can fire off their first pics in under a second (ideally under half a second). It needs to be small, but mostly, just really quick in operation. Thanks!"
Is Nokia ever going to learn that consumer find their multiple-OSes and constant changes in direction confusing and a powerful reason to look elsewhere?
@Carniphage
No. Because this multiple-OS-strategy-harms-you thing is BS. Engadget has been bitching to Nokia about it. When will they do the same for HTC? When will they do the same for Samsung? Samsung has, what, million smartphone OS's? And still Nokia is the one who is target.
Nokia who hasn't done anything remarkable during couple last years and still dominates smartphone market shares. When they needed a little fix (end of last year) they just introduced few models and boom, market share +4%. They are so dominant that atm. they can tune Symbian & MeeGo as much as they want and still no one can challenge them.
Although, this year Android might be a challenge for them. But I'm pretty sure they know it.
@Eric
Hi Eric,
You need to look more closely at Nokia's own sales statistics.
Nokia sell a huge amount of Symbian devices, which makes them all technically smartphones. But these are "entry-level" smartphones which have very low retail value and make very little in terms of profit. The volumes are huge, but the profits are small.
The important part of the market, is the high-retail value, high-volume devices. This is where the money is made.
In this market, Nokia pitches its N-series devices. And year on year, sales of the N-series machines is declining rapidly. It's now about a half of what it was when the N95 was king. Consumers at the high end are abandoning Nokia.
So if Nokia is dominating anything, it's this low-end of the market. At the top end, they are losing marketshare hand over fist. And its not hard to see why. Their message to the consumer is confusing, the product line-up is cluttered with too many products, which compete with themselves. Products are pre-announced which makes the current models instantly redundant. And now this barrage of confusing messages about Meemo this and Meego that.
No one cares about this. Consumers need a clear product they can understand.
Nokia *has* done something remarkable in the last 4 years. They have take a company with global dominance, and been passed (in terms of profitability) by a rival that only entered the handset space only 4 years ago.
C.
@Carniphage
couldnt agree more :( I feel bad for Nokia. So much potential to do amazing things but..
@Carniphage
Yup, that kinda sums up my own feelings about Nokia's doings in last couple of years. It's almost like that they packed all they knowledge and enthusiasm to the now-almost-forgotten N95 and then dropped the ball to others thinking "That's got to be the final smartphone, there's absolutely nothing more to do". Now they're apparently trying to get back to the game, but just don't have any solid plan to achieve it.
And in addition to their current smartphone catalog, I'm bored to hear Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo rambling about how's Nokia going strong at the entry-level market areas and models in every presentation his giving. If that's the future for the once so innovative company, well .. good riddance.
@justus5 "If that's the future for the once so innovative company, well .. good riddance."
If that's the future for the company, great! Technology exists to serve humans, not the other way around. I'd rather give a cell phone to a third of the world's population than get a N99 with specs from the next century.
@jarek
I see your point and I don't have a problem with Nokia succeeding in the low-end market. However, in the past they could do the both - dominate the entry level market AND produce attractive high-end products. That's also the position I would like too see them today, rather than just "giving up".
@Carniphage
Yes, how dare they provide choices to the consumer! they should definitely pick one OS and shove it down everyone's throats! Boo to having options! Yay to tunnel vision!
While we are at it, all cars should only come in light blue because that is my favorite color, pants should only be available in denim, subchannels on digital tv should be eliminated, vanilla coke should be the only cola flavor, and hightop sneakers are the only type of shoes that anyone really needs for any type of occasion!
It is confusing to me when a company offers more than one item! Instead of narrowing down features that I would need and choosing what I feel is best for me, I decide to look elsewhere.
@Robbie Hottie
Hi Robbie,
Nokia's N-Series sales have taken a nose-dive since the days of the N95 - these figures are published by Nokia.
Perhaps you can explain better than me why Nokia's message is not hitting home with consumers.
The idea of dual-booting a mobile phone, is to me as bizarre as dual-booting a toaster. I don't understand why Nokia cannot develop a single OS technology and throw all their resources into that, instead of offering Symbian, and Maemo and Meego and whatever else they plan to offer next.
I don't see this as a large company offering consumer choice. I see is as critical and painful indecision. This company should be telling the world exactly how the mobile phone should be.
Instead they are panicking, trying to please everyone, and succeeding in creating a confusing mess that appeals to a geeky hard core, but turns-off the typical consumer.
At some point, they will figure this out.
But it might be too late by then.
C.