Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

It's possible. Cincinnati Bell, for example, has carried some nice mid-level phones like the Nokia 5800. I don't know how that carrier is with crippling phones in general, but as a point of comparison both Cin Bell and T-mo carry a version of the Sony Ericsson TM-506. Reportedly, the Cin Bell version is much less crippled than the T-mo version (for example, the Cin Bell version retains access to the FM Radio, while the T-mobile version blocks it for some bizarre reason).

I would venture to guess that a small regional carrier would be less likely to cripple a phone simply because they wouldn't have the leverage that a national carrier would have to demand customization.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Maemo doesn't have similar environment as S60 and S40 for making operator variants. So if operator demands specific backgrounds, custom menus, icons and colours for GUI, answer is: No can do. This might cause some cough in operators, but this doesn't stop them to take N900 to selections like iPhone case. iPhone doesn't have any operator/carrier specific icons/menus and operators happily sell it.

For iPhone CDMA version I have great doubts...CDMA=Qualcomm and iPhone CDMA = royalties to Qualcomm, which doesn't sound like Apple style.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

THE US operator selling it doesn't really need branding. If you have an iPhone in the US they're 99.99% certain you are on At&t. They also have some pull on what makes it into the app store. That's why there's no Google voice. Sure you can jailbreak it, but you might end up making a nice shiny paper weight. Comparing the iPhone to the N900 is basically saying the N900 is jailbroken from the factory. I can see why the US carriers are hesitant on bringing this phone stateside. They all look at At&t's problems with the iPhone. No one thought it would take off like it did, not they are playing catch up to keep up with the network load.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Not the issue at all.

You will never find a Business person who worries about "too many sales" = too much revenue

Thats what techies worry about silly. Im Sure if TMO thought they could increase market share by 50% the CEO would give his let testicle and let someone else worry about the network problems. :p

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

iPhone was a sure sell, the iPod created so much hype and took over, the iPhone was a no brainer to carry. Nokia hasn't had any massive market buzz in the US yet, the n97 was a quiet launch, the n95s and the e-series phones were just "there", people liked them, but nokia has never had a real hype/buzz beyond people who are tech heads.

Nokia strategy in North America needs to change. Starting with at least making their products available in Canada. *sigh.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

I don't disagree, Nokia's marketing in the US sucks. The challenge is that they don't often partner with carriers and selling a phone for >$600 doesn't go over well in the states. If they got carriers to promote their high end phones AND they promoted themselves they might make a dent in the market.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

I rwad an interview with someone from Nokia and that person (don't remember its exact position) a director of sales or mktg for North-America said Nokia wants to be #1 in US...

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

They had better get busy big-time. There's only room for so many players in the game. Right now it's a 3-way competition between Apple, RIM and Android with Palm struggling to stay on the roster. The more entrenched those become the harder it will be to get noticed. Time's a-wastin'...

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

There's a long road from some marketing guy talking smack to having even a noticeable presence in the US market.

The only place I regularly see a large number of Nokia phones is in the displays for prepaid phones at discount stores. The major carriers offer one or two models of Nokia phones at a given time, and they're usually low-end phones. Nokia smartphones have no mindshare among the general public. The only Nokia smartphone for sale by a major carrier at this moment is the "Surge", at AT&T.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Not true. Check the E71x.
.
The problem isn't with Nokia, it's the deplorable position and power of the carriers......collusion, MASSIVE amounts of lobbying, the hold-over of the Ma Bell mentality, etc.
Nokia's vision of the industry is completely at odds with the U.S. tel-co's practices. Sure, Nokia throws out a little sacrificial lamb of a phone every now & again, and I know that there's a U.S. division of Nokia that I imagine "must" continue to try and work with the U.S. carriers.
But basically, Nokia is the only handset device manufacturer that has the ways and means to be able to tell the U.S. carriers, "FU."