HTC Claims to be “The New Face of WP”; Nokia Calls it a Pointless “Tactical Re-Branding”
Earlier today HTC unveiled its own line of Windows Phone 8 devices (I didn’t even know there was an event happening); announcing two new phones the HTC Windows Phone 8 X & S. Apparently Microsoft dictated that the words “Windows Phone” should be in the name of the devices, leading HTC to claim that they are now the new “ signature device” of Windows Phone 8:
“It will be a joint marketing campaign where our devices will be the signature devices, almost the face of Windows Phone 8 in the marketing collateral with Microsoft.
I find the use of the word almost in the sentence quite peculiar, how can they claim to be the new signature device, but only “almost” the new face? aren’t those two basically the same meaning? The Verge asked Nokia about this supposed “new face”, they replied that they were happy for the Windows Phone Ecosystem, but also took a minute to remind us why the Lumias are amazing:
“Today is more good news for the Windows Phone ecosystem. While others may choose to tactically re-brand their products, Nokia is driving an industry-leading smartphone franchise – that we call Lumia — exclusively around Windows Phone. With Lumia, we are creating truly differentiated experiences like PureView imaging, location and navigation, wireless charging and Nokia Music. And we’re just getting started!”
HTC claim that the design of the devices was “inspired by the live tiles themselves” I like to think they meant “Inspired by the Lumia phones displaying the Live tiles”, since the above devices (8 X more so) are almost a dead ringer for the Lumia 820. And it seems that we weren’t the only people to notice this, Chris Weber (head of Nokia USA) slyly pointed it out on his twitter account:
And once you take a look at the new HTC devices it becomes pretty obvious that they’re “inspired” by the Lumias colors (at the very least), it’s also worth pointing out that both devices use the same Unibody Poly-carbonate slab that has become strongly associated with the lumias (after launching on the N9).
If you’re interested in the specs of the competition, the larger of the two devices, the 8X carries a 4.3″ screen (same size as the Lumia 900, but smaller than the 4.5″ of the Lumia 920) with a 1280*720 display, which although has a lesser resolution than that of the 920 it does have a higher PPI (341 vs. 332) due to the smaller screen size, but keep in mind that the 920 still has the upper hand in the screen due to the PureMotion HD+ which offers a faster refresh rate than any other screen out there, and can be used with any in-animate object. The 8X has a 8Mp camera in the back which like the 8.7Mp shooter of the 920 can capture 1080p videos, the FFC is also (impressively) capable of 1080p video capture.
Below is a useful table the guys from pocket-now put together: (Updated: the 8X DOES NOT have expandable memory)
It would seem that the only true advantages the 8X has over the 920 is better Front facing camera, and the lighter weight; besides that they’re pretty much matched up with the occasional advantage to the 920. This is truly the first time that the competition in WP8 heats up, it seems that other OEMs will no longer recycle their old android designs for WP (even if it means stealing the Lumias design).
Personally I think this is were Nokia’s heavy investment in WP7 will pay-out; the Lumia name and Nokia are VERY heavily associated with WP, and no amount of “tactical re-branding” changes the fact that Nokia were pushing out beautiful devices last year while HTC, Samsung and all the others were sitting back and throwing table scraps to the WP ecosystem. Unfortunately HTC one-upped Nokia when it came to availability by announcing the carriers that will carry their new devices (Verizon I believe?)
Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Heyyo, names Ali- Currently a fourth year Dental Student from Chicago; studying in Jordan. I love all sorts of gadgets almost as much as I love my cookies! (Have: Green Nokia N8, Cyan Lumia 800, Black N9, Stormtrooper White Lumia 900, Black 808 PureView, Red Lumia 920). Follow my twitter handle '@AliQudsi' - no pressure. Thanks.Subscribe
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this is pretty screwed if you ask me.We have nokia helping ms with WP8 and in return it doesnt allow nokia to create any competing handsets on other platforms, holds back nokias launch of its new handsets,doesnt give it a jump before the competition and now the branding of these lumia copies.microsoft are such backstabbing swines
EXACTLY WHAT THEY PLAN WAS ALL THIS TIME FFS HOW DID YOU NOT SEE
if a manufacturer ditches WP – oh it’s bad – let’s whinge, and I’ll cry about how i told you so
if a manufacturer focus on WP – oh it’s bad – let’s whinge and i’ll cry about how I told you so.
Good selection of phones for WP means a livelier ecosystem that Nokia lives in. HTC cannot outdo Nokia. They can, like they have here, lavishly copy Nokia but as long as Nokia is on their toes, all HTC will do is help Nokia in the long run.
