[CSJr1]

First I want to thank Nokia for putting the effort in innovation in their Lumia lines of phones. Their company is on the mend and Windows Phone market share is being discussed. But as they fight for survival, have you noticed the phones with the most specs/innovation only come from them? Most blogs refer to the flagship Windows Phone being the Nokia L920 and rightfully so. This not only applies to the hardware, but also the software they are releasing on the device.

Before Nokia, I enjoyed the device choices with WP. Now, unless you want a low end or mid device with little manufacturer software support, there is no choice. What happened to HTC? Their resources have gone into chasing Android with their Droid DNA and their upcomming M7. HTC is trying to chase Samsung, which is content with being the defacto leader in Android. Oh and BTW, Samsung suggested they are content with not being first to market with mobile technology.. Huh?? Huwaei is an unknown.

So I had an affair with Nokia after my line HTC devices; Tilt, Titan. This is turning into a marriage as HTC fights for Android and Samsung continues to give us retreads of past generation Android devices. Where is the concern? That WP is associated with only Nokia as Nokia squeezes out the competition. With Nokia no longer having to compete, it will turn into another Apple by not innovating and consumers being tied to one device type choice. Maybe I am doing too much future peeking, but I don't hear anymore about a Microsoft Surface Phone with the growing success of Nokia and their upcoming products.

[Laura Knotek]

Actually HTC is not doing all that well either. The Android market has pretty much become the Samsung market. HTC's financials aren't all that good either. Samsung is pretty much the only OEM making money on Android products.

[ballanda]

Not disturbing. Just a trend. Not even an exciting trend. Nokia isn't gonna let up. I wouldn't worry about that. They have a mountain to climb first.

[CSJr1]

Actually HTC is not doing all that well either. The Android market has pretty much become the Samsung market. HTC's financials aren't all that good either. Samsung is pretty much the only OEM making money on Android products.

Right, they are not doing so well, but they are fighting to get back in, which leads to competition. The only thing is, their new tech is on the Android side. They used to be real players on the Windows side. Tilt, Tilt 2, HD2, Titan etc. I feel bad for them as they try to be relevant in both markets, but I don't think that will work and they are choosing the other side.

[Laura Knotek]

Right, they are not doing so well, but they are fighting to get back in, which leads to competition. The only thing is, their new tech is on the Android side. They used to be real players on the Windows side. Tilt, Tilt 2, HD2, Titan etc. I feel bad for them as they try to be relevant in both markets, but I don't think that will work and they are choosing the other side.

HTC had a lot of issues with build quality in many of its Android devices.

Samsung has also been around a long time in Windows Mobile. The SCH-i730, SCH-M420, SCH-M430 and SPH-M4300 all ran Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.

HTC seemed to do better when it was an ODM for HP/Palm, rather than an OEM.

[SnailUK]

I completely disagree. Even as a 920 owner, i feel the 8x was a definite competitor.


The 8x was stunning to look at and hold . Good spec, good price, and a good association with beats. I wish the 920 had the audio amp from the 920.

I think its a real shame it didn't sell as well as the 920.
Sent from my RM-821_eu_euro1_342 using Board Express

[aubreyq]

I don't hear anymore about a Microsoft Surface Phone with the growing success of Nokia and their upcoming products.

You don't hear about the "Surface Phone" because there hasn't been any new rumors about it. If/when Microsoft comes out with a phone, we'll hear about it when the time comes.

BTW, I agree that Nokia seems to be the only OEM innovating in the Windows Phone platform.

[socialcarpet]

Nothing disturbing about that to me.

Before Nokia appeared, I loved Windows Phone, but the devices were so uninspiring I didn't really want to buy one.

Nokia changed all that with Lumia.

I'd say Nokia has done as much or more than Microsoft to bring attention to the Windows Phone platform. Before Nokia the other OEMs were even worse about just pushing out dull Android retreads. At least they are sort of trying now. HTC made a good effort to give us some unique hardware with the 8X. Granted they needed Nokia to go first to show them a phone could be something other than a dull gray chunk of plastic, but they still deserve some credit for giving enough of a crap about Windows Phone.

