Comment by marshray | Hacker News Reader

Comment by marshray | Hacker News Reader

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Reasonably successful? I dare you to name one single Nokia-phone made the last half decade which you would consider relevant.

Well "dare" is a pretty big word, as if you're making some kind of threat of retaliation if I do.

So let's just ask Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=nokia+market+penetration

Second link: http://gigaom.com/2010/03/18/the-mobile-os-market/

Check that out. According to that data, in the 2007-2009 time frame they shipped more cell phone operating systems than everyone else combined. That probably translates into a lot of physical Nokia phones, too.

The point that it may be stagnant is well taken, which is why I said "reasonably successful" instead of "stomping everyone else into the ground".

But irrelevant it is not.

No, stagnant would imply things were stable and they're clearly not. You can make an argument that Symbian OS was successful in the past, but the trend in the GigaOM chart you linked is pretty clear: rapid decline. In 2007, Symbian was around 2/3 of the total smartphone market, and two years later it had fallen below 50%. During the same period, RIM almost tripled its market share and the iPhone and Android numbers were showing even stronger growth.

Care to share dynamics of Nokia's market share during last two years?

The point that it may be stagnant is well taken, which is why I said "reasonably successful" instead of "stomping everyone else into the ground". But irrelevant it is not.

Fair enough. But if you look at how quickly Windows Mobile went from being the de-facto Smartphone OS to completely irrelevant and take into account (as Nokia's CEO acknowledged) that they are being taken on and losing market-share at every point which they've usually excelled at, it's clear that while they may not be irrelevant now, the way there is not very long.

The need to do something drastic was IMO very real. If going for Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 as opposed to other options like Android was the best choice can clearly be debated, but something had to be done. Staying with the "reasonable successful" platform they had would not have been a viable long term strategy.

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