Once WP8 is fully out, watch and see how Nokia drowns out HTC.
you really don’t see the plan…..it’s to ****** nokia up and make them the ONLY WP manufacture -____- how can you not see the with what microsoft has been doing
none of the other want to deal with Microsoft cause how UNRELIABLE THE COMPANY IS and has been
but the norm never sees that cause
the plan was to destroy the third ecosystem. It was symbian meego (altough it was first in 2/11) remove it to give windows phone chance. And when nokia fails, no problem….
deep space bar – I think you need to take your medication.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-nokia-strategy-idUSBRE88I0IQ20120919
“Elop running out of time”
big fish in small pond die fast. just saying.
Exactly. Now apply this to various other small ponds Nokia has been living in.
Together is better, make the pond bigger for the big fish.
Jays right. If you walk into a carrier, you walk past a huge wall for different androids and now will come across a larger shelf allocation for windows phones with Nokia included as the clear winner in specs and build quality. That windows wall will gain more eye draw with more phones, more color and more sales potential because it will be noticed more.
Specs are fine and clear. But there is the pricing factor. Let’s see if Nokia can offer some smart pricing to attract people throughout the globe. All places are not like US where phones are highly subsidized on service provider networks. In markets like India, Nokia is loosing fast due to it’s pricing and evolution of other cheaper but similar or better specced alternatives. Lumia920 amd Lumia820 are nicely specced and beautiful devices. But Nokia has yet to win the battle of pricing which is a major deciding factor among many others.
You understand something that Elop doesn’t. Tony Ahonen writes about it also.
Umm… Elop has been stressing the importance of lower price points ever since he begun at Nokia, even before the switch to WP.
Making way for the Big Fish (MS) and it eats the small fish (Nokia)
What i meant by that was Nokia is gonna be the big fish in small WP8 pond.
Anyone dreaming that wp is gonna be as big as Symbian was or Android is, is kidding themselves.
Shoulda stuck to their guns and kicked elop and wp to the kerb when Nokia had it’s chance. A little too late now. No matter what advances Nokia makes in HW as it always has done, Nokia products will always be limited by what wp can do and be limited to a portion of wp market share. in short no longer a leader in mobile tech..
As Megatron is to Sentinel! LOL
my sentiment is how can HTC uses the “signature device” on their wp8 phones and Microsoft is letting them do as they wish..
I’ve read from the verge that windows phone 8 marketing will always be lead by HTC phones. I’m so heartbroken on that. that’s basically making htc phone reap what nokia has earned. htc and microsoft = bull****
It’s just their branding. They can use any branding they want. Nokia is still the got to company for WP8.
Jesus you guys are insecure and overly sensitive. Did you think that Microsoft would completely ditch every other OEM?
“I’ve read from the verge that windows phone 8 marketing will always be lead by HTC phones. ”
Give me a frickin’ break. You can’t be this stupid and naive. WP8 marketing will not be lead by anyone. Everyone will market their WP8 devices. Are you stupid enough to believe that only Nokia could make WP8 devices, and only Nokia can market their phones.
being fan is like that. stop bashing naive people, and stop stating the obvious, ur remark is incredibly stupid for someone who says he’s not.tee-hee-hee
http://m.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1002710/sendo–microsoft–it-all-ends-in-tears
I have seen this movie before
Luckily Symbian rescued Sendo! Oh wait..
i’m feeling so saad for Nokia now. This why i hate microsoft… I happened to read a comment on how this looks similar to the sendo-microsoft incident.. I’m hoping it wont.
TO STUPID MICROSOFT:
1. NOKIA was the only one who stood all the way with you when everyone was bashing WP7. HTC, SAMSUNG and other FUC**** CHINESE are busy going gaga over Android
2. It was because of Nokia, who spent a lot (burned 3 platforms, cut-off a lot of jobs) of effort in nourishing you’re FU**** Platform, that made WP VIABLE again.
3. i can continue all day, and that reason is being NOKIA.
f*ck microsoft!!!!
No, I believe it’s ****** you. One idiotic post after another.
http://m.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1002710/sendo–microsoft–it-all-ends-in-tears
Sendo Microsoft all ended in tears. I fear that Nokia’s Microsoft will be no exception.
Nokia’s days are numbered I am afraid to admit.
So HTC’s must be numbered too then?
Faulty logic is faulty.
No… HTC hasn’t been tied to MS, in the way those manufacturer used to be… The History has a story to tell, and in that story everything ends badly for MS “buddys”…
The 2013 Q1 will show if Elop was just a moron or a genius… tic tac tic tac…
Fortunately Symbian saved Sendo, right?
