You guys make Americans look so stupid. American education and knowledge of the world outside of the US is at an all time low.

The US market is the laggard of the converged device market. Most Americans with a smartphone are using their second or third smart device. Meanwhile, penetration in Europe is so high, many people have more than one device. We are new to smartphones and advanced features, so prefer the simple devices with training wheels and the least barrier to entry. Also, carriers' unfair practices limit what devices we have access too. All my friends are STILL shocked by the sight of an HTC Advantage, N90, or E90, when those were common phones abroad YEARS ago!

America isn't the high end market benchmark. Our market is perverted by having some of the highest priced devices with massive subsidies, making them compete with midrange devices. Also, carriers allow Apple to self market, while Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and others are forbidden, skewing sales figures and allowing uninformed folks to think it is the product to have because of the uptake.

I myself find an iPhone or Blackberry Storm II midrange devices. Nowhere is the far-better-than-everything-else power of an N90, E90, or N95. While you guys moan about a $500 phone, I’m used to $800-$1200 for devices, sometimes with a premium to have them imported into the US. I've never bought a device as cheap as the N900, so I'm pretty well versed in high end phones. So your cheap Nokia phone talk is inaccurate. Nokia had phones over $1000 retail at one time. Pricing doesn't define high end anyway, but hardware and features do.

Symbian is not pretty, but is the standard Apple and Android copies. 5th Edition was really 3rd Edition with a touch layer until they could retool for Maemo/Meego and S^4. Looks can be deceiving, but anyone depending on a device for its features and not needing a hand hold or training wheels will tell you why Symbian is king.

davidh101 said:
You just managed to insult the intelligence of most of the world with the latter half of that statement. In my time reviewing phones and doing analysis for Maemo-Freak, Symbian-Freak, PhoneReport, former Android-Freak.org, and other sites, there is no comparing the technical skill of the developers and users outside the US. I’ve met 15 year old hackers from China, Indian farm villagers that code right on their low end affordable Nokias with Python, Russian guys that can eat through “unbreakable” encryption, and on and on. These kids speak 3 and 5 languages, and will intellectually mop the floor with half of this community!

These are sometimes people that have never owned a PC, and will travelfar distances just to charge a device. They know what apps are, but honestly, many Symbian devices didn’t need them. In 2007, the N95-1 had an embedded YouTube client and Flash in the browser, for example. They mostly laugh at an iPhone for its many shortcomings compared to their more complete devices of lower cost, though marvel at its large screen, which they could probably never afford. I still wonder why we stupid Americans fall for marketing and think we are superior when we usually are inferior, just better off financially.

So say what you like, but there is a reason Nokia is tops in the game. Apple has had near 100% growth for years, and still can’t carry Nokia’s jock strap! Hats off to them, but its more than UI and iTunes lockin. Nokia never ignored the US. They stood up for carrier oppression of consumers and OEMs while we sat quiet and took it up the rear. It was a short term loss for Nokia, but they’re still number one, and now the carriers see what they missed out on. Look for Symbian and Maemo/MeeGo to invade the US carriers big time over the next 18 months. Then talk to us about this stuff...

GaryHT627 said:

MeeGo is NOT targeting the Android or iPhone space. That is Symbian’s job, and it has done so well, dominating both of those OSes combined. MeeGo is the next generation of computing, and just as likely to be powering the next Playstation, Vizio flatscreen TV, Clarion car media center and navigation unit, or netbook as a smartphone like device. Those OSes are miniaturized platforms with various compromises. MeeGo is on the level of OSX, Windows, and Ubuntu, and is poised to usurp at least one of them.