Nokia is no more

[King 277]

Today Nokia becomes Windows Mobile.Sad day really as Nokia phones were the shit, fantastic battery life, easy to use and just an all round great phone.

 

 

 

 

Nokia has completed the 5.44 billion euro (£4.47 billion) sale of its troubled mobile phone and services division to Microsoft.t ends a chapter in the former world leading mobile phone maker's history that began with paper making in 1865.

 

The closure of the deal, which includes a licence to a portfolio of Nokia patents to Microsoft, follows delays in global regulatory approvals, and ends the production of mobile phones by the Finnish company, which had led the field for more than a decade, peaking with a 40% global market share in 2008.

 

Nokia said the total transaction price would be "slightly higher" than when it was originally announced on September 3 because of adjustments made for net working capital and cash earnings. The deal was to have closed during the first quarter but was held up because of delays in regulatory approvals worldwide.

 

The company will now focus on networks, mapping services and technology development and licences, and said it will give more details of the deal and future plans when it releases first-quarter earnings on April 29 - the last report to include the ailing devices and services division.

 

"The new Nokia can now go forward and concentrate on its remaining assets," said Neil Mawston, from Strategy Analytics, near London. "It has one of the best IPR (intellectual property rights) assets in the entire industry and it has good mapping services."

 

Nokia said two plants will remain outside the deal - a manufacturing unit in Chennai, India, subject to an asset freeze by Indian tax authorities, and the Masan plant in South Korea, which it plans to shut down. The adjustments have no impact on the deal and Nokia "will be materially compensated for any retained liabilities", the company said.

 

Microsoft said it will acquire some 25,000 Nokia employees in 50 countries. More than 4,000 in Finland will transfer to Microsoft and the Nokia headquarters in Espoo, near the Finnish capital, Helsinki, will be taken over by the US giant.

 

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will serve as executive vice president of the Microsoft Devices Unit, which will include Nokia's former Lumia smartphones and tablets, Microsoft said.

[Guest Boyo]

Yeah I remember when Nokia was the biggest brand on the planet by a country mile. Well, it seemed like it anyway. Coca-Cola, Nike. McDonalds, Nokia, you didn't get much bigger than that. They were at the forefont of mobile phone design and development. I remember the world-unifying 3210, then the tiny 8210, then the tri-band 7-something-50, then the "slidey" 7650 cameraphone, and the metal 8910, the fantastic 6350 all-rounder, and there was also one which had a fold out QWERTY keyboard.

 

It all went to pot with the N-GAGE, and then they just compounded it with that dreadful iPhone rival. I can't even remember what it's called.

 

This is huge news though. If you're like me and your first mobile phone was one of the first (mass market) mobile phones, this is a bit like when we lost Woolworths :(.

 

Cheers!

[Guest The Beltster]

Blasphemy to compare it to losing Woolworths. Nokia has sucked for years, its their own fault. Woolies was always awesome, even when they were a rip off!

[King 277]

Still though even today people want small cheap easy to use phones, just for making calls and texting, that's the market they should have aimed for, the older generation.

[Evil Gringo 279]

We use Nokia 3410's, old as hell as they are (it was my first mobile when I was in college, 11 years ago) because the average age of a haulage driver is 45+ and most of them find it harder to use more complex newer phones.

 

Add in the fact that they are as tough as hell, cheap to run, easy to charge and still with better battery life then newer phones, lack internet use to keep running costs down even further and easy and cheap to pick up then they are perfect for in cab phones.

 

If they stayed in that business model (for instance my mum and dad still use the generation of Nokia phones before they got in bed with Windows and started making poor smart phones) they would have made enough money to stay afloat.

 

But the fact is unless a phone has Samsung or Apple on it the fact is most people don't want one at all. The iPhone has cornered the world's imagination and is now the image of a mobile phone. In films, television shows, hell even in computer games, all the characters when they use a mobile bar Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, use a bloody iPhone. When that kind of market saturation and mass product placement happens then you have no chance unless you find a niche which Nokia ignored and tried to go with the flow and become an alternative to iPhone despite that niche already being filled by Samsung.