At the moment there isn’t another platform Nokia could compete on. Samsung would annihilate them on Android (you can bet they remember Nokia driving them out of Symbian).
Firefox OS would be a great thing for them to try at the low end as an alternative to S40. Open webOS could also be quite viable, particularly if done as a follow up to the N9. And hell, if BB10 gets opened up, that’s also something I’d like to see.
THEY HAVE/HAD MEEGO AND SYMBIAN AND ELOP ****** THAT UP FOR THEM
I hope Jolla can Save them
Symbian was already dead, Nokia saw to that, and MeeGo was a mistake from the start. They should have never partnered with Intel.
So they should partner with Microsoft and after everything Microsoft stab Nokia at the back.
That’s really AWESOME isn’t it?
Microsoft didn’t stab them in the back. If Nokia wants to have a chance, they need to be part of a strong ecosystem, and bullying all the others in WP out the way they did with Symbian is a way for them to repeat their past failures.
^
At last, someone who with some senses that isn’t over sensitive about this.
If Nokia ruled out the others in WP platform, they just make the very same mistake with past Symbian
Competition is good fellas, i’m pretty sure Nokia will innovate more and more the tougher the competition goes
Symbian still accounts for more sales than Wp7 Lumia. If it’s dead then Wp7 is buried
One’s going up, the other’s going down.
Do the math, champ.
WP is going down right now.
No, it’s not. Why do idiots like you insist on confusing Microsoft marketshare with Windows Phone marketshare?
a dead platform killed 2 years ago and with no new phones in 2012 still sells beter than all wp phones …. you do the matth champ
and symbian is going down because of nokia bad management
No, Symbian is going down because in comparison to iOS, WP and later versions of Android it’s utterly crap. I actually own or have owned devices with all these operating systems. Have you?
Of course not, you’re just spouting the usual uninformed drivel, aren’t you?
This is quite frankly a stupid and inaccurate post. One, Microsoft can no more keep Nokia from making an Android phone than I could. Nokia chose to go with Windows Phone because they thought it was a better option in the long run. Considering every single Android OEM outside of Samsung is losing money and struggling, they may have been right. Not to mention that Microsoft is supporting Nokia with money that they aren’t supporting HTC or any other WP OEM with. Microsoft also is using Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive for the entire WP8 ecosystem. You can bet they’re paying Nokia for that as well.
As for Nokia holding back Nokia’s launch, that’s only because they’re not ready to launch the OS. HTC and Samsung are under the same constraints.
Microsoft is in no way backstabbing Nokia. Get a grip.
Exactly, Nokia could make an android phone with both eyes closed and their arms tied behind their back. And it would take roughly 5 minutes.
People need to realize that they are going to emerge a strong, much more efficient, and much smaller company than they used to be.
Actually YES, I’d bet MS could stop Nokia. You think they gave them that money (in an undisclosed deal, AFAIK) to just get their feet wet with WP like Samsung did. It was all or nothing with MS from the moment Elop was hired. Happy 2 year anniversary NOKIA!!!!! (humor)
and yes… MS isn’t stabbing them in the back. They are just interested in WP actually surviving, nothing else and at this point that means Nokia might survive as an OEM.
It’s just a standard model happening. Google does the exact same thing and even competes head to head with their technology partners…
Nokia has to continue leading the innovation of differentiation tactics, like I.S and other pureview technologies, navigation etc…, as the guys here are talking…
Their leading edge design will assist well for the now.
Shame on HTC for being so obviously cheap! There really is no honour amongst thieves. Samsung and HTC both are showing their true faces recently. Successful but only out to please the crowd.
But most times to really please the crowd you have to make us think outside of what we already know and challenge us with fresh and unique experiences which we wouldn’t have thought of…
That’s why I still support Nokia, they’re keeping things interesting, changing it up a little…
exactly…. +1000… We’ll see more of this and Nokia will go back to the burning platform.
the one in the back looks nice whichever model that is
if they had a good camera on it i could see getting that one as well
helping find my dad a new phone, a smartphone so I’m not partial to Nokia/Symbian and willing to entertain WP/Droid/iOS
Depends on your definition of good, up until the 920, HTC was actually making better cameras than Nokia. (And I’m talking the Titan here, I’m not blinded by the MP count of the Titan II).
are we speaking cameras in WP phones here? if so I agree the Titan was pretty impressive moreso than the lumias
Every post N8 camera was also crap, until the 808.
aye, true
the other phones don’t even come to mind when i think cameras and nokia lol
Nokia N86
That was before the N8. I never bothered getting it though because its internals were weaker than my N95.
