Though Nokia is the biggest phone manufacturer and its devices are the most sold over the world, but the company yielded its position in mobile market several years ago. Now Nokia and its CEO – Stephen Elop are doing everything to get back to the leading positions. Nokia hopes its newest Nokia N8 flagship will be the phone which can take on it such role, but as the results show the device is going to fail too as its predecessors did. Though the Nokia N8 sports great features and it is undoubtedly a high-end smartphone, but the N8 is still a step back from Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. Why? you ask! and The Fool tries complete the answer board for us.
The phone comes with 12MP camera capturing HQ photos and recording HD videos, and probably it’s the main feature with HDMI-OUT port promising great future for the handset. But there are many faster and nicer smartphones in the market with 8MP cameras, which is also a great option for cameraphone lovers. If the phone was launched in time and wasn’t delayed due to the numerous software bugs, perhaps the N8 would encourage a better shape.
But let’s not put all the blame on the camera, because the most vulnerable feature of this phone is its OS – Symbian^3. It is really behind of Microsoft’s Windows Phones 7. Though the developers have talked there are many changes in the newest version of their OS, but if we look at it with wide eyes – the Symbian^3 isn’t changed fundamentally. We can only hope that Symbian^3 is stop-gap solution, as Windows Mobile 6.5 was for Windows Phones 7 its time.
The main reason why Symbian is out from competition in smartphone marathon is its UI, and though it has got many good things, but it is not ready for real “battle”.
It seems Nokia wouldn’t have a problem with such amount of sold phones, as it still controls 41% of smartphones market share; according to Canaccord Genuity Nokia, LG, and Samsung combined sell about 400 million phones getting 32% of the mobile industry’s profits, while Apple selling only 17 million units made 39% of the industry’s profit.
Unlikely, but the main reason is the fact Nokia’s phones average price is $85 in comparison with Apple’s devices average price, which is $600. Although the two companies’ smartphones components have the same value- $187, but the N8 is sold for $549 without any contract.
More important components are powered by Broadcom, Texas Instruments and Synaptics – the last provides the touchscreen controller, Texas Instruments has a long history with Nokia and its name doesn’t make us surprise, Broadcom supplies the Nokia N8’s processor.
Though many analysts criticize N8 and its features, but Nokia announces the presale orders have surpassed expectations. This means the history is repeated; the company will have huge sale volume, but low profit, which is a recurrent headache for Nokia shareholders. The only way to this situation is Symbian^4 or Linux-based MeeGo, but if these two will be like Symbian^3, I really want to know what Nokia is going to do.
