KenC

Smartphones: It's the Software, Stupid!

I thought MS inked LG to an exclusive development deal announced at WoMoCo? Shouldn't you have pointed that out?

www.nytimes.com/2009/0...

You wrote, "Historically, in electronics LG has copied its larger longtime rival. LG has done Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, and someday will do Android too. Still, LG seems even less committed to first-class software for its phones, and thus unique devices (like the LG Lotus) languish for lack of connectivity with applications and other devices"

Look Who's Talking About Smart Phones

Sure, Dell has had their PDA, fail. They had their Ditty, fail. They can combine their PDA with their Ditty and put a phone on top. Lemme see, you think it's going to succeed? Have you even looked at what HP is doing? They just put their name on a HTC, kind of how they used to put their name on an iPod. They have almost no traction in smartphones, and you think Dell will?

Dell needs to stick with their knitting. They need to fix their core business before they go traipsing into new areas just because some consultants told them to do it.

Fourth Quarter Sees Decline in Cell Phone Shipments

Actually, not "believed", it's a fact. Just listen to the conference call. Or, read it here on the seekingalpha website. Apple sold 4.9M iPhones the previous quarter, and 4.65M this past quarter. Why wasn't it 4.4M? They drew down inventories 250k, as mentioned in the last conference call. Thus, the sell-thru was 250k higher. It's all mentioned in the conference call.

So, you would compared sequentially, 4.9M to 4.65M.

Nokia Is Taking on Google's Cell Phone Software Play

It all sounds just wonderful, but are you so sure that Symbian is as capable a platform as OS X used by the iPhone or Android will be? Developers are attracted to open-source, but they want to sell Apps. Will there be an App Store to get their apps in front of eyeballs? And, even if Symbian is a majority of the smartphone market right now, it's fragmented over hundreds of handsets. Each app will have to be customized for each handset. For the iPhone one app fits all. This is part of the trouble Android is running into, leading to delays. Also, nothing stopped developers from creating apps previously, if it's such a stellar platform, why hasn't anyone talked up Symbian as a platform, when OS X and Android were being launched?

Didn't Nokia move its N800 platform to Linux, and not Symbian, because Symbian wasn't powerful enough? How does this inspire confidence in Symbian as a platform to compete with OS X or Android?