Nokia realises that to innovate, they need to be part of a driven ecosystem, not on their own like Blackberry and iOS. That is why they bought Symbian and made it open source.
However, as we all know, Symbian as an open source project did not work well. It was not driven, like early iterations of Android schizophrenic with lots of iterations, did not have a strong brand to protect, and could not match Android for resources.
Android is now the oldest OS on the market after Symbian, being built for keyboard entry with touch added as an afterthought. Windows Phone is the newest, being built for touch, and has a much stronger brand and tight ecosystem. With Nokia being a strong hardware innovator, having HTC imitating them will only push Nokia harder to be the best!
Curved glass, seamless transition, colourful bright phone, haha, thanks HTC. I guess they’re just running out of ideas and have turned to strengthen Nokia’s ideals. Get people more interested in these bright colourful phones. Watch Nokia redefine what smartphones should be again.
Good job HTC. If they’re not copying Apple, then why not Nokia.
Dell was the first to do curved glass (or at the very least, did it well before Nokia, who knows, someone else might have done it before Dell). Seamless transition is really not an innovative idea, the innovation comes in figuring out how to do it, but it’s really something that’s quite obvious.
Now where HTC is really copying is with the coloured chin on the 8S, that’s a distinctive Nokia feature, even though HTC had their own thing going on with the slanted chin on some of their Androids. And bright phone is something Nokia has been doing since the late 90s.
True actually,
But the definition here in the case of HTC copying Nokia, is really just a result of Nokia’s success in shaking up a market predominantly populated by uninspiring designs and blandish colours. Whereas HTC now wish to hitch a ride aboard the Nokia train…
Nokia may have introduced the curved glass idea later than Dell perhaps, but it certainly wasn’t for the same reasons as mentioned above for HTC…
Nokia made curved glass what it is today, sexy as S#!t, not Dell…
I would disagree. The Dell Venue/Pro wasn’t a widespread success because upper management decided they didn’t want to be involved with smartphones, but the initial reaction to the DVP was that it was sexy as hell, long before Nokia was thinking of the current N9 design.
The general curved, comfortable in your hand design was also done by both Palm and Motorola (with the PEBL) a long time ago.
Yes, Nokia had a hit on their hands, and made something better than the Pre and the Venue Pro, they certainly deserve credit for that, but HTC made the 8X better than what Nokia did, even if they didn’t change as much of the design and just tweaked it here and there.
Rather than getting into a petty Apple like spat of who copied whom, I want to see Nokia step up their game next time around.
Jay…Word!
The bright spot: If Nokia Drive is going to be made to HTC and others, Nokia can reap from them financially
In exactly the same way they do with their patents….
Nokia is a force….
Believe it.
Wow what bunch of whiners. Don’t worry Nokia is still the overwhelming preferred WP vendor by Microsoft, the tech press and the general public. There is nothing wrong with Microsoft referring to a HTC phone as hero a device–only an envious child should get upset over something like that. It is a hero device for HTC but all Microsoft execs would be the first to tell it pails against Nokia’s hero device.
A poll on WMPowerUser right now has 86.6% choosing the Lumia 920 while the Samsung Ativ and the HTC 8X are both less than 7%. Frankly I was expecting more from HTC–a smaller screen in phone larger than the Titan is big mistake.
Some of you people are ridiculous. Overly sensitive whiners. How the hell has Microsoft betrayed Nokia? Did you think only Nokia would get to make Windows Phones? Did you think only Nokia would get to market their Windows Phones.
Microsoft has supported Nokia far more than any other OEM. They’ve given them incredible sums of money. They made Nokia Maps the main maps in all Windows Phones, and you can bet they paid a princely sum. They held their press conference with Nokia, something they didn’t do with HTC. Steve Ballmer showing up does not count. Nokia is the only OEM to get deeper access to Windows Phone.
Stop whining because Microsoft supports other OEMs. Without other OEMs, there’s not much hope for WP8 or Nokia.
and what has Nokia given MS in return?
- Abandoning of all other in-house platforms/opportunities
- Saving MS Phone efforts single-handedly gladly taking in billions of losses/market share
- Valuable IPs
- Maps (for gratis?)
And now Ballmer pulls this?
“and what has Nokia given MS in return?”
Only the best OS in mobile without having to put any development effort in it.
What an awful person Ballmer is–shame on him for promoting Windows Phone. Just recently I heard complaints about Microsoft not doing enough to promote Windows Phone and leaving it to Nokia–but there is no pleasing the whinners on this board.
