sharpens vision ...
not sure it's quite appropriate to speak of "vision" and "nokia" on the same subject.
how many acquisitions they've made and each time it was seen as a vision. vision my a**
Finnish phonemeaker Nokia has announced that it will acquire the privately-held, Chicago-based Novarra, makers of the Vision mobile browser and server platform. "By driving innovation in all segments of our portfolio, we are building one of the largest consumer audiences for web services and content," said NokiaEVP for service …
Out here on the left coast of the USA, 'Novarra' is a line of bicycles and associated bicycling gear marketed by a large retailer named REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated).
Maybe if my new phone/bicycle came with absolutely awesome GPS I would take a second look. Otherwise ... meh...
Blurred vision... hence the thick eyeglasses...
Taking a look at IDC figures, Nokia lost market share overall from '08 to '09 for smartphones, but certainly grew market share in Q3 and Q4 '09.
In fact, both RIM and Nokia gained market share in Q4 '09 at Apple's expense - so clearly the 20.8M Nokia smartphone buyers and the 10.7M RIM buyers must be deluded not to have swelled the ranks of the 7.4M iPhone buyers!
I think Apple have a superb product, but it is not without its faults and not everybody wants a million apps on their phone - some of us spend most of the day on calls and emails and not playing with infotainment - and in that case there are some cracking alternatives with decent mechanical qwerty keyboards and batteries that don't need 'mommying' and great prodcutivity functionality around communications whose only fault is using a D-Pad and not a touch-screen! (In some cases even fewer 'clicks' than the iPhone! ... just not as pretty!)
Just as being a 1 product (phone) vendor is to Apple's benefit in terms of innovation, marketing, focus etc., it is also its challenge as its iPhone has 'a market' segment (contrained by needs, budgets and perferences) and will need to 're-invent' itself with a new model to keep this market share whereas RIM and Nokia can offer many different alternatives to cater to different needs, budgets and wants.
What I get tired of is the (mainly US where Nokia has had very low market share) analysis that says that Apples success and products represent an 'objective' industry benchmark of what handset manufacturers should do. Personally I would be pretty annoyed if Nokia changed some of its functionality in my current handset 'just to be like Apple' ... likewise, if Apple stuck a qwerty keyboard on a device and gave it a decent/replaceable battery, I would consider changing.
Of course the N900 is neither the flagship device (N97 is) or a smartphone, it's a mobile computer.
Now because it has a GSM chip for net access it can make and receive phone calls (and SMS) too, but it does not mean it's primary purpose is to be a phone (and based on the very basic phone functionality it definitely isn't, not that I care, I like the way it is...)
<joke>ps. MMS is for w*nkers</joke>