Windows Phone 8? Done. But which phone? Nokia Lumia 920 or HTC 8X?
OK, listen up, folks. I get it. Microsoft still has a way to go in dominating the mobile market the way many analysts believe it will do in the coming years. But if we put aside branding and marketing, such as the very name of the OS, Windows Phone (hurts me to say it), Microsoft [...]
The One Sentence Ballmer Keeps Saying that Might Be the Difference between Windows Phone 8 Success and Failure
As always, let’s start with a short story. Yesterday, I spent the entire day at Microsoft events. The morning hours were spent at the largest tech event I have ever attended in Israel. The Windows 8 launch, for which Ballmer flew out, making Israel the first country outside of the US in which Ballmer launched [...]
HTC sales drop 60% in October. Unless HTC 8X and 8S Windows Phones save the day, profit warning is coming
HTC has posted their monthly sales for October. And it’s their biggest yearly drop in revenues, probably ever. A whopping 60%. HTC has sold $NT 44 billion ($1.5B) worth of smartphones in 2011. This year? October numbers came in at $NT 17.2 billion ($588 million). With one month in and two to go in the [...]
It’s time for Mac vs PC like campaign. Windows Phone vs iPhone, if Microsoft wants to stay relevant
Apple makes the best smartphone. Google oversees the most popular smartphone platform. Blackberry is struggling mightily to stay alive. Where does this leave Windows Phone? Barely statistical noise. According to IDC, Android has a massive 75% global smartphone share. iPhone has 20%. Blackberry ekes out just over 4%. Windows Phone? IDC has to combine both [...]
I went to Microsoft Store for Surface on a launch day. Compared to Apple Store, t’was a retail experience from hell
Last week, I did something I thought would never do. Being an Apple fan and all, I wouldn’t have waited in line for a Microsoft product launch if it wasn’t for helping a few friends. This Microsoft Store is located right across an Apple Store in a mall. In the past, I have waited in [...]
iPad mini = iPod Nano. It’ s mp3 players all over again. With Android as no-name alternative and Microsoft Surface Zune
Looking at the evolution of things in tablet market, it is amazing how similar they are to the development of mp3 player/digital music market. Apple wasn’t the first to invent an mp3 player. It only was the first one to understand what digital/portable music is about. Putting a huge chunk of your music library on [...]
Microsoft should abort Windows Phone
I use Apple Maps on my iPhone. Like tens of millions of other users, at least. Despite what you’ve heard, it does not suck. In fact, for me, Apple Maps is far better than previous versions of Google Maps on iPhone. It loads faster, looks better and gives me turn-by-turn navigation (in the US). I [...]
Nokia Q3 results: a disaster with no hope in sight. And admission Lumia 920/820 Windows Phone 8 won’t help in Q4
Nokia announced their results for the July – September quarter. And they are disaster. So much for the hope of positive surprise. It seems my expectations for Nokia weren’t low enough after all. The only bright thing thing in a quarterly report – was Nokia’s Mobile Phones division, which managed to eke a small 3% [...]
Microsoft Surface and where Steve Ballmer should call up Tim Cook and thank him. Then apologize
The Microsoft Surface will be offered, soon, for $600 US. I am not counting the base $500 model since a core reason for anyone to even consider the Surface is the connectable keyboard. With “tablet” and keyboard, the minimum price is $600. Moving on… The new ad is just odd. Microsoft needs to understand something: [...]
Microsoft’s Surface for $499 is a statement they won’t Nexus 7 their partners, unless forced to by low sales
Microsoft has announced the pricing and availability of its Surface tablet. The Surface will launch on Oct. 26th in Microsoft Stores across U.S. and Canada. Also online in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. The cheapest 32GB Surface RT will cost US$ 499, without Touch Cover. Other prices are: $599 [...]
A cautionary tale: What can we learn from HTC’s current troubles?
HTC has been around since 1997. Watching them evolve has easily been one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen as a fan of the mobile industry. For those not familiar with HTC’s history, they started out making mobile devices for other companies. Back then we called such a company an “ODM”, which stands [...]
HTC sales drop 48% YoY, 12% in a month. Profits down by 78% . Can 8X and 8S Windows Phones save them?
HTC results continue to go down the crapper. They have just issued the September and Q3 2012 numbers, and there’s absolutely nothing good about them. September sales came in at $NT 21.1B ($721 million) compared to NT$24B in August. Full quarter revenues were NT$ 70.2B ($2.4B), after tax profits – $NT3.9B ($137M). This compares to [...]
Can Nokia surprise us with Lumia 920/820 Windows Phone, Q3 sales? With expectations so low, maybe they can
Nokia is in a really bad place right now. Their initial bid for a turnaround with first generation of Lumia Windows Phones failed. Microsoft is pissed at them, and might be working on their own smartphone. Symbian smartphone sales fell off the cliff and are rapidly approaching zero. By giving up on Meltemi and “Qt [...]
Why Microsoft is right to be pissed at Nokia over the “Burning Platforms” Windows Phone deal
Ever since the “Burning Platforms” deal between Nokia and Microsoft was announced on Feb. 11th 2011, there was a consensus: Microsoft is the big winner in this partnership. It was obvious. By February 2011 Windows Phone 7 was already a failure. Sales of the new devices were extremely low, and the new OS wasn’t going [...]
Microsoft is working on its own branded WP8 device. Windows Phone Surface to launch in H1 next year
Microsoft is working on its own branded Windows Phone 8 smartphone, according to China Times. They’ve been quietly developing the new device for more than 4 months now, have already selected an assembly partner and plan to launch the new Microsoft branded WP8 handset in the first half of 2013. Now, this is completely unconfirmed [...]
Why would anyone buy a Windows Phone? Ever?
Did you hear? Microsoft offers a smartphone. The OS looks kind of cool, actually. Only, no one knows about it. Or at least, no one is buying it. To be fair, the Windows Phone 8 OS, the one ostensibly designed to compete with iPhone and Android, is not yet available. Microsoft sent the OS to [...]
Nokia CEO confirms – Microsoft in discussions with carriers how to turn Skype into revenue generator
Now we know one of the reasons why Microsoft decided to buy Skype a year ago. There was a lot of speculation back then of what its plans for Skype are. While Microsoft didn’t go beyond some general phrases. Well, we still have not heard much from Redmond, but Nokia’s CEO has confirmed that Skype [...]
Symbian is dead. For real this time. Nokia is now an upstart in smartphones, with 1% market share
Nokia has previewed the Q1 2012 results today. And they are a disaster. I did expect Nokia’s first quarter to be bad. But nowhere as bad as this. In Q4 2011 Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones. 18 to 19 million of them were Symbian devices. This quarter they have shipped 12 million smartphones. 2 million [...]
Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs Nokia Lumia 800 vs iPhone 4S Comparison/Review. Part 1 – Hardware & Performance
Choosing a smartphone to carry for the next year or two is a difficult task these days. There are tens of devices running on 7 operating systems/platforms, at prices ranging from 100 to 600 Euro. To make that choice a little bit easier we took a closer look at the flagships representing 3 smartphone platforms, [...]
UK: Acer Liquid, beTouch E110, and Tempo X960 now just £79.99 SIM-free
If you like bargain basement prices, here’s something for you. Do note though that you’ll also need to love old smartphones. Well known UK-based retailer Expansys is having a clearance sale of sorts for a few Acer smartphones. You can now get three different devices for just £79.99. SIM-free and unlocked, in case you were wondering. [...]
