Tag Archives: smartphone

Sucks to be Nokia

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S&P yesterday cut its rating on Nokia bonds to junk.  [Moody's had downgraded the bonds to junk earlier this month.]

Why?

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Nokia’s bonds on Friday to junk status, noting that the company’s first-quarter revenue fell below its expectations, particularly because sales of its phones that include the older Symbian software had fallen so drastically.

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In the smartphone category, Nokia slips to third place behind Apple, the leader with 35 million phones shipped, and Samsung, with 32 million devices, according to iSuppli. In that category, Nokia is slipping faster than Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry. The smartphone segment is the only part of the handset market that is showing any growth.

Disclosure: I am long AAPL.

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Verizon’s iPhone numbers

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According to Verizon, the company sold 6.3 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2012.  Of those sales, 3.2 million were iPhones, and 3.1 million were other smartphones. So, at least at Verizon, the iPhone outsold all the Android phones combined.

This is interesting in that the current iPhones do not support LTE, the high-speed wireless data technology that Android manufacturers tout as a major feature. It seems that the attractiveness of the iPhone without LTE is enough to beat out Android with LTE.

And the next iPhone will likely add LTE functionality.

Disclosure: I am long AAPL.

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The power of user interfaces

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Horace Dediu, writing on his blog asymco, offers a very interesting article describing the effects of disruptive technology advances.  He argues that seemingly minor interface changes (say the move from the keyboard to the mouse) can affect the incumbent players in a market powerfully, moving profits from such incumbents to entirely new entrants. And he uses the deployments of touch interfaces on mobile devices as a beginning point in the analysis. Fascinating.

Read the whole article, but here is one chart from the piece showing volume, revenue and profit rankings in the mobile phone industry before and after the launch of the iPhone.

And if you find this type of analysis interesting (as I most certainly do) you should subscribe to a weekly podcast hosted by Horace Dediu called The Critical Path (iTunes link).

First Windows Phone 7 ad

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This is actually quite good.

I think that Windows Phone 7 (or whatever the hell they call it) could be very successful. If Microsoft had been able to come out with this phone two years ago, then between Android, the iPhone and Windows Phone 7, eventually the top two would have been iPhone and Windows Phone 7. Why? Because Android appeals (and has been marketed to) geeks. Check out this Droid ad (or this one) and tell me who it connected with. Geeks and gadget freaks, God love them, are not the ordinary people who buy the overwhelming majority of phones. That and the fact that Microsoft will spend millions of dollars on advertising. However, Microsoft waited too long to capture what their phones seem capable of.

And here is another good Microsoft ad.

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Desperation time at Nokia? (updated)

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Is Nokia desperate to have a big hit phone? Well, you tell me. They have launched a site that appears to be soliciting users to design their ideal phone. I don’t think you drive success this way. Crowd-sourcing is cool and all that. But this approach by a major phone manufacturer is either pandering to consumers, or a joke, or desperation.

Update: Meanwhile, Apple is now officially accepting applications for the iPad.

Steve Jobs: CEO of the decade

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Fortune Magazine has named Steve Jobs CEO of the decade.  And he certainly deserves the title.

How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.

Dell launching a smartphone?

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The rumors are circulating that Dell will launch a smartphone, perhaps as soon as February. Strategically, could there be a worse time?  This would put them directly in the path of Apple, RIM and Android. Possibly the Pre from Palm may also be a direct competitor. Dell will fail miserably if they do. What OS is it going to run? What about apps? Has Dell ever been successful with a product other than computers, where they crank out industry standard boxes and spend virtually nothing on research? Is Dell recognized for creating good design or buzz, which is essential in a consumer product (e.g., TVs, mp3 players, retail stores)? Nuff said.