Smartphones fit the market as they are a large and easy arpu driver for carriers. Most carriers would sell only smartphones if they could.

glad i am not in one of the markets where phone selection is purely driven by carrier interests...

Most people don't care about smartphones or feature phones, they only care about what is hot and what is not. Apple, RIM and Android are hot, Nokia and their phones are not.

On my daily commute I see more iPhones and Blackberries than I see any other phone of a similar class - the next most common phones I see are low-end basic models. Rarely do I see a Nokia N-series phone.

People that would have been happy with a basic model phone a couple of years ago now carry iPhones - 5 of my friends fall into this category, none of them ever gave a sh1t about their mobile phone a couple of years ago but now all have iPhones. 2 years ago on my daily commute it was mostly basic model phones alongside corporate Blackberries - people even buy their own Blackberries now.

Mobile web usage is growing faster than ever (30% increase in Q3 and Q4 of 2008 compared with Q1/Q2 2008) and that has everything to do with the growing interest in North American devices (smartphones, feature phones or whatever we call them!)

The North American devices have grabbed the attention of the worldwide mobile phone using public in a way that European (ie. mostly Nokia and Symbian based) phones abjectly failed to do.

ah yes, the in crowd...

Nokia had monopoly in many European countries with over 80% market share and still do have in some places, but especially Samsung is moving fast currently. It's very common to go and just buy the newest Nokia.
Thought you are right there's no real global monopoly.

One thing that's a bit worrying what North America is bringing is the carrier control. Service providers need strong unlocked market next to them and some strong mobile phone manufacturers who can push example VOIP and other services.

Things change Nokia have been the top gun for 9-10 years and dominated for past 4 years. It's time for fresh ideas and clean the field. Maybe in 2 years Symbian^4 with Qt and Harmattan will make Nokia again far target for it's competition in smartphones maybe Apple will form portfolio of phones and crasp big amount of mid end market too or maybe Samsung who is the one really growing will make Android it's babey and take the smartphone market where it's stil small player.

Yes... the North American region is an odd one and how much pull the carriers have bothers me. Well that and the lack of savvy individuals that covet unlocked phones - they're just not interesting enough to people since they initially cost more than a subsidized phone. And the subsidized phones - say AT&T for instance - didn't even pick phones that were worth a damn... like Nokia N-Series other than that horrid N73 version that didn't even have wifi.

I have no faith in Nokia right now. Qt, et al is impressive tech, but it's not a mainstream tech yet. Thus, it will have to compete against a more familiar (to North America) iPhone, which is more known because of interface only commercials.

The more I re-read that original article, the more I think that person was going for a reaction only.