Superheroes always have their anti-heroes, otherwise their existence becomes senseless. Recall any comics and you’ll see there are always super heroes loved by everyone and evil heroes rejected by the public. And when the main hero triumphs over, the story ends, because the hero can’t go on without a competition — that’s the credo of his life. The same thing happened with Finnish mobile manufacturer, Nokia. This company was leading in all phone markets and lost its glory. At the moment it’s difficult to imagine Nokia was once popular in the US, but it was so and US senior citizens will confirm my words. Anyway, it’s never easy to permanently dethrone a king unless you decapitate him, as he can always come back and turn everything over.

As you guessed, Nokia popped off because it was alone in the long run, in other words Nokia began dying as it always happens with superheroes. Years passed and the public came up with new heroes calling them Apple and Android. Many people started to worship them and many people found a new embodiment of God in them (forgetting their former idol, Nokia).

Apple and Android are the right mapping of our times; the Cupertino-based company is controlling everything in its activity, inside the company everything is planned in details and all people obey. In short, Apple is a perfect example of discipline. On the other hand, we are dealing with Google, which is known for its democratic views, and involves people by its openness. In practice, such projects always succeed and Android wasn’t an exception. As a result Google’s mobile operating system dominates the market and has already conquered half of the world.

Small companies try to preserve their existence in this panorama, and manage to stand the competition. But on the whole, big companies take the lion part. The same was with Nokia (though we can’t call it “a small company,” in this case its popularity doesn’t mean anything). And in the last few years the “once most popular mobile brand in the world” was not being able to get back its glory. Want it or not, Nokia’s back, and people have already started consuming Mango instead of Apple and sweetmeats.

Chapter 1: Discovering the tumor

Yes, Nokia spared no effort to find out why US smartphone users dislike this brand. If this “disliking” referred to the US and only the company would probably decide to leave it in peace and focus on other regions. Sadly though, the tumor spread and the countries where Nokia was once a leader began denying Nokia products.

Nokia forgave its competitors for all these losses, but when European mobile operators started preferring Android- and iOS-based smartphones, Nokia decided to act, i.e. take certain steps. By “steps” I mean the decision Nokia had to make concerning the choice of the operating system its handsets should run to win the battle.

This was the question of the day, because Nokia realized its main problems come from Symbian^3, while it was thought to be the key feature of Nokia smartphones. Beyond doubt, it was hard for Nokia to ban its native platform and choose another one. Moreover, it had a limited choice — either Android or Windows Phone. We even didn’t discuss iOS, because Apple will rather dig its own grave than share iOS with anyone. Well, many people thought Nokia tended to merge with Android — this would be the biggest coalition in the mobile history. But Nokia, as always, preferred to attack on different fronts at a time. (Such a strategy always makes a panic among enemies.) It worked. Nokia decided to treat the disease using several methods simultaneously.

Chapter 2: Getting rid of the disease

Before that Nokia had invited Stephen Elop, who was the president of the Microsoft Business Division at that time. This person is known for his “plain mind’ and the ability to make right decisions in difficult situations. Nokia haters called Elop a mole and assumed he agreed to take up that position to sell the Finnish company to Microsoft.

In contrary to this, Elop sold his shares of Microsoft and completely got involved in Nokia’s problem. There was no time and the “doctor” had to start the surgery immediately. He started.

While many fake friends were waiting for Nokia’s death, those who sincerely believed in Nokia knew it’ll come back.

Secondly, Nokia (no, starting here we must say Stephen Elop) analyzed the opportunities of both operating systems and came to a conclusion Android devices act and look the same. So if Nokia had chosen Google, it’d become the next bucket filling water into Google’s mill. Microsoft was in a more beneficial position as there were no many manufacturers cooperating with it and Nokia had all chances to become its main partner. I guess you understand what it means. Finally their negotiations successfully ended and the world saw one of the biggest unions.

This announcement was made back in April and from that time on the entire mobile world (including Nokia fans) didn’t believe the Finnish company could succeed. Sometimes it seems to me I was the only one who believed in Nokia (not being devoted to it at all).

