It’s a sign of the times, though not a particularly surprising one: Nokia has finally eliminated its European phone assembly infrastructure and will be moving those 4000 jobs to Asia, according to a Reuters report. The factories are not being shuttered altogether, and localizing and finishing work will still be done there, but the primary assembly work is being relocated.
The news and layoffs were expected, as the company has slashed many more thousands of jobs over the last year, but this particular cut is symbolic: the intensely European company has been battered into submission, and will join the others in the now-standard configuration of “design here, build there.” → Read More
The Lumia 800 is an excellent device, and if you’re new to the world of smartphones, the Lumia 710 is quite excellent as well. But those of us who’ve been excited about the Nokia/Microsoft partnership since the very beginning have been waiting for a flagship — a real showstopper: the Lumia 900.
And while we still don’t have exact word on pricing and availability, it would seem that employees at the Microsoft Store are offering pre-orders of the 900 in both black and white. → Read More
Forget about the Lumia 900 for a minute. Nokia just announced white Nokia Lumia 800 is finally on the release block and scheduled to hit stores later this month. Availability will be limited to Europe initially but it will eventually hit other countries as well.
Other than the stark white exterior, it’s essentially the same phone as its colored counterparts. The albino edition (not the official name) still has the same 3.7-inch screen, 16GB of storage, 1.4GHz processor and WinPhone 7.5 operating system. → Read More
Nokia’s UK YouTube account has posted a video promoting the pink Lumia 800, and shockingly enough it seems pretty targeted toward women.
Here’s the thing: It’s pretty obvious that, with a pink phone, the majority of its owners will be teenage young ladies. That’s fine. But doesn’t a commercial that shows only women enjoying the phone kind of ruin it for guys? What if there’s a young man in the UK that was really excited about the pink Lumia 800? He’s probably not so excited after seeing this commercial. → Read More
Nokia earnings are out, and the contrast with Apple’s blow-out quarter results is astonishing. The Finnish phone maker, still the largest in the world by volume, reported a Q4 net loss of 1.07 billion euro, down from a 745 million euro profit in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The company’s smartphone sales decline paints an even bleaker picture: Nokia sold 19.6 million units in Q4 2011, down a whopping 31 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago (even though it’s up 17 percent from Q3 2011 thanks to somewhat decent Lumia sales).
Nokia says it sold “well over” 1 million Lumia devices to date (not just in Q4) and that it plans to bring the Lumia series to additional markets – including China and Latin America – in the first half of 2012. → Read More
Does the term S40 mean anything to you?
It’s a mobile operating system built by Nokia for its feature phones back in 1999, and first appeared on the 7110. Well, apparently a lady over in São Paulo, Brazil has today purchased the 1.5 billionth phone running the operating system in the form of the Nokia Asha 303. Nokia is calling it “one of the most significant milestones” in company history. → Read More
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was all to eager to show off the Lumia 900 at this year’s CES, but he unforunately kept to himself when it came to its price or release date. Now, thanks to a timely leak, it looks as though Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone could hit AT&T’s shelves on March 18.
That’s apparently the plan, anyway. The date, given to BGR by their anonymous sources, seemingly confirms earlier rumors about the device’s launch window, though they’re quick to note that the date isn’t set in stone since the 900 hasn’t yet completed the technical acceptance process. → Read More
Nobody wants to give Windows Phone a chance except for Robin and a whole bunch of analysts. Back in September, IDC and Gartner predicted that Windows would overtake iOS for the number two spot in the market by 2015, and Windows Phone head of marketing Achim Berg called that prediction conservative.
Now iSuppli has joined in, predicting that Windows Phone will grab a 16.7 percent market share by 2015, while Apple’s market share is expected to decline from 18 percent to 16.6 percent in 2015. → Read More
Ah, so close yet so far. Nokia’s new flagship Lumia 900 handset was on display here at CES 2012, and though we couldn’t quite get our hands on it, we did the next best thing — we shot some video.
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It’s not exactly a surprise at this point, but Nokia has just officially revealed the long-awaited Nokia Lumia 900.
Formerly known as the Ace, the Mango-powered 900 packs pretty much everything we expected it would — a 1.4 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and the same sort of 8-megapixel sensor as seen on its little brother the Lumia 800. → Read More
Nokia has acquired Oslo, Norway-based Smarterphone, a company that builds a mobile operating system for so-called feature phones.
The news of the purchase, which was actually completed last November, comes straight from investment firm Ferd Capital, which pumped 6.5 million euros into Smarterphone since 2007. → Read More
Analysts at Credit Suisse are forecasting slower growth in mobile phone shipments worldwide for this year, at a growth rate of 2%. The increase is higher than previous forecasts but is down from the 12% growth it had projected for 2011, according to this Reuters report.