Oops, I read the opening line backwords.
“Only the best OS in mobile without having to put any development effort in it”.
Really?
You have got to be kidding!
In what way is wp a better OS?
In consumer base? wp would be a dead OS if not for Nokia. Not too mention wp8 is starting from scratch again.
Functionality? Symbian could do things wp could only dream of doing (talking bout 7.5 here, 8 not out yet)
Looks? HAHAHA. If not for Nokia, wp phones would have been stuck looking like a square turd..
Without development effort? True, but look at where Nokia is now? lotsa hype bout a phone not in the market, share’s at bargain basement prices and smartphone market share cut in more than half…
Dude, take Symbian and shove it up your ass. My N8 is completely unusable after having used a Lumia 610. And I counted down every day from its announcement in April 2010 to its very late release on the last freaking day of september, and Symbian^3 was still in a complete state of shit after years of massive development.
Nokia is still working on their in house platform of S40.
Nokia was already losing billions before this deal.
Nokia makes money off their IP.
Nokia makes money off their maps, that’s why they went with WP over Android.
no. nokia was.making profit you moron
Hardly. They shunted a bunch of 5230s on carriers that sat on shelves for years, and seriously strained their relationship with them, damaging their supply chain. You’ve got to think about things in the long term, not quarter by quarter.
Hey Ballmers gotta kiss up to HTC before he throws them under the bus, just like Google did to them. amiright?
Great post, Ali.
I’ve never liked HTC, and I never intended to purchase a HTC device running ANY OS; but I’m glad that they didn’t rehash the designs from Android. At the same time, disgusted by their designs borrowing heavily from the Lumia line.
I know that Lumia is the face of WP, but I really hope that with HTC coming with ‘colors’, that HTC products don’t sully WP (and de facto, Nokia).
Disgusted? Their designs are better than what Nokia did. They’re forcing Nokia to step it up a notch. Which is how things should be.
Their designs would be better if they IMPROVED upon what Nokia did. But here frankly it’s just more of the same.
They did improve. The HTC 8X has curved glass, symmetrical design, no sharp edges, and a nice stylistic touch with the wide earpiece at the top. Look and feel wise, the 8X is better than the N9, Lumia 800, 900 and 920 in every way.
Unless HTC has stepped up their game though, Nokia still gets an easy win in the call quality and reception department. So Nokia doesn’t have to worry quite yet, but they do need to start notes and realise that HTC understands what made the N9 and Lumia line aesthetically pleasing and get it right for once.
I’m sorry, I guess I just disagree and I don’t see an improvement. I haven’t held it, but the HTC, with it’s curved glass and colors and polymers and symmetry sure looks to me like the N9. Except the HTC colors are more garish and less pleasing to my eye, personally.
I’m not sure I would call the wide hole for the earpiece “innovation” or “better design,” but to each his own.
Then you’re not looking closely enough.
The sharp edges on the top and bottom of the N9/Lumia become sharp edges on the sides when held in landscape mode. This is bad. It’s the same mistake Apple made with the Aluminum UniBody MacBook line. Looks good in pictures, but uncomfortable to use.
HTC fixes that, it’s rounded on all 4 edges.
The Lumia 920 and 800 both have the screen well aligned for portrait use, the keyboard is up high enough that it’s easy and comfortable to use, but again in landscape mode the screen is asymmetrically aligned, which gets uncomfortable to use for an extended period of time (this is compounded by the sharp edges). They got it right with the N9 and the Lumia 900, but the 900 ended up getting rid of the curved glass.
HTC fixes that, the screen is symmetrically aligned for both portrait and landscape use. They understand smartphones are used both horizontally and vertically. Nokia doesn’t, when they get it right it’s by accident, not by design.
As for the speaker, there’s not much you can do for innovative design while keeping it clean, and it does become an HTC characteristic – that’s how you’ll tell a phone is HTC, the coloured, wide, ear piece. It’s not better than Nokia’s design, nor is it worse, but it’s distinctive and different.
Ideally, the Lumia 930 will look like the 8X, but with more of a Nokia touch (ie no wide, coloured speaker), will be a bit thicker and bigger to support the hardware they put into the 920. It’s probably asking for too much for them to get rid of the hard edges at the top and bottom, but they could at least stick the headphone jack on the bottom – to the right.
Agreed, the tapered edges would fit nicely in a pocket without jutting out. Nokia, unfortunately, is simply reusing the same design over and over again…
Improve on Nokia’s design? HTC is creating their own designs, and polycarbonate was already used in their One series. They’re just improving on their previous designs to suit the WP8. Though I got to agree the colors was something only Nokia would come up with.