[dsrchris 190]

I've still got a 3210e. And it still works. And it still has "Raining Blood" as it's ringtone (it took me ages to program it in using the composer function!)

[Evil Gringo 279]

I loved the fact that used to have to create your own ring tones. I had the original Spiderman theme tune as my message tone and the theme from Legend of Zelda as my ringtone on my 3410.

 

Fun fact: You can actually with a good throw get a 3410 to go through a car windscreen - however the antenna kit at the top of the phone that receives the signal (above the screen, under the power button) will not survive. Nor will the person like it who owns the car.

[King 277]

Making your own ringtone was so easy on a Nokia, compared to an iPhone which is quite annoying to do.

[Evil Gringo 279]

Reason being that everything 'new and better' really means more complex.

 

Don't get me wrong, touch screen tech is awesome and made everything easy in theory but then the people who make the operating systems want to bombard you with choices and options and clutter.

 

Sometimes the simple approach is the better one - like its been said before once Nokia moved away from that niche they lost it.

[King 277]

I think Nokia still has a market today, obviously not as big as before but it's still out there, shame but this just wasn't just a small company that got swallowed up by the big boys, Nokia was HUGE.

[Guest Boyo]

Give it 10 years or so, 20 tops, and unthinkable as it is now, the same thing that's happening to Nokia will probably happen to Apple.

 

Cheers!

[dsrchris 190]

Give it 10 years and all the hipsters will be carrying round old 3210s (that STILL work) and being entirely too trendy for touchscreens, or Google Contact Lenses or whatever.

[Evil Gringo 279]

Give it 10 years or so, 20 tops, and unthinkable as it is now, the same thing that's happening to Nokia will probably happen to Apple.

 

Cheers!

 

I can actually see this because Apple used to start trends and now they are just recycling the same old stuff with the idea that a slight increase in processor speed or memory is the same as an actual new phone.

 

For instance the iPhone4 became the iPhone4s because they added Siri, hence the S - then they made the phone taller but slimmer, changed the resolution of the screen and sped it up so we got the iPhone5 but then what? The iPhone5s - how is this an S? Siri is included already and has been since the 4s so how is it different? Why does it mean paying the same full price again? Then the iPhone5c - oh wow, the phone is a different colour and made from cheaper material but still is pretty much the same price as my 5 despite no real change bar something I could have done with a £1 phone cover off eBay.

 

Since the death of Jobs they have just tweaked or recycled existing designs with the iPad and iPhone, after all it could be argued they have reached the peak of what they can do given the existing tech so why just bring out a 'new' phone that isn't actually that new every 18 months or so? Sure it will make you money now but it will burn the consumers faith and trust in you eventually.

 

If their current path carries on with how they release phones and the actual lies about them being 'new' then Apple could well get passed by - they need to start researching what they can do tomorrow rather then just rehashing today.

[Guest Edgehead]

I still have an old Nokia which I use at work & I still regularly play Snake on it :lol

[Maxximus 353]

I got a Nokia in the Summer of 2000 and had that phone for almost 4 years with no problems. I had it tricked out with an old school tribal tattoo case and multiple heavy metal ringtones. Good times.

[Guest Boyo]

Nokia made THE best gadget in the world for 5 or 6 years or so? Not much longer than that. Their gadget, due to the price, design, functionality etc etc meant that once they invented it (3210 - I'm not saying they invented mobile phones but they made the breakthrough model) they essentially offered the same thing over and over again, year after year, only with more functions and a sleeker look, until it came to pass they had gone as far as they could as their key selling points were now redundant.

 

Apple are doing exactly the same thing now. Only they've had two 3210's. First came the iPod, then came the iPhone. Sure, they've had other products but nothing as revolutionary as these two.

 

But, same as Nokia, 8 years later they're not actually offering anything different to what they were when they first brought out the iPhone. It's essentially the same thing, save for ever-fanciful features.

 

I don't know what the next Apple is, but someone's going to invent something so revolutionary it will make the retina screen look like Stone Age cave drawings.

 

And just like Nokia and Apple, Samsung will just copy them, undercut them, and make a ton of money.

 

Cheers!