According to the firm, they’re expecting to see 1.85 billion handset sales in 2012, up from the 2011 forecast of 1.82 billion. They’re also surprisingly bullish on Nokia’s fate in the new year. → Read More
Windows Phones, like Android phones, are hard to review. The operating system is obviously the same across the board and so the real question is “How does the hardware stand up to competitors?” The most important thing to consider here then is whether this phone stands a chance against similarly-priced Android feature phones and whether or not Nokia’s big gamble on WinPho has paid off? I’m leaning towards “Yes.” → Read More
Mobile industry watcher Eldar Murtazin took to Twitter today, claiming that Microsoft and Nokia executives will be meeting each other shortly to discuss the possibility and terms of a deal involving the sale of the Finnish phone maker’s smartphone division (including “one or two” manufacturing plants).
Such an agreement between the two tech giants, which Murtazin says could be finalized in the second half of 2012, would leave Nokia with nothing but its ‘dumbphone’ or feature phone business, mapping services subsidiary Navteq and Nokia Siemens Networks, the flailing networking and telecom equipment company (a joint-venture with Siemens).
Murtazin also asserts that current Nokia head honcho Stephen Elop will resign from his chief executive role in the course of this year (possibly to return to Microsoft, where he used to run the Business Division?). Furthermore, Windows smartphones would no longer be branded ‘Nokia’. → Read More
I’ve been playing with the Lumia 710 for a week or so now and I’m pleased to report that Nokia may have a chance. The phone, while a bit chintzy, is inexpensive, fast, and feature-rich. I doubt you’d be able to find a device as easy to use and comfortable as the 710 at a $50 price with two year contract.
We also tried the Meizu MX and came away, well, un-awed. It’s a cool phone, it’s only available in China right now, and there are a few bugs to work out before it could consider a second life on this side of the pond. I was more kind to it than Erick, but we’re both equally trepidatious.
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If you’re not a Windows fan, then these next few months may not be too pleasant for you. WinSupersite’s Paul Thurrott reports that Microsoft and OEM friends like Nokia and Samsung will be spending around $200 million in order give Windows Phone a big marketing push in early 2012. → Read More
Until now the 4G LTE-capable Nokia Ace (or Lumia 900, if you prefer) has been largely a mystery. We got a peek at some leaked press shots last week (pictured), but all we’ve heard is that it’ll hit AT&T shelves on March 18, it’ll be powered by the Windows Phone platform, and that it’ll come equipped with an LTE radio.
Today, however, PocketNow claims to have confirmed the specs on this bad boy. → Read More
Have you been wondering which mobile browser is the fastest of late? It would be an understandable thing to pontificate, seeing that Android takes the cake when it comes to LTE support, iOS has the class-leading dual-core A5 chip on its side, and Windows Phone’s IE mobile browser is basically a beast. It’s a worthwhile question, to say the least.
Luckily MyNokiablog noticed a YouTube video uploaded by user 359gsm, in which the iPhone 4S, the Lumia 800, and an iPhone 4 (running iOS 4.3) are put through the ringer. The specific definition of ringer: Browsermark, Speed Reading, Sunspider, Acid3, and HTML5 tests. → Read More
Nokia played Grinch this year by barring a small, Lapland-based maker of iOS games from a Santa Claus Foundation delegation at Wanda Plaza in Beijing, China. The delegation, consisting of a number of Finnish tech companies, including Nokia, was to show off the best tech Lapland had to offer.
The smaller company, Lapland Studio Ltd, created a game called Elf Rescue in honor of the studio’s nearest neighbor, Old St. Nick. The Santa Claus Foundation invited founder Ilkka Immonen to the event where he would be able to show the game to Chinese press.
→ Read More
Say a prayer for Android. Nokia’s new Lumia 710 Windows Phone, a $49 smartphone aimed at the feature-phone set, is about to change the way carriers sell – and customers see – cellphones. Forget LTE, dual cores, and all that flummery. Microsoft and Nokia are essentially buying a few million people stuck in the 20th century a new cellphone and they’re doing it in a way only the world’s two finest proprietors of technology to the masses could.
On the surface, the Lumia 710 is redolent of the bargain basement. The amateurish (but rugged) protruding buttons and a rubberized back are a direct attack against the carbon-fiber power slabs that most carriers are flogging while the OS is all animation and pop, aimed at a market that’s used to constantly moving images associated with ad-clogged web pages and Xbox dashboards. It is, to quote Ren and Stimpy, a jolly candy phone, priced to move and ready for the anything but iPhone crowd who, whether by dint of economics or aesthetics, don’t go much for Nexii or RAZRii either. → Read More
