Nokia has released their Q2 2010 results, reporting an operating profit of €295 million, with net sales €10.0billion (up 1% Year-on-Year). Nokia's device and service division's profits were €643 million, down 16% year on year. Margins in devices and services were 9.5% (down 2.7% YoY and down 2.6% QoQ). Converged devices sales (smartphones) were significantly up, at 24 million, compared with 16.9 million units in Q2 2009 (so up 42% YoY) and compared with 21.5 million units in Q1 2010 (up 12%, QoQ). As such, worldwide smartphone marketshare was 41%, stable sequentially and year on year. Full story and comments below.
One of the more interesting challenges for developers (especially those making games or leisure applications) is how much of their application to show in the 'demonstration' version of their pride and joy. Is there a magic point where 'full' and 'lite' versions cross over to help maximise sales?
We don't normally link to many blogger device reviews, but 'srikapardhi's write up of the Nokia N97 mini (Comes with Music edition) excels in lots of ways, in that it comes across as fresh, opinionated and pretty comprehensive. It's certainly a reminder not to write off the N97 mini after bad experiences with its larger predecessor. Oh, and be gentle with his use of English (not his first language).
What is your favourite game? Nokia are asking Ovi Store users that very question over on their Conversations Blog, partly because it’s a polite question to ask (especially as sales figures aren’t the same as satisfaction), but also because it’s a rather subtle way to say “look at these great games on Ovi!” Match this up with the special offer on a number of top games and you can see them building more momentum behind the store.
Guest writer Asri al-Baker reviews SyncLion, a new utility developed by a newcomer to the Symbian application market, Trismer Technology, designed to archive your SMS, MMS, Contacts and Notes into your standard email. Asri tests it to his Gmail setup and admires the innovative folder creation system that keeps this information separate from normal email.
Yesterday, a new non-profit organisation, Symbian Developer Co-operative (DevCo), announced its existence and that it had joined the Symbian Foundation. It aims 'to raise the profile of individuals within the Symbian community and give individuals a full voice in the governance of the Symbian platform'. As a member of the Symbian Foundation, Symbian Developer Cooperative has the same rights as any other member.
One of the interesting points made in this week's Insight Podcast was the large number of applications (primarily in the Ovi Store) that are only targeted at S60 5thEditon devices, leaving behind a large number of 3rd Edition owners. There are also a number of notable incidents where applications or games are even more restricted, to certain handsets. Read on for some thoughts...
Nokia's latest Symbian^1 device, the C6 has appeared on sale at Nokia's UK store. The C6 is a touchscreen phone with side-sliding QWERTY keyboard, featuring the same homescreen widgets as seen on the N97 and N97 mini. It was announced back in April along with the C3 and E5. The emphasis of the April release was to 'democratise' the market by bringing unlocked handset prices down to a more affordable level. Therefore, we're a little surprised at the £289 price tag on the C6. Of course, prices on the Nokia UK store are typically higher than 'street' retail prices, but this is still different from the £230 price tag we expected.
It all started when I updated my Smartphone Grid, deleting a couple of devices which I considered too old to recommend to people. Somewhat foolishly, I used the word 'obsolete' in my Twitter conversations with readers and this led to a (ahem) stimulating exchange of ideas around the whole idea of what happens when a smartphone is no longer sold and/or no longer updated. Read on for my thoughts on the subject of what happens when our beloved devices get to three score years and ten (in machine years!)
In All About Symbian Insight 127, we open with a discussion of Nokia's Terminal Mode, which is seeking to create an industry standard for the next generation of integration between cars and mobile phones. We follow this up with news of the Opera 10.1 beta, a sale of games in the Ovi Store, the announcement of furtiv's support for DropBox, the addition of Maps Reporter to Ovi Maps, and the opening of the Qt Developer Network. There's also a brief discussion of the number of software releases for S60 3rd Edition phones versus S60 5th Edition phones. You can listen to AAS Insight 127 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
The relationship between the network and manufacturer has always been one of the more opaque areas in the history of the mobile phone – and as the demands of modern smartphones push the capacity of the networks, the discussions and bartering on both sides continue behind closed doors. Which sometime open a little bit. Wired author Fred Vogelstein has posted a detailed look at the marriage of AT&T and Apple. See below for a quote.
While it has been around for some time, Nitobi’s contribution of PhoneGap to the Symbian Foundation is another small piece of the jigsaw for connected developers. PhoneGap is a framework that allows developers to work in HTML and Javascript, but still talk to the more advanced hardware in a modern smartphone. The PhoneGap API’s will now be available as part of the extensions to the Symbian Web Browser.
