Nokia news!
So it's been a while since Nokia and Microsoft tied the business knot and things haven't really changed that much when all things are told. Nokia is still hemorrhagging money and Microsoft's mobile share has stayed safely around the 4% of the smartphone market.
But, that's not all that's been happening; we've seen Nokia's first set of handsets essentially passed into obsolescence with the introduction of Windows Phone 8. And all in all the picture isn't looking too rosy for the Finns.
This morning, during the Nokia Q2 2012 financial results call, Nokia reported an operating loss of a $1bn! And the company expects Q3 to be the same, plus or minus 4% depending on how well Windows Phone 7 holds up between now and Windows Phone 8 launching! There was also confirmation that Microsoft's 'platform support payments' continue to come in, giving Nokia slightly more than the royalties they pay Microsoft back. Microsoft's incentive is said to be €250m ($307m) per quarter, which at the very least keeps the cash flow going!
Elop has, however, pledged to make everything better when the next Windows Phone version rolls around. He promised that, “As you see the next wave and the wave after that of Lumia products you’ll seen an increase in differentiations”. However, he also made a point of mentioning that not every new Nokia will be available through every carrier out there and we'll see how that pans out; the company only managed to ship 600,000 Lumia devices in North America and 4 million in total worldwide.
He said that the small range of devices we've seen so far has only been because of the limited time period the company has had since their departure from Symbian and Meego and things will change in the future. Although, we can't help but feeling he's looking at this the wrong way and instead should aim for a flagship device and then fill in the mid-range with a cluster of devices!
In other news:
- RIM has confirmed that their BB10 Gold SDK will be finished for November for the developers to get their hands on a final version!
- Android devices out-sold the iPhone on Verizon again this quarter 2.9million to 2.7million. Android's growth in the US continues!
- Again it's been reported that Samsung and Apple have been sitting down for patent talks but there won't be anything agreed amicably.
- Huawei has announced UK availability and pricing of the slimline Ascend P1, the company's 7.69mm-thick Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone. The Ascend P1 will drop on Vodafone in early August, priced at free on a new, two-year agreement of £26 ($41) per month.
- Apple have, unsurprisingly, chosen to appeal the decision of the UK courts that would require them to place “an advertisement” for Samsung on their website which explicitly highlights the result of Apple's suing attempts. The appeal will bring the case to the court of appeal and will be heard by the same Judge, Judge Birss, that presided over the current case. If Samsung can make the ruling stick, which seems likely, then Apple will have to pay for sections in the Daily Mail, Financial Times, Guardian Mobile magazine, and T3 as well as displaying a notice on Apple.com that the Samsung tablet does not infringe on Apple’s registered designs. The news obviously didn't go down well in Cupertino!
- Windows 8 will officially be available on October 26, 2012.
- Qualcomm has admitted that they still have trouble providing enough S4 chips for smartphones, but the company is doing all they can to get that right in future!
- HTC is busily preparing a Jelly Bean update for the HTC Sensation XL and the HTC One S, so obviously we can expect all phones of both generations to be receiving similar updates!
“Why is there no rear camera?To make this device accessible to the widest possible market, price is very important. ASUS believes that for this device a good rear camera is important. Adding a high quality rear facing camera will increase the price point and many users would not have a use for it. Adding a lower quality rear facing camera would compromise on the overall user experience so the decision was made not to include a front facing camera therefore keeping the price down and user experience extremely high.” – ASUS
