imported_Jack Cook

If you have the ability to "read the writing on the wall" you tend to make changes early. Nokia is a power house in the Smartphone market. They have incredible designs and have been able to domininate for a long time but there is change coming, they recognize it and are trying to position themselves to guarantee their leadership role. The latest rumors of a Palm takeover by Nokia, Motorola and others certainly give credance to the latest ABI Research reports. It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out.

According to the latest research on smartphone markets from ABI Research, Nokia has maintained its leadership position with a 56.4\% share of the 70.9 million units shipped in 2006. Nokia sold 40 million smartphones in 2006, compared to 28.5 million in 2005. Motorola also had a strong 2006 and occupied the second position with 8.5\% market share, driven by the success of its Linux-based devices in China, most notably the MING. At the same time, Symbian’s strong position in the smartphone operating system market is under continued and increasing threat. According to mobile wireless research analyst Shailendra Pandey, “The key in differentiating smartphone products still lies in the physical design, and the look and feel of the user interface. The right combination of size, form factor, operating system, and bundled applications will determine the success of a smartphone.� In addition to the usual features, consumers are now increasingly seeking smartphones that have touch screens, MP3 players, Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth, fast processors, and lots of memory as well as an expansion card slot. ABI Research’s new report, “Smartphones and the OS Market� found that there is a growing need to save on software bill of materials as handset ASPs continue to spiral downwards. This trend has been highlighted by Symbian’s decision to lower its license fees, and by an increasing interest in Linux. Research director Stuart Carlaw remarks that, “It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ Linux will have an impact upon this market. In 2006, Symbian was estimated to have a 73\% share of the smartphone OS market, yet our forecast is that it will to fall to 46\% by 2012, due to strong competition coming most notably from Linux, but also from Windows Mobile.� Smartphones and the OS Market (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/market_research/Smartphones) investigates the key drivers, barriers, and latest trends influencing the market for smartphones, identifying the high-level business and technology issues and critical considerations for addressing the smartphone market. It is a component of the company’s Mobile Devices Research Service (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/Mobile_Devices_Research_S ervice), which includes other Research Reports, Research Briefs, Market Data, Online Databases, ABI Insights, and analyst inquiry support. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in broadband and multimedia, RFID & contactless, M2M, wireless connectivity, mobile wireless, transportation, and emerging technologies.

Source: ABI Research

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Kulnet

I dunno about this... I kinda like Palm doing its own thing and I'm not sure if a takeover by Nokia is such a good thing. Keep us posted Jack and thanks.

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Paul

psionandy

I've been wondering about this and it still doesn't make sense..

Nokia has an active design team, has touch screen devices, has an operating system capable of mutiltasking, and running apps/games. They have in house linux experience, certainly more than palm has (it's access that have the linux skills)

Symbian's license fees isn't really a reason to do it.. they own most of symbian and are effectivly paying themselves for the license. Why would they want to pay access for the ALP? (or whatever it's called today?)

They don't have a windows mobile license, but surely it would be cheaper to buy one from MS instead of buying palm.

In the 1990s Symbian was touted to be the back end of the PalmOS. Much in the way that Linux is now.

So why would Nokia want an aging OS, Obselecent range of devices, and a decently selling windows smartphone?

Motorola on the other hand seem to have a track record in doing stupid things like that.

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badersk

I don't know Nokia has some good hardware but a seemingly small following for their OS. I think that it might make for a good matchup. Their hardware with the two most popular OS's