Nokia's in dire straits despite launching the well-liked Lumia smartphone, writes Charles Arthur: "the rise first of Apple and more recently of cheap handsets running Google's free Android software has devastated the Finnish firm's profits and sales, cutting its share of the smartphone market from about 40% a few years ago to less than 10% in the first quarter of this year." [The Guardian]

  • jaduncan

    Much as everyone said at the time, Nokia shouldn’t have jumped off an about to bloom Meego platform onto the extremely hard concrete far below. It is now about halfway though impact, and the legs are already starting to fatally penetrate the chest cavity.

    I’d have purchased an N9 because it looked like a great phone, but right now I just hope that the patents don’t go anywhere too harmful after Elop a) finally kills off the company andb) utterly coincidentally goes back to a high position at MS.

    • http://twitter.com/tom_hiles Tom Hiles

      How would they have been any better if they’d stuck with Meego? What fundamental advantage would Meego have brought that would have helped them catch up with iPhone and Android? 
      In what way was it about to bloom? The same way that webOS was?  

  • Daneel

    N9, MeeGo yadda yadda….

    I’ve read that Nokia are really struggling to hold on to their loyal customers (i.e. people like me). Customers looking to upgrade from Symbian phones are not going for Windows ones.

    I know I’m only a sample of one but I think that to me at least, there’s a feeling of being a bit different by buying a Nokia (these days, at least), and I’d guess that sort of customer is going to be repelled by a tie-up with MS, no matter how good the underlying OS may be. Plus I don’t have a Windows computer, so I don’t want Windows on my phone. 

    I am still tempted to seek out an N9 when my N8 contract expires, even though it’ll be obsolete, because nothing else appeals at all except perhaps a Nexus.  I have a company ithing, but I want to de-Apple my life.

    Meh. I had high hopes for OpenMoko, then MeeGo/Maemo/whatever but they all died. I was hoping the Emblaze First Else might be an interesting choice but that seems to have been total vapourware.

  • Kenny PC

    nokia never should have gotten in bed with microsoft.  open source software is your friend.

  • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

    You people are smoking nuts. If it was running MeeGo, this product would have been DOA. As it is, it’s doing fine: 3m handsets sold. It’s just not enough to save it.

    Nokia had two choices: Android or Windows Phone.

    • http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

      It would have been DOA because Nokia deemed it DOA.  People who bought an N9 seem perfectly happy with them.

      To say they had “two choices” is absurd; they could have just as easily stuck with their obsolete OS and lost customers slowly over time (like RIM) and wouldn’t be in the dire situation they are now.

      • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

        Of course, slowly but surely losing customers is a much better business model than taking a risk that might save you.

        (Edit: Perhaps my sarcasometer has been playing up again…)

      • http://twitter.com/tom_hiles Tom Hiles

        Personally speaking I’ll have to take your word on that, as I’ve never met anyone who bought an N9.

  • m0g

    I’d never buy one, but I’m really hoping Windows Phone on Nokia remains a contender.

  • Raneru

    The answer to Nokias problem is simple:  Make a good android phone or die.

  • http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

    Nokia lost me when my 5300 was dying violently.