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Another example: Nokia. Right before the iPhone was introduced, Nokia's R&D budget was _huge_ compared to Apple's. I guess that proves that Nokia is more innova

Another example: Nokia. Right before the iPhone was introduced, Nokia's R&D budget was _huge_ compared to Apple's. I guess that proves that Nokia is more innovative than Apple?

wisty 14y ago
http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/04/nokia-employs-as-many-engineers-for-symbian-and-meego-as-apple-does-for-all-its-product-lines/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/04/nokia-employs-as-many-engin... Nokia developed HW, Symbian, S40, MeeGoo, and services. It also spent a bit on actual research. Pure research often pays off (in unpredictable ways). Developing a number of platforms turned out to be a bad idea.
- timthorn 14y ago
  Of course, Symbian wasn't created by Nokia, and MeeGoo also relied on Linux.
- meaty 14y ago
  Well Nokia bought Symbian from Psion... S40 is still their monumental achievement: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16712308 http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16712308
hnriot 14y ago
You seem to forget that cellphones are actually phenomenally complicated pieces of RF engineering. It wasn't Apple pioneering how to make that all work. People seem to forget now that Phones aren't just computers. That miniaturization was rf technologies was, in part, thanks to Nokia who were getting people talking without wires long before Apple decided to think about phones. While Apple as a company pre-dates Nokia by I suspect something like a decade, back then Apple were focused on getting spreadsheets working.
- lebski88 14y ago
  > While Apple as a company pre-dates Nokia by I suspect something like a decade Actually Nokia date back to 1865 but they originally a wood pulp mill then rubber manufacturer. They got into electronics in the 1960s and focussed on phones from the 1990s.
- jacobwil 14y ago
  Nokia as a company has existed since the 1800s and first released a mobile telephone in the 1960s. Apple was incorporated in 1977. Motorola is the company that came out with the first handheld mobile phone in the 1970s. You have made sweeping and broad overgeneralizations that betray the complexity of the situation. Apple's masterstroke was not in inventing the concept of a smartphone, but in producing one that provided a much better user experience that the rest of the market. As for the differences in hardware and rf engineering, I'll leave that to someone more qualified to explain because my knowledge in the area is far from complete.
- vardump 14y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia - they've been a corporation since 1871. They developed their first mobile phone network system in 1971, ARP. It had 100% countrywide (Finland) coverage in 1978.
- RandallBrown 14y ago
  Actually, Nokia has been around since 1865.

Another example: Nokia. Right before the iPhone was introduced, Nokia's R&D budget was _huge_ compared to Apple's. I guess that proves that Nokia is more innovative than Apple?

wisty 14y ago

http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/04/nokia-employs-as-many-engineers-for-symbian-and-meego-as-apple-does-for-all-its-product-lines/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/04/nokia-employs-as-many-engin... Nokia developed HW, Symbian, S40, MeeGoo, and services. It also spent a bit on actual research. Pure research often pays off (in unpredictable ways). Developing a number of platforms turned out to be a bad idea.

timthorn 14y ago
Of course, Symbian wasn't created by Nokia, and MeeGoo also relied on Linux.
meaty 14y ago
Well Nokia bought Symbian from Psion... S40 is still their monumental achievement: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16712308 http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16712308

hnriot 14y ago

You seem to forget that cellphones are actually phenomenally complicated pieces of RF engineering. It wasn't Apple pioneering how to make that all work. People seem to forget now that Phones aren't just computers. That miniaturization was rf technologies was, in part, thanks to Nokia who were getting people talking without wires long before Apple decided to think about phones. While Apple as a company pre-dates Nokia by I suspect something like a decade, back then Apple were focused on getting spreadsheets working.

lebski88 14y ago
> While Apple as a company pre-dates Nokia by I suspect something like a decade Actually Nokia date back to 1865 but they originally a wood pulp mill then rubber manufacturer. They got into electronics in the 1960s and focussed on phones from the 1990s.
jacobwil 14y ago
Nokia as a company has existed since the 1800s and first released a mobile telephone in the 1960s. Apple was incorporated in 1977. Motorola is the company that came out with the first handheld mobile phone in the 1970s. You have made sweeping and broad overgeneralizations that betray the complexity of the situation. Apple's masterstroke was not in inventing the concept of a smartphone, but in producing one that provided a much better user experience that the rest of the market. As for the differences in hardware and rf engineering, I'll leave that to someone more qualified to explain because my knowledge in the area is far from complete.
vardump 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia - they've been a corporation since 1871. They developed their first mobile phone network system in 1971, ARP. It had 100% countrywide (Finland) coverage in 1978.
RandallBrown 14y ago
Actually, Nokia has been around since 1865.