Apple would also come up with colours, the old Apple that made the iMac anyway.
Yes, disgusted. As I said, HTC borrowed heavily from Lumia, and it’s clear that Lumia was their inspiration (not Microsoft’s input as HTC suggests).
No doubt Nokia will continue to innovate, but HTC traded one bad habit (rehashing Android designs for the WP offerings) to another – incorporating, to a large degree, some of Nokia’s design language.
Totally disagree with you regarding HTC’s designs being better than the Lumia. Totally disagree with you.
Yes, they borrowed heavily, but they were smart enough to realise what made the design good (something Nokia evidently doesn’t understand, as they continue to screw their own design up).
If Nokia isn’t going to design their phones right, I’m glad HTC is doing it.
Wow, I look away for 5 minutes and it’s insanity!!!
HTC makes cheap crap, copies everyone else (Hellllooooo Samsung!), puts a Phat Beats stamp on it, and calls it innovation? I mean, Realllly, how could their designer with her too-cool-for-school eyeglasses sit there with a straight face and call it innovation? Hilarious.
What are you guys really so worried about? Let the idiots buy the HTC phones and discover they have no support, while you intelligent people buy the Nokias.
In other news, has anyone heard about the iOS6pocalypse ???
What? What’s wrong with iOS6??
Everything. Difficulties in updating, some are reporting that devices not working after the update, and worst of all, the iOS6 maps are a horrifying downgrade to Google maps. Good luck with iDevices
And, you can’t go back if you once do the “update”.
Ouch. iOS 6 uses Nokia’s maps.
It most certainly does not.
My mistake, I was thinking of Amazon.
its very interesting to see all the hatters come out and revel in this news,
they can’t wait for any supposed bad news so they can say “i told you so” even when they are wrong and don’t understand the news, they just try to twist it to accommodate their agenda … trolling.
why are there people in this world who are so full of negativity and hate, or maybe they are just ignorant.
anyways, htc has created lots of chatter on tech blogs and it has lead to more comparison with lumia, just like the iphone 5 launch has done, lumia seems to be the new phone everyone compares other phones too and that is fantastic, nokia is back in the minds of consumers and gets more publicity whenever another phone is released.
Yup. It’s the same f**kwits who were in every WP article complaining about the OS who are now in here complaining about competition.
LOL indeed!
wow, great design inspired from n9
This was always going to happen.. I don’t get why everyone is panicking. Nokia is just an OEM, with.. slight special treatment from Microsoft, but that is just a matter of time, and its all up to Microsoft. Right now they need Nokia more than any other OEM out there, so that is why Ballmer showed up at the launch and Joe was there,, and all that.
Nokia, as we knew it, is gone. I knew that from the day Elop and Steve shook hands. It seems like a lot of people are still catching on what really happened that day.
Now, I am really curious to see how they handle the bankruptcy. If I were Microsoft, I will just keep pumping cash into Nokia until I get some market share, and then cut them loose.. but we will see what they have in mind.
You can’t keep selling 4 millions phones per q .. not when you are the size of Nokia. Apple sold 2 million phones in 24h peeps.. no bueno.
Nokia, as we knew it, was gone after they bungled every single post N95 phone they launched, with special mention going to the N8 as a slight exception, followed by outright bungling right after.
wrong , nokia went to hell when Elop came , and his memo of burning platform
If some idiot employee (and probably now an ex-Nokia employee) at Nokia hadn’t leaked the ‘burning memo’ to the general public, no one would be bitching about the ‘burning memo’.
You were just in blissful ignorance up until that point.
No. If you’re going to pick one person, it would be OPK. A bean-counting lawyer did what bean-counting lawyers do. F**k s**t up.
+1
N97 LOL!
Ollila even deserves some of the blame. He pitched Symbian teams against each other, hampered Maemo’s development and got Nokia in the mentality that they didn’t have to compete with any other companies. When Samsung showed them up (after Fujitsu and Sharp had already kicked them out of the Japanese market), OPK failed to adapt. OPK made the mess Ollila started much worse.
I think every Nokia fanboy knows this, but as Nokia has changed new MS fanboys emerge who want to see MS’s bitch do well too for now.
That’s why Nokia is doing some diet, make their company ‘smaller’, more efficient, more focused and agile.