That said, I think Nokia is going to continue to be the premier Windows Phone OEM for the foreseeable future. I'm OK with that, because I like Nokia's hardware more than anyone else's anyway. This also shouldn't surprise anyone because Nokia is the only one who is fully invested in Windows Phone. The others have most of their chips riding on Android so I don't think we are ever going to see anything more than token efforts from them. That, and the fact that Nokia makes the best hardware means HTC, Samsung and the rest will probably NEVER get my money.

If Nokia was the only Windows Phone maker, that would be just fine with me as long as it didn't hurt marketshare. I'm not sure that would be the case though. I don't mind having the others around if for no other reason, because they might help marketshare. But the way I see it, they are bringing very little to the table compared to Nokia.

[1101x10]

Nokia aren't just competing with other Windows Phones, they have to compete with Android and iPhone so there will always be innovation.

[squire777]

Agree with the above post, and also the onus should be on other OEMs to come out with better products, and release them through more channels. Look at the Ativ S - decent phone but with a hefty price tag and limited availability. It's not Nokia's fault that it won't sell well.

[stmav]

According to the news item yesterday, the 920 leads US marketshare with 17%, followed by the 822 at 16%, then the 8x at 12%. Despite the fact that the two Nokia phones are available on one carrier respectively and the 8x is available on three carriers. HTC should be disturbed if anyone is.

[MDak280]

Agree with the above post, and also the onus should be on other OEMs to come out with better products, and release them through more channels. Look at the Ativ S - decent phone but with a hefty price tag and limited availability. It's not Nokia's fault that it won't sell well.

I wouldn't call the Ativ S "decent." It's definitely a flagship. But I agree with the rest of your post!

[BeaverJuicer]

So if I understand this right... You find it disturbing that Nokia is doing a phenomenal job innovating with WP, and is pushing out the competition?


Shouldn't it be the converse? That you find it disturbing that the competition is letting Nokia run away with things? Nothing is stopping them from putting out kick-**** phoneage a la Nokia, but they are choosing not to.

[socialcarpet]

Agree with the above post, and also the onus should be on other OEMs to come out with better products, and release them through more channels. Look at the Ativ S - decent phone but with a hefty price tag and limited availability. It's not Nokia's fault that it won't sell well.

Exactly.

The same goes for the Nokia exclusives that some people complain about.

You can't really ask Nokia to be less competitive and play nice. They have to do everything they can to survive because they have put everything on Windows Phone.

If you don't like what the other OEM's are offering by comparison, ask them to do more instead of asking Nokia to do less, or for them to carry water for the other OEM's. Nokia already gave them all maps and navigation. What more do you want?

[JerseySal]

There's a 24/7 helppline for people that feel disturbed...though, I don't know what they can do to help someone who is disturbed about a phone manufacturer in a highly competitive market. (888) 784-2433 Hope this helps.

[BeaverJuicer]

There's a 24/7 helppline for people that feel disturbed...though, I don't know what they can do to help someone who is disturbed about a phone manufacturer. (888) 784-2433 Hope this helps.

I find this post disturbing.

[rockstarzzz]

With Nokia no longer having to compete, it will turn into another Apple

Amen!

I know Elop wants this. I know Ballmer wants this. I know Genius wants this too.

[CSJr1]

So if I understand this right... You find it disturbing that Nokia is doing a phenomenal job innovating with WP, and is pushing out the competition?


Shouldn't it be the converse? That you find it disturbing that the competition is letting Nokia run away with things? Nothing is stopping them from putting out kick-**** phoneage a la Nokia, but they are choosing not to.