[etz 78]

I'm no fan of Apple, and many of their patents are complete bullshit, but their R&D spending is massive. It's unlikely they'll pioneer the next big thing, but then they have never, ever done that at all in the past, so that's hardly relevant.

 

People talk about the ipod and iphone as revolutionary, but they really weren't from a technical standpoint. They were refinements on what other people had already made, and most of those refinements were cosmetic and UI based. The only "revolutionary" thing about them was the volume they sold at their price point, and that was a marketing victory, not a revolution in the technology itself. I had a smartphone that could play music and videos in 2004, a full 4 years before the iPhone.

 

What they will do, what they are good at, is taking the then current big thing, make it more user friendly and "cool", pretend they invented it, market the **** out of it, and make billions.

[Guest The Beltster]

Apple are awesome.

[Guest Magic]

Yeah, Apple aren't the Kings of Tech, they're the Kings of Marketing and Branding. That's the difference and why they will last longer than Nokia ever did. Regardless of the product, they can make you want to buy it more than Nokia ever could. Personally, give me an android Samsung phone over and Iphone any day. I find them much more user friendly. I don't like Apple's interface or iOS. Last time I had a shot of my friends Iphone, I genuinely didn't know what I was doing with it, too convoluted for my tastes. Maybe its just me being a grumpy old man again, that's a distinct possibility, but meh.. :lol

 

The one Apple product I do like is the Ipod Classic. Plenty of hard disk space, simple design, not over done with silly gimmicks that I'm not interested in. The only Apple product I'd consider owning.

[King 277]

My 4S is the best phone I ever had, Apple would have to bring out something ground breaking for me to even consider changing it.

 

Although I must say that I think the MP3 player is up there as one of the greatest inventions ever, if any of you guys remember the Sony Walkman you know what I'm on about :lol

[Guest Magic]

I have the S4 mini and I feel the same. Was the first proper smartphone I had and I love it. I vaguely recall have a cassette player walkman in the mid 90's! Good times! :lol

[Evil Gringo 279]

Don't forget the Sony Discman and the MiniDisc. I loved the hell out of my Sony MiniDisc player!

 

Again though Apple didn't invent the mp3 player, they just sort of perfected it with the iPod and marketed it WAY better then anyone else whilst again Samsung followed on behind. I had a Samsung mp3 player that came with a built in speaker that slid out from the back, it was also touch tech but no were near as expansive as the iPod Touch as it was just an mp3 player but the storage, sound quality and the speaker were all awesome.

[Guest Boyo]

I don't see anyone saying Apple invented MP3 or smartphones or touch screens. Just like no one said Nokia invented the mobile phone. They both brought to market product perfection though.

 

That's all you need: perfection :).

 

Cheers!

[Guest The Beltster]

I'd take iOS over Android every single day of the week. I like Android, I've got a Galaxy Note 3 and an iPhone 5S so I'm not a homer for one over the other to the point where I'd say one is crap but I do have a personal preference and its iOS. Its so much better it isn't funny. There isn't a single tablet thats ever been released that can touch the iPad, not even close. I dont like that you can't expand the memory but whatever. As for Apple prices, yeah, the stuff is overpriced but anybody buying Apple stuff knows that going in so you can't complain about the price if you're willing to pay it.

[dsrchris 190]

The price is kinda relative too. I paid £700 for my last Apply Macbook. In 2006. And that lasted me right up until this year. In fact, it still works, it's just not made for this age of high-definition video so I upgraded to a new one.

 

If I compare that to the fact that I've killed 3 laptops at work just by using them for work stuff alone, and I can bet that if I'd have bought myself a "cheap" laptop for £200-300 I've have worked my way through 3 or 4 of those in the 8 years I used my last Macbook.

 

Technically the Apple worked out cheaper because it lasted me longer.

 

I know that's not everyone's experience, but I wouldn't go back to Windows now for my personal computer. Using at work enrages me enough. :lol

 

Back on topic, the main problem Microsoft are gonna find is that their devices may be great, but their app store is utter rubbish compared to Google and Apple. They're gonna have to fix that before they can start to contend with the big name players in the mobile market.