4 millions of lumias is a good start, could HTC and samsung done that with WP? Nope.
hello jay, I think u should change your site name from mynokiablog to mylumiablog(read as mycandyassblog) .If u smelllllllllllll, whats Rock cookin. Get your stormstrooper ass turn it sideways stick in your ass with your housemate , do you understand jay (gay montano) philipino gay guy.
hey ding, you don’t sound gay, you sound miserable,
Take it easy big man..
its “Filipino” in English while “Pinoy” in Tagalog. and its double P, Philippines.
I don’t see why people consider 8X a worthy rival to Lumia 920, specs-wise it is only comparable with Lumia 820.
Its not.
What people seem to be “angry” about is Microsoft’s behaviour, which is quite normal.. HTC and Nokia are both their OEMs, so they both get.. the corresponding treatment.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVED NOKIA UNTIL THIS IDIOT EFLOP CAME ALONG AND RIPPED IT TO PIECES.
HE IS AN INCOMPETENT CEO!!!!
STILL WANNA SUPPORT EFLOP AND HIS AWESOME PLAN !?!?!?!?!?!?!
I have no more words for you idiots honestly. How can you sleep at night with your heads up your behinds!?!?!?!?!?
“Elop has not been able to attract customers and that is what counts. You can say that he has not had enough time, but he has been there for two years. Time is up,” said Magnus Rehle, senior partner in Greenwich Consulting, which advises large telecoms companies.
“The Christmas season is a lost cause. For Nokia, if there is any chance, it will be Spring,” said Juha Varis, who holds Nokia shares as part of the Danske Invest Finnish Equity Fund.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-nokia-strategy-idUSBRE88I0IQ20120919
Why shouuld the Christmas season be a lost cause? Last time I checked, Christmas takes place in the Month of December?
not with him it seems.
Though I’m never a fan of HTC, but I gotta admit the design looks pretty slick. The tapered edges would fit so much better in a pocket, and it even has matte finish! But that’s it. End of the day, other than the hardware to differentiate it, it’s still just a normal WP8.
Well, I assume that Microsoft sort of gave them, I don’t want to say an ultimatum, but they probably insisted for the WP devices to be as different as possible when compared to their Android offerings, and HTC got on it.. Microsoft has them “under their wing” for a lot of patents, so HTC kind of has to play nice. Also, HTC knows that they has no chance whatsoever against Samsung in the Android world.. like, ZERO.. so they have a bit more of an incentive to built a better WP device.
Samsung.. they don’t care that much. The ativ S is very similar to their andro flagship. Now.. its bad news for Nokia if Sammy gets serious about WP, we don’t want that.. really, no good if that was the case.
So, yes the HTC design is indeed very good.
look nobody is saying that nokia should be the only OEM or whatever else some of you stated as the cause for whining.yes nokia will blow HTC out the water,but when you put a device that looks exactly like a lumia on the shelf and branding it as “the face of windows phone 8″ you gotta feel uneasy bout all of this.last time i checked lumia was the face of wp8.further more microsoft is stringing HTC along.Regardless of whether ms pays nokia royalties,remember that nokia bet all its horses on wp on microsofts terms and as such i feel that they couldve atleast give nokia a jump ahead in terms of launching before any other manufacturer.up until now nokia has no release date,while HTC have already given an indication.should HTC hit the shelves before nokia does it could turn out to be really bad
Lumia is the face of WP within Nokia fans.. I don’t know why it should be universal. No body forced (or did they?) to bet the whole company on someone else’s platform, and probably save that very platform at it’s own cost.. that doesn’t make them “the face” of the platform, best case.. “the saviour”
In fact, I think the face of the platform, is whomever Microsoft decides it wants to fulfill that role… Or, whoever “earns” the title from their perspective I guess.
All of a sudden Nokia dont want HTC and Samsung to be succesful with WP?
I clearly remember him (Elop) saying that he wants those both companies to be very succesful with WP. Is this not valid anymore or why do they try to talk down this “competition”?
I don’t see the news here.
HTC was the windows mobile long before Nokia and they always got the same offers as Nokia, like bundled xbox.
Why HTC? Because they can do one thing Nokia can’t seem to do anymore, and thats worldwide launch on launch day while Nokia needs 6 month to launch in the biggest markets.
So it wouldn’t surprise me that HTC will be the official WP8 mobile on many markets because Nokia can’t get there distribution and manufacturing together.
And the price? i guess that HTC will make phones with more bang for the buck, but Nokia makes better top of the line phones.
There is something interesting that happened last week, when Viber added HD voice calls to your calls to their windows phone app they restricted that update only exclusive to Lumia. I was bit furious as to why they are restricted to only Lumia so I commented on TheVerge.. then a guy who worked at Viber responded to my comment saying the restriction was placed on the app by Microsoft and not Nokia .. thereis something going on with MS and Nokia..