Perhaps my title is a little misleading. It was meant as an attention grabber. Maybe it should have read A noticeable trend with Nokia and other Windows Phone 8 OEMs. My point is I sure wouldn't want Windows Phone to be dominated by a single OEM. But now it seems like an inevitability. With Andriod, Samsung feels safe and maybe this is why they feel.comfortable not being first to market with new tech. We see this with Apple.

[dogfish54]

I think it's good for the platform that there are multiple OEM's for now, but, it's bad if the platform doesn't get big enough for anyone to make a profit. If we have three mildly successful OEM's on Windows phone and Nokia dies out, it's going to be bad. HTC have proven they care about next week and next month, but once they have your money, you are dead to them. Samsung are just happy to do everything regardless of whether they do it well. Nokia will succeed or fail because of Windows phone.

[AngryNil]

According to the news item yesterday, the 920 leads US marketshare with 17%, followed by the 822 at 16%, then the 8x at 12%. Despite the fact that the two Nokia phones are available on one carrier respectively and the 8x is available on three carriers. HTC should be disturbed if anyone is.

There two parties who should be more disturbed than HTC.

1. Microsoft, for putting its weight behind the wrong devices, including one with less than 2GB of space for apps.
2. Those who said Nokia was being stupid by going with exclusives.

[socialcarpet]

Perhaps my title is a little misleading. It was meant as an attention grabber. Maybe it should have read A noticeable trend with Nokia and other Windows Phone 8 OEMs. My point is I sure wouldn't want Windows Phone to be dominated by a single OEM. But now it seems like an inevitability. With Andriod, Samsung feels safe and maybe this is why they feel.comfortable not being first to market with new tech. We see this with Apple.

I don't think Nokia is going to feel safe or comfortable enough to rest on it's laurels for a long time.

Even if they were the only Windows Phone hardware maker, which they aren't and will never be, they would still have a huge battle to fight to win customers from iPhone and Android, not to mention Blackberry.

Resting on their laurels is what got Nokia so far behind in the smartphone arms race to begin with. I wouldn't worry about them making that mistake again.
They will probably never be in as comfortable a position as Apple and Samsung are now, Nokia once had the phone world by the balls, but Apple and Google walked right in and took the smartphone market right out from under them because they were too busy dinking around with Symbian and fiddling with Maemo and Meego way too late in the game.

They can't afford to relax now and I'm pretty sure they are quite aware of that. I wouldn't worry about any complacency from them.

[WanderingTraveler]

So far, Windows Phone has less than 10% Marketshare overall.
Nokia lost 3 billion dollars in 2012 alone.
The HTC 8X (barring internal storage) is a great device.
Microsoft is also getting cozy with HTC and Samsung. More of HTC, though.
When the time comes, Samsung can flatten Nokia with a "flagship" phone and a ton of ads.

It is Nokia that still needs to watch over themselves.

[Slai]

I completely disagree. Even as a 920 owner, i feel the 8x was a definite competitor.


The 8x was stunning to look at and hold . Good spec, good price, and a good association with beats. I wish the 920 had the audio amp from the 920.

I think its a real shame it didn't sell as well as the 920.
Sent from my RM-821_eu_euro1_342 using Board Express

I found the 8x disgusting to look at and weird to hold, myself. It also has a weirdly placed lockkey. Plus no advantage over the 920 except for Beats, which to me is not worth the disadvantages.

If the 920 wasn't released, Id still be using my SGS3.

[WinFan1]

I found the 8x disgusting to look at and weird to hold, myself. It also has a weirdly placed lockkey. Plus no advantage over the 920 except for Beats, which to me is not worth the disadvantages.

If the 920 wasn't released, Id still be using my SGS3.

i would say to each their own. i personally find the 8x to be a stunning looking device. one of the few things i never liked about htc is that for some reason they tend to make their buttons flimsy. had this same issue on the hd7 and every other htc ive ever owned.

[Slai]

Yes of course. Some like brunettes, some like redheads, some like 74 year old bald chicks with three teeth and an amputated left arm.
Matter of taste.