I agree to a point but Nokia could end up as a niche maker of high end smartphones within the next few years. Unless it really mucks up it will always have a big share of the mid/low end in the forseeable future.

will Nokia find it worth the expense and effort to invest in R n D if their market of the high end snartphone decreases?

Will they continue with very high smartphones if the market is not there?

I work for a large Tech Support department for an IT Firm and I have the only Nokia Phone in the department apart from our low end work issued phones we have in case we have to visit customers that ban camera phones (actually the newly issued of these are not nokia anymore) while we have work issue Blackberries and people have a mixture of Iphones,android and Blackberry no one seems to be even considering nokia now.

These are all people who are Technically aware of whats good and not good, can master devices and software, use and have an awareness of linux way above the norm. Also many have money to burn on gadgets.

To many of these people went for Nokia in the past and due to the lack of updates and as they put it flawed devices wont touch with a barge pole.

Even though these people can see whats happening with Apple and control and lower spec devices they still say when i ask "Well I dont want a prototype phone in my pocket"

Not just the N900 but everyday Nokia Smartphones such as the N97..

Yes make your Niche products like the N900 but lets face it Nokia could do with some devices which were like what they were renowned for in the 90's and early noughties user friendly, realiable devices with features that people want.

I'm jealous of the display resolution 960-by-640 (screen ) and "Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter"
http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Really annoying, yes. I remember when the president was elected here in Austria a while ago, the public broadcaster ORF opened its live coverage about the incoming results with the presenter showing an iPad to the camera, stressing it's the first device in the country and he got it exclusively from Apple for this show so that he could always have the latest information in his hands bla bla... how sick is that? wonder why nobody sued them.

The Iphone 4 is bloody expensive to im looking at over $1000 on Ebay and stuff.

...and the BBC are surposed to be impartial.

A lot of times, Apple get an existing technology and improves on them to the point that anyone, even non-techies, can use that technology. That's their bread and butter and it works most of the time.

Imagine how many PMPs (portable music players) were in the market when the iPod came along.

Now let me tackle some of your points:

Ask a non-techie mobile user what app can do video calling most probably he/she won't be able to name you one. A slightly techie person might say Skype, Fring, etc. After Apple's announcement and demo, give it a few months and non-techies will be saying 'the new iPhone.'

Apple has integrated video calling so you can switch to a video call anytime when you are talking with someone, of course when you're both in wifi. That kind of integration I haven't seen from any mobile device.

Sure. But the point here is, Apple has found a super-easy way for end-users to buy apps, ands as an effect, now cluttering their phone's desktop and even filling it to the limit, based on the iPhone's max limit of desktops and apps.

So what does Apple do new? You drag an app icon on to another app, and it automatically creates a folder for the two apps. It saves the step of creating a folder first, and then moving apps to that folder. Although they've just made it simple and easy to do, well, that's the point.

Here is I'm sure a lot of folks don't know how Apple does multitasking differently. Apple introduces a non-visual object to handle multi-tasking (as a long time object-oriented developer, I know this a lot).

Basically, if you need something to run in the background, why use a visual object when you don't need to display anything? What Apple proposes (they are proposing several options actually depending on need), is to kick in a non-visual code for the current application whenever you switch to another app, thereby making the original app still appear to be working at the background, and at the same time, efficiently saving resources. A bit techie but honestly, I like their implementation.

Yes, but what they introduce is something what will complement the 720p recording -- iMovie. Give it a few months and you'll see so many iPhone edited videos in YouTube that you will be sick with it. With that feature on a mobile device now, imagine how many bloggers can now cover events, upload and post a professional looking HD video on their blogs in a few minutes. Again, mass appeal.


Yes Apple's marketing is indeed great and Apple has a great salesman as their CEO, but if you look at it closely, they have are striving to create quality products that are targeted to the end-user (kids, parents, grandparents, executives) -- and that makes it easier for them to market their products.

I have always been a 'target the end-user' type of guy that's why I appreciate the innovation Apple brings. There are a lot of things companies can learn from Apple.

My 0.2 cents.

Two reasons why the N900 is less likely to be purchased as a business 'phone:

1) Push e-mail does not compete with Blackberry's solution.

2) No spellcheck

Fix those two issues (please!), and the N900 would be a lot more enticing for the business user:

1) Skype Integration
2) Video out (presentations)
3) Multitasking
4) Open

etc....

I'm curious to see if iphones' animations will be as smooth as before... I don't know what kind of CPU it has built in, but one of the claims for the N900 for not having as smooth animation was its higher resolution display...

Its not just marketing - Apple is the Blizzard of phones.

All gamers know that Blizzard is not very innovative - what they EXCEL at is taking existing concepts and polishing it to perfection and now they are one of the best game companies.

Apple does the same thing - when you get a Apple product its very refined, they have targets and they hit them WELL. Both hardware AND software for a complete PAIN FREE experience.

Contrast this with Nokia - release the hardware then dont do **** with software or support. Once they have the money screw it lets move to the next model - from their POV they make money churning hardware. They release gazillion models because they need to move hardware to make $$$.

Brain dead Apple consumers ? Of course there are - but I bet you its more about BUSY consumers who do not want to WASTE their already precious spare time dealing with technical issues.

Who the HELL wants to spend time uninstall all their widgets after upgrading to PR1.2 and reinstalling them to find which one drains their battery ?

Who the HELL wants to spend time getting emulators to run so they can play some games for the 5 minutes they are at a bus stop ?

etc etc

Apple's cult status is deserved because they provide a complete, simple and elegant experience. Their customers are HAPPY - they spend their time using their phones, not tinkering with it to get the phone to work.

Thats why they are a CULT. Apple has not disappointed most yet and thats why customers will blindly buy what they sell - because they know they will be looked after well regardless.

Nokia ? hah. They cant even get their own store up and running.

Nokia never had good marketing in USA. The Nokia models you can choose with the cellular plan is usually crappy or mid level models. Top shelf models were only available from some big online retailers, unlocked and to understand the product you should do your own research.

One advantage of Apple has is, they only have one base model phone. They don't work on zillions of different models. They don't work on different operating systems. So they can focus with all of its forces on one product.