Now you probably think I’ll say Nokia launched the Lumia 800 and the story ends. I must disappoint you, as Nokia was slier — it announced the Nokia N9. A phone with a stunning and buttonless design, but with one “defect.” A defect called MeeGo. Of course, this is a pretty nice platform, but MeeGo didn’t have future and the N9 is the first and the last smartphone with this operating system. Geeks were gradually getting interested in what phone the whole world was talking about, and wondered when it would be launched. Well, Nokia announced the list where its new flagship should appear. There was joy all around, but many people were more happy for another thing — they wanted this phone to “criticize” Nokia’s product once again. But it didn’t happen as Nokia turned out to be smarter and left out a lot of countries from that  list. As a result, the Nokia N9 went only to those countries, where Nokia remained a leader. Almost the whole Europe and the US were looking forward to the day Nokia would launch the phone in their territory, while Nokia was firm in its decision.

When almost all conversations stopped about why Nokia isn’t offering the N9 in their countries, the company announced its first Windows Phone Mango-flavored design, the Nokia Lumia 800, a phone with the same appearance as the N9, but with Mango inside. Yes, Nokia blew all minds up.

The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 are smartphones in which nobody can pick holes. They are unique in terms of design and exceed many other smartphones on the market. Plus, WP Mango has come with many improvements and even Android lovers accept the huge job Microsoft developers have done.

Having a perfect product (I mean a high-end smartphone with a perfect OS) both companies started its promotion. I have no wish to introduce sales numbers in the UK or in other countries where this handset is launched, because you know it better than me, but I want to note — Nokia didn’t launch the Lumia 800 in the US. Caprice? Call it however you want, I think this is the most correct strategy — you do not like Nokia, so it’s OK, right?

Chapter 3: New life

Many geeks used to think Nokia has a goal to snatch Android and iOS users, but Stephen Elop is smarter than you think, guys. To clarify the situation, Stephen Elop announced Nokia is aimed at first-time users. Let each platform remain with its users, Nokia will attract those who will hold smartphones in their hands for the first time in their life. Do you know what happened? The second biggest carrier in the US is already in negotiations with Nokia and most likely will offer the Lumia 900 4G next year. Yup, Nokia hit the target!

Plus, Nokia is actively working on Symbian and it will soon launch Belle update. MeeGo is not forgotten as well, and though there are rumors we’ll see other devices running this OS, the N9 remains very popular. Moreover, it has already got PR1.2 update. Not that cool?

Totally, Nokia didn’t make real changes in its devices. I mean if you look at the posts where Nokia’s old and new handsets are compared with the best products on the market, you’ll see their key features are almost the same. They are the following:

• Stunning style
• Beautiful screen
• Great camera
• Integrated social networking
• Bing Music
• Easy browsing
• Microsoft Office
• Free sat-nav
• Powerhouse performance
• ample storage.

So what can US consumers say against the Nokia Lumia 800? I guess you’ll keep silent, folks, because this handset is perfect.

Google has announced about its decision to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion a few days ago, and currently everyone is speaking about this. Why does Google need Motorola that much? What will it get from this deal? And how will this acquisition affect the other smartphone manufacturers like Nokia, HTC, Samsung and others?

First of all, according to experts, this acquisition will boost Google’s Android OS’s growth in the smartphone market. Second, it can solve many of the patent problems Google has with Microsoft and Apple at the moment. There is also an opinion that this deal will help Google defend the Android ecosystem, too, writes news.brothersoft.com.

So the acquisition will give Google a number of new opportunities and seems to be really beneficial. However, Stephen Elop, Nokia’s current CEO, is sure that if Google starts giving preference to Motorola, it will have a really negative impact on the other manufacturers working on Android-based smartphones (like HTC or Samsung).

“If I happened to be someone who was an Android manufacturer or an operator, or anyone with a stake in that environment, I would be picking up my phone and calling certain executives at Google and say ‘I see signs of danger ahead’,” he said during an event in Helsinki, Finland.

Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, said that the acquisition of Motorola will not give the latter any special advantages compared to other Android-based smartphone manufacturers – Motorola will be run “as a separate business,” and Android will remain an open platform.

Even if Google says so, there is still a chance that Google will prefer Motorola to make the next Nexus device, which will be unfair to the other manufacturers. Andy Rubin, Android chief, however, said that this deal was not going to impact the Nexus program. “We select, around Christmas-time each year, a manufacturer to release a phone. After the acquisition, Motorola will be a part of that bidding process and lead device process,” he said.

If Google isn’t careful enough and if it really gives preference to Motorola to make the next Nexus, this can anger the other Android-phone manufacturers, and they can abandon Android in favor of Windows Phone or any other OS.

In this situation Elop, Nokia’s CEO, thinks that Nokia has made a wise decision to choose Windows Phone over Android. Well, maybe Nokia’s cooperation with Microsoft will be more stable, and if something goes wrong with Google and its cooperation with its partners, it will give WP and Nokia a chance to become very popular in a short period of time.