There is something interesting that happened last week, when Viber added HD voice calls to your calls to their windows phone app they restricted that update only exclusive to Lumia. I was bit furious as to why they are restricted to only Lumia so I commented on TheVerge.. then a guy who worked at Viber responded to my comment saying the restriction was placed on the app by Microsoft and not Nokia .. the bond between Microsoft and Nokia is more stronger than we thought
Thanks for the info jr, that’s a bit surprising to hear it was MS itself but good to know the new WP Signature phones don’t get all of MS love on their own.
Actually, what bugs me the most is that 8S is more like a Lumia 700 series phone. And people seem to be more interested in 8S than 8X.
Isn’t this the case with current windows phones aswell? I think 610 might be the most popular WP in the market.
710 is. It’s down to $150 outright. Best bang for your buck by far among all smartphones.
Dont worry, Microsoft is paying Nokia for every phone they make! If it werent for their support they would close already.
Nokia received tons of marketing money from Microsoft, HTC and Samsung got….peanuts in comparison.
Microsoft still need more manufacturers and they should keep on playing them. As mentioned obove, the fight for 5% market share….NO! You have to get the market share of WP up, and everyone involved wins! The platform must spread quick!
It’s clear that HTC’s new designs look a lot like Nokia’s Lumia line. But is it really a bad thing? One could argue that it’s actually positive, because it creates a distinctive identity for the entire ecosystem.
“Colorful” could easily be the one word that defines the Windows 8 universe. WP8′s live tiles, Windows’ new start screen, Microsoft’s surface, Nokia’s lumia line and now HTC’s phones all have one thing in common : eye-catching, bright colors.
Is it wrong that HTC got a little too much inspiration from Nokia? On some level it is. But you gotta look at the bigger picture. If colorful devices = WP in the consumers’ mind, then the Windows ecosystem will gain something that Android failed to establish and that made the success of the iPhone – a strong identity (or brand recognition, call it whatever you like).
That’s easy when you provide both the hardware the software, i.e. when you’re dealing with a single-brand ecosystem. And that’s Apple. People know the iPhone’s design, made of glass and aluminium and recognize its iconic springboard. Considering the iPhone often has a dedicated stand in carrier stores, it’s no doubt that it’s going to get noticed.
When several hardware manufacturers release devices running the same OS, things get more complicated. But there has to be a certain amount of similarity. And this is what’s happening with Nokia and HTC both offering bright-colored devices with matching live tiles. It’s a bold, unified look that clearly differs from the iPhone and will catch the eye of customers in a carrier store, even if there’s no dedicated “WP corner”.
And then there’s android. Google’s been trying to establish a visual identity of its own ever since the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, but it’s a little too late. The UI already has too many faces : the 2.x UI, the 4.x UI, Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC’s Sense, Sony’s Xperia, Motorola’s blur… They all look vaguely similar and/or somewhat different… Just like the devices. But “vaguely” and “somewhat” aren’t what you’d call catchy terms. And that’s exactly what android isn’t – catchy. At worst, people confuse android phones with the iPhone. At best, they know it has something to do with Google. But none of this makes android phones stand out. When visiting a carrier store, the only striking thing about them is how many different models are available. Too many, IMHO.
So, even if HTC’s new design may feel like a rip-off of the Lumias, it might just be what WP needs (unlike Samsung’s ATIV, which not only has a lame name, but is also one of the most boring looking phones ever).
I completely agree with you about the visual identity of Windows Phones. If HTC and Nokia are the primary providers of WPs, and they both have colourful devices, that’s what will stand out, and both will benefit from it. We’ll see if ZTE catches on (and Samsung even?).
I would suggest that initially Motorola and HTC did give Android a unique look. HTC with the ‘chin’ and Motorola with the hard, machinelike angles on the Droid. I wouldn’t be surprised if that partly had to do with Android taking off on Verizon (the marketing obviously didn’t hurt).
In the end though, with the exception of Motorola, since HTC has left that chin design behind, Android only has a vaguely iPhone like look from the hardware side (and from the software side what iOS should be if they didn’t have so many skeumorphism fans at Apple).
Went to Microsoft’s website and guess what I get greeted with on their main page: The new HTC WP8 phones (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx). Was Nokia’s new Lumia WP8 phones on that page when they were announced?
Also, if you go to the section about the new WP8 phones, take note of the order of the WP8 phones listed from top to bottom (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/cmpn/windowsphone-8-phones). They even list the L820 ahead of the L920.
I hope this is not any indication of MS favoring HTC over Nokia.