Nokia nixes flagship phone in US

Nokia is now as irrelevant as Microsoft...

Nokia is now as irrelevant as Microsoft though both have failed to see it. I'm not an anti-Microsoft zealot or a Nokia-hater, I'm the founder and CTO of a global business that has been built on Windows technology and supported by Nokia but felt I had to share my opinion.

The future is all about Apple & Android. In the very early days we chose Microsoft over Apple as we, as developers, could get under the hood. That same argument is just as valid today - only now we've chosen Google's android as our platform of choice. Apple, despite losing out to Microsoft in the PC era, continues to thrive due to a focus that others don't have. Nokia fills the world with devices instead of focusing all its abilities on delivering one killer device with killer software - WHY?

As for Microsoft - shocking APIs, lock-down and expense. They just don't get it - the most recent hires (and fires) clearly demonstrate that. They're no loss - a point-in-time company we'll all look back on and wonder "how did they get so successful yet die so quickly". Reminds me of the small faces - A 60s band that just combusted.

Thanks for listening ....

American woes

Releasing dodgy CDMA handsets initially, then giving up on the technology completely didn't help them much either.

Now only if they would drop dead-horse symbian. Have they heard of this android thing?

Or sell them through Ikea, the only other exposure Americans have to scandinavian design.

Nokia and the USA

I suppose the US carriers have always been a problem as they are "the King" and perhaps "The Sheep" when it comes to Apple.

Still I must admit that there was this renegade at Nokia who did not understand the flip phone and would not understand the difference between a Zippo and a Bic either. Too bad.

Still Motorala is not doing too well, a mostly American company I suppose, Nokia is American to 47%.

So well I suppose it comes down to what the carriers have decided the American like.

Huge software

Average Nokia phone has huge amounts of software in it. And Nokia releases about 40 phones each year. It's no wonder there are some bugs in them.

I've heard they use a modular software development. By doint them in modules they can reuse a lot of code but on the other hand there comes some bugs when modules don't quite work together.

Like in all software products you need to wait about a 6 months until the worst release bugs are ironed out. About a year for then to be "bugfree". ("" because practicly no software is bugfree.) At least a phone isn't a plane, or medical equipment. Bugs in those have killed people, in phones they just annoy you.

@AC

Nope.

I've always been more upset than the software just didn't change over time. The calendar has stayed the same, contacts has done just enough to keep itself relevant, messaging has also stayed the same.

How about some software which actually has improvements in functionality?!

Shit software...how come?

Nokia is not solely responsible for the shit software that may find its way onto their phones. The chip suppliers also provide a large chunk of the software on a mobile phone (adaptation of OSes to their chips, multimedia architectures, communications stacks, etc). The problem is that many of the chip suppliers often don't see themselves as in the business of selling software. Consequently, software development is something they don't understand well and something they're incapable of doing professionally.

Very often their SW is designed and developed by poorly trained hardware oriented employees with neither the interest nor the aptitude for software development. Note that I avoid describing these employees as engineers as in many cases they're not.

In my opinion, this all boils down to greed and stupidity across the board. Nokia wants cheaper chips, the chip suppliers want lower SW costs and the result, after numerous cock-ups and missed targets, is ultimately more expensive SW that simply doesn't work as intended.

Try supporting what you make, Nokia

I've an E71 -- great little phone, but have you tried to find applications for it. That's a googling exercise in extreme frustration. Spending 3 hours looking for apps at hundreds of websites, after sifting through hundreds of forum postings that don't lead to solutions, is discouraging. If Nokia spent a million on three or four web coders and crafted an 'iTunes' store for apps for their line of phones, us dumb 'Americans' might warm to Nokia. Or, hey, here's a thought: open more than 2 stores in the US. Or, hey, here's a thought: have franchise partners who can help service the phones. With an older 6230, I needed a firmware upgrade to have it see its own SD card for music storage. Couldn't download the software from the web, couldn't download an installer app. Couldn't take it to a local store for a firmware update. Was instructed that I would have to ship it to Nokia for 2-3 wks. My business cell phone, without it for 2-3 wks? Nokia -- grow up and support your products. Oh, and make a VNC client for the E71 that works. Maybe some of us dirty Americans will respond by that tired old method of viral marketing your products for you. We do like a lot of your output, but the support execution sucks -- unless that's just how you do it overseas.

US carriers suck

They hate Nokia.... it's mutual.

Nokia packs great features into their phones, and the carriers disable anything which does not result in revenue. Fortunately you can get unlocked Nokias, and use them anywhere.