Yesterday when I wrote about the rumors that Nokia will be sold to Samsung, I wasn’t sure whether I should believe those rumors or not. Fortunately, yesterday Nokia CEO Stephen Elop spoke at the Open Mobile Summit in London announcing that Nokia is not for sale.

I definitely like such statements! And there is no need to think what the spokesperson meant or whether there was something under the line. Moreover, Stephen Elop said people are tired of seeing iOS- and Android-powered smartphones everywhere, and Nokia’s future Microsoft-based devices will be a good alternative for all those who wish something new.

Plus, when he was asked whether some Nokia’s unique services will be used in other Windows Phone handsets, Elop answered that it is quite desirable. Truly, it will help both companies enlarge their market shares and become more popular. Generally, the question referred to the offline voice-guided navigation with Ovi Maps, and this anxiety is clear, because Google will offer Google Maps with free offline navigational capabilities soon, so Nokia must prepare something not to lag behind Google.

I think there will be some cooperation between Samsung and Microsoft app- and service-level, nothing more, and all these conversations made people think Microsoft and Samsung are hungry to ingest Nokia. However, Stephen Elop has come to Nokia not for this, right?

Source

Several months have passed since Nokia announced its switching to Windows Phone from Symbian, but the conversations around this don’t stop. Geeks wonder why the Finnish company chose Microsoft’s platform instead of Google’s Android, which dominates in the market nowadays. There are many non-official versions, but recently Nokia CEO Stephen Elop answered this question.

While many tech specialists and simple users are thinking Nokia’s decision was conditioned with Elop’s previous post, i.e. he preferred Windows Phone because he had been working in Microsoft and knew its inner world. So it’ll be easier to negotiate with Microsoft than with Google. I remember there was a time when people were saying Stephen Elop is a mole, but be honest and say Elop has come to Nokia in a very difficult time, so it is unfair to accuse him. Anyway, Elop is a professional and his decisions are based on experience and knowledge.

In his interview to D9 on Wednesday afternoon Elop said:

“The biggest question for us was what degree of influence could we have over Android to ensure differentiation. Is sustainable long-term differentiation possible with Android? We felt the opportunity for that was better with Windows Phone?”

To be honest, I have such thoughts, too, but without logical justifications. I just thought Microsoft has more experience than Google and Android’s success is short-term. However, Elop added “This is no longer a battle of devices, it is a war of ecosystems.” And truly Microsoft can beat Google with its strategy, because it is in software market for a long time and knows how to satisfy users.

No one can say whether Elop was wrong or right, only time will show.

Source

2012 is going to be a sad year for the Ovi brand. The brand services, which appeared in 2008, will be rebranded back to Nokia. The services will not face any kind of content changes, the only difference is the brand name.

“We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. By centralizing our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture – while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike”, announced Jerri Devard, Nokia EVP and Chief Marketing Officer.

The manufacturer has plans to make a few enhancements for its map program. “Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.” This means that the cooperation with Microsoft will lead the manufacturer to a whole new level of service. There’s a chance that the new service will be capable of handling all of the service options that have been available on one of the most popular map services — Bing.

Some even claim that the major shift to Microsoft instead of Google is conditioned with the idea that Google refused to help Nokia in the service improvement. The result of the Microsoft and Nokia cooperation will not only influence the improvement of the Nokia products but the Windows Phone 7 OS itself. This means that a whole list of products based on this OS will get a better map service!!!

Via

Nowadays every blogger thinks it is his duty to talk about Nokia’s failure, but not all of them can provide weighted judgments about this. The Finnish company is the biggest mobile manufacturer in the world, and on some markets it still dominates (for example, on the mobile phone market), while on some other markets it’s losing its positions, being busy with “connecting people” instead of concentrating on the market needs.

Nokia’s humanitarian activity is welcomed by everyone undoubtedly, but it reflects badly on the company’s financial indexes. So Nokia needs to discover new markets where the other manufacturers either haven’t reached yet or don’t even want to reach. It will be logical for Nokia to observe which countries or regions have the biggest population and to try to win their hearts, thereby increasing the total sales rate and getting more profit.

According to IDC, Nokia’s market share dropped in Q1 2011 from 34.7 percent to 29.2 percent compared to the same period in 2010. This was the first time when the company’s results fell below 30 percent during the last 10 years. Another indicator shows even worse results — the company’s pre-tax profit dropped from €411 million to €403 million. Taking into account this and other data, Nokia announced it was going to cut 4000 jobs (mainly in Denmark, Finland and the UK).

So what do you think, what regions Nokia is going to focus on – India, the U.S., Russia? No, China can be the Noah’s Ark for Nokia. According to the reports from March, 2011, there are over 250 million people in China using Nokia devices, which is the 29.6 percent of China’s mobile phone market.  Moreover, according to Morgan Stanley’s latest AlphaWise survey of China’s handset market, about 87 percent of mobile phone users in China want to get a 3G handset as their next phone. 30 percent of them wish to have an iPhone, 25 percent want a Nokia device, 7 percent want an HTC handset, 5 percent want a Samsung, 4 percent want a Motorola device and 3 percent are thinking about a Blackberry.

It was expected that the iPhone would be the dream of many Chinese users, and it is nice that Nokia is on the second position. Here Nokia is in a beneficial position as in 2008 Apple ignored the Chinese market, and Google is neutral and does not interfere in their affairs. So the Chinese 889 million market is quite an attractive deal for Nokia, especially if we take into account the fact that the Chinese economy is growing very quickly.

Plus, Nokia’s Ovi Store is the most popular mobile app service in the country, and, according to Chinese analyst house iResearch, 65.2 percent of Chinese mobile users “regularly” access the store.

I guess there is nothing to add, as the numbers talk for themselves. Seems like China can show Nokia a way out if this difficult situation.

Source

There are rumors that Google is now working on a mobile application for Android smartphones that can recognize people’s faces and bind them with their online profiles. In other words, you take a photo of some person, and the application gives you something like a business card for that person that includes information about his/her posts in Facebook, photos from Flickr, Picasa and many other things.

These recognition technologies will probably be based on the developments of the Google Goggles Web service (that can recognize barcodes, books, CDs, works of art, buildings and other structures from the photos you take), the examination system of Like.com (that helps to find items similar to the ones on pictures) and the face recognition of Picasa.

I think many people will find such an app very useful. Remember, how many times did you see a person with a very familiar face walking on the street? Every time you thought, “Oh, if only I could recall his/her name…” With this app you can just take a photo of the person and find out his/her name…

I’m sure many, many people would really like to have this application (if it’s ever released, of course). But there are also many people who don’t want anyone to see their personal information. So the confidentiality of the identity is a very important part of the application, and if it’s released, I guess consent of people for the use of their personal data will be required.

Here is how the system will probably work:

However, we are not yet sure this “all-seeing” application will really be released. Let’s wait and see.

Source

Especially for Nokia audience we have shared here a quick video guide on how to sync your Gmail Calendar and Contacts with Symbian^3 devices. The video rolls out the sync method on the Nokia N8 handset, but it is all the same with all Symbian^3 powered handsets. Stay tuned for more!

Firstly make sure you have your ‘Google Sync’ option enabled in Service Settings > Mobile.

Go on with the following steps:

• Create New Mailbox and select the Mail for Exchange option.
• Enter your details leaving the Domain option blank.
• Tap Next until you see the Mail for Exchange Server option and enter m.google.com.
• Finally decide what and how to sync and you’re done.

Check out the video to do everything correctly!

Nokia Corp.’s new chief executive Stephen Elop is deciding upon the fate of Nokia adopting a go-it-alone strategy: that is proceeding a go-it-alone strategy for operating systems instead of adopting Google Inc.’s Android. Is it a big bet?

Meanwhile Nokia is pushing forward its new MeeGo operating system , we are still wondering how the platform is going to help the phone giant to regain its decreasing share in some of  the biggest markets of the world including U. S.  where Apple ’s iPhone and Google have taken control over  the smartphone business.

The fact the Google’s Andriod platform, which in recent two years has become the world’s second largest OS, puts Nokia in front of a big dilemma: stick to its independent platforms or join the Android?

Hakim Kriout, a New York-based portfolio manager at Grigsby & Associates Inc. that  holds that Nokia shares said that the it is still not late for Nokia to go-ahead for Android.

Nokia got a chance to get a permission to have Chinese maps posted for the Ovi Maps. This is due to the new law regulation which took place in June 2010. This announcement is not final yet but most likely it will turn into reality.

As for some of the other companies, then we must say that Microsoft and Google didn’t even have submitted an application for their mapping services, while there are some other twenty-six companies which are also waiting either for the final or the pre-approval.

The fact that Nokia is getting a chance to overcome the problems faced by Google is great. At least at this rather hard moment the company has something to feel confident about.