No, it isn't. Apple has a vibrant business. It didn't shrivel up and die, it focused on a market segment it could keep, profit from, and thrive within. That's what counts. Being the biggest predator in the food chain isn't what counts.

Irrelevant. (and, they didn't lose the OS war, they (arguably) lost the war for mass market dominance, and that's assuming you consider the war to actually be over ... despite Apple publicly throwing in the towel in the late 90's, they've made steady gains since then; almost like they threw in the towel more to get people to shut up about useless topics, than because they actually lost an irrelevant contest)

Thanks for agreeing with me (that they didn't die), and disagreeing with yourself (that "that basically is what happened").

Nokia can find a different margin. And, as long as it's a profitable and sustainable one, that's all that counts. Focusing on who is "Winning", for mass market dominance, is for people who don't understand. As I already said, there's a decent market that both Apple and Google have not only "not addressed", but have outright banned from their OS. That's a good, solid, starting place for Nokia.

Apple is far from having superior hardware (in the mobile space). Nor would I say that their UI is better. The one and only thing their UI has that no one else has is "pinch to zoom/unzoom". Meh. They're ripe for being bested in that arena. Unlike the Mac, where their killer app IS the UI, on the iPhone, their killer app is iTunes, and iTunes only. That's the only "fools errand" in trying to compete with Apple (trying to dominate them in the media experience arena -- you can provide a better experience, you provide a sustainable experience, but at this point you probably wont ever dominate them). Everything else is fair game.

Then you didn't actually learn the lesson of Windows vs Apple. Because Apple didn't "lose". They're alive, profitable, thriving, and even growing. The lesson is: you don't have to be the biggest predator in order to thrive. The goal is not to be the biggest predator, the goal is to have the resources to thrive and carry on (in the form of sustainable profits).

People who think that "winning" requires "being the biggest predator" are short sighted.

Publishing professionals and artists also don't represent the mass market. Yet, Apple has managed to stay alive on that market for quite a while. And, with OS X, have even branched out into the world of IT professionals. Getting the mass market isn't what's required. What's required is having a big enough niche, that you can hold on to, so that you can (once again) have sustainable profits, so that you can thive and carry on. IT professionals probably wont be that niche all on its own, but it's a good place to start (which, it seems, is exactly where Nokia has started -- they just need to be sure that they don't lose it).

Everything else ("needing to beat Google and/or Apple", "that there's no market niche's left to capture", etc.) is either irrelevant, and/or complete BS.