http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderd...ims-estimates/

“Our analysis of the handset market value suggests Nokia’s problems are mostly self-inflicted rather than cyclical,” he writes, while adding that “rising competition threatens Nokia’s 55% mid-end smartphone share,” and noting that “a high-end recovery is unlikely in the next 12 months.”

“A lack of compelling new high-end products and ongoing mid-end smartphone share loss means risk-reward is not compelling,”

--

IMHO Nokia was never under so much criticism than in the past 2 years, after iPhone launched and RIM got a good share of high end smartphones. And this criticism is not on one review site, but on many, and also some of this criticism is simply demolishing and demoralizing for Nokia. I will add to this that most of this destructive criticism came from USA, and there are reasons for this like "buy American" which is had in hand with avoid European Nokia and an American fanaticism and self over consideration where simple products with no real value or no better value than the competition are just popular like crazy (examples like "Sprite" pop drinks in general, coffee from Starbucks , fries and hamburgers from McDonalds, all of these products are just junk food, un healthy and with nothing special, but simply popular like crazy).

When will be N900 out to stop these critics that say Nokia did not prove in the high-end segment of the smarthphones?

whats really funny is that RIM is canadian...

and sadly, much of the english language tech press online is US focused, and the rest seems to more often then not parrot the US sources.

to bad i cant read german or french so i can tell if they to have this issue of parroting...

If I believed in Nokia I could probably make some money in stocks, like I did with Ford, which I recently quadrupled. ($2 a share to $8 a share) But I don't.

Sounds like someone at Goldman wants to start buying NOK.

I learned my lesson paying attention to analyst recommendations years ago. I know that there's a "Chinese wall" between the analyst desk and the trader floor, but I've seen too many coincidences over the years...

and RIM is one of the few that still manufacture a meaningful percentage of their handheld communications devices in US or Canada. Nothing new here as to the online tech press being mostly US based.

That may be your opinion, but there was equally vociferous criticism when the Motorola RAZR dominated its demographic. Nokia stock took a beating-- I bought low, held, and sold for more than twice my purchase price.

I'm doing it again.

I could joke about this (after all, my dad was Canadian) but the fact is they get the US. They may not understand or agree with us, but they get us.

Yes, there is not much difference between Canadians and much of the US (except for the French Canadians in Quebec).

The RAZR is the worst phone I've ever owned. The software sucked big time. I gave mine away while still in contract!

However, Textrat's point remains that I remember^ that well... It also fits in with my criticism of folks knee jerk reaction to the iPhones success as a basis in the design of competing handsets.

You can not judge acceptance of all the iPhones features based on just sales numbers. Like the Razr many bought it because it was the coolest phone on the market at the time. Also like the Razr some will never use all of its features anyway.

The Razr raised the expectation of the price that North American customers were willing to pay for a phone. The Razr also raised the expectation of service providers for sales for a single model of handset.
The thing is, those North American sales came with a 2 year service contract from those providers. At the time some thought the Razor so dang cool that they paid $200 early termination fees to their existing carriers to jump ship because they didn't offer the thing. This made its cost of ownership for some even higher but it added more sales within a specific time "window", if you will.

When the honeymoon was over and the glow of excitement wore off Razr owners were left with just a phone and about 18 months left on a service providers contract.

Apple released the iPhone just about the time those first contacts expired. I suspect a bell curve graph of both Razr and iPhone sales would line up pretty closely... both sales windows opening and closing two years apart. Timing is everything.

***

IMHO, if Nokia wants to be a player in the North American Market they need to:

1. Raise some expectations.

2. Have a product ready for market when that next window of sales opens.

3. Pay no attention to analysts opinion in this market.
BTW, some of these same analysts were played by Tim Donahue when he pumped, and then dumped Nextel's stock on Sprint.