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You're still competing with Samsung whether you're on Android or not. So now Nokia is competing with Samsung with both inferior hardware verticals and incompati

• fpgeek 13y ago
  Might not even be next year. Even if you don't count the new Galaxy Camera since it is a connected camera, not a phone, Sony is rumored to be pulling technology from their camera division for their next flagship phone, due this fall.
  • deleted 13y ago
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• fpgeek 13y ago
  Also, it's not like Samsung and several other Android OEMs aren't keeping Windows Phone projects going on the side. If Windows Phone does start to get any traction, Nokia will soon see exactly sort of competition they were trying to avoid on the Android side.
  • bsaul 13y ago
    Except the situation would be reversed : they would have more experience and samsung would have to catch up. I think that's actually pretty smart on nokia's part.
    • snom380 13y ago
      ..but play catch up to what? It's not like Nokia has outdone themselves by customizing Windows Phone.
      • throwawaykf02 13y ago
        They did have significant distinguishing features previously, specifically their Nokia-specific apps like Nokia Drive and Nokia Transit. Drive for one, I speculate, drove a lot of adoption for Nokia within the WP market. It has received several favorable mentions even on HN, and personally I find it better than either Google's or Bing's navigation apps. However, that strategy seems to have changed, with Drive being licensed to all Windows Phone devices, regardless of manufacturer. So they do lose a major differentiating feature, but they gain something else: the ability to make money on any WP device sold. I guess they prefer to differentiate on hardware going forward.
    • rst 13y ago
      Catch up with what? One of the differentiators of Windows Phone was originally supposed to be that Microsoft wasn't allowing reskinning at all, and while the "special relationship" with Nokia was rumored to allow them a little more freedom in this regard, they certainly haven't used it much. So long as Samsung and HTC Windows Phones offer the same experience as Nokia, they've caught up already. In fact, they'd "caught up" before Nokia even shipped! So, who's playing catch-up here anyway?
      • bsaul 13y ago
        I can think of a few things: - custom apps ( even if it's not on the phones by default) - marketing. once you've got your phones so much associated with and OS, it takes some time to convince your existing users that they'll need to change
• imaadrashied 13y ago
  I think this was/is a smart move for Nokia. They were right to predict Samsung would be the major Android player. Instead of competing against a company that already had a major lead and essentially becoming one of the smaller fish in a larger Android pond, it's taking a bet on becoming a large fish in a smaller pond that has very real upside potential. I stress potential because we've all been a little disappointed with Microsoft's latest maneuvers, but there's still a chance for the company to turn it around. At the end of the day I respect such a great risk being taken at a massive firm (you don't see a lot of that these days). Nokia still believe a third ecosystem can be a very real option for smartphone consumers and they want to be that third option. Takes guts. I'm all for a little more competition.
  • product50 13y ago
    It has been 2 years since that decision was made. Where is the "very real" upside potential you are talking about. Windows Phone has been an underdog since 2010! Claim your argument based on facts and what is going on - rather than what you feel like.
  • RyanZAG 13y ago
    I don't understand your point. Nokia competes with Samsung regardless of OS choice. Not using Android does not mean Nokia gets out of competing with Android or Samsung. There is no big pond and little pond here. They are all in the same ocean.
    • throwawaykf02 13y ago
      But how would they differentiate from Samsung? Replacing stock Android UI with a custom skin, a practice that everybody seems to hate? Installing specific apps, which too, are often derided? The one Nokia app that is significant is Drive, but they could not leverage that because Google does not allow their own location-based apps to be replaced on their "open" platform. (See Skyhook lawsuit.) Their investment in Navteq would be a complete write-off. That leaves the hardware arena, where, by my reading between the lines, Nokia felt it would not be able to compete effectively enough given Samsung's "vertical integration", not to mention, their "resources" (read: marketing budget).
• barista 13y ago
  Open platform? BS! Google has milked the term to its benefit. There have been many discussions here that question the openness of android.
  • nileshtrivedi 13y ago
    Which other major mobile OS has the equivalent of Cyanogenmod?
    • throwawaykf02 13y ago
      Not comparable to Cyanogenmod, but Microsoft at one point officially supported the WP jailbreak tool and its developers, Chevron. The logic was, of course, to get more apps developed for WP. Unfortunately, after a while, they found out nobody jailbroke their phones to develop apps, so both parties agreed to stop supporting it, and later updates revoked the jailbreaks.
      • fpgeek 13y ago
        Not comparable to Cyanogenmod is an understatement. According to their own site, Chevron is just a third-party implementation of the Android's "Unknown Sources" (i.e. sideloading) checkbox: http://chevronwp7.tumblr.com/post/1679668269/windows-phone-7-unlocker-released http://chevronwp7.tumblr.com/post/1679668269/windows-phone-7... Good for Microsoft for supporting for a while (and boo for changing their minds), but either way this doesn't get Windows Phone any brownie points vs Android.
    • fpgeek 13y ago
      Not to mention Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch (both made possible by re-using low-level parts of the Android stack).
• miguelrochefort 13y ago
  The only reason Windows Phone is not the dominant mobile OS is because of the social stigma around Windows. For most people, Windows Phone is a MUCH better experience than Android. The problem is that no one gives Windows Phone a chance. I don