Yup but if you add sales numbers no two or three smartphone makers can rival nokia altogether. If you add phones to that too, then it's nokia and some other companies with puny sales. Then there's the constantly expanding universe, but that doesn't mean that the Milky Way is getting smaller - hence Nokia's position allows them to continuously evolve since the cash flow is in no way decreasing. As for slipping, N97 played a major role - it was expected to be a powerhouse and instead it was just another smartphone with a fancy design. Also nokia never used to release a "flagship" a year - competition does them good, N97 should have been like N8 IMHO. But nokia never claimed it as the next big thing in smartphones, it was rumours and impatient users that made it seem so and their dissapointment can only be blamed on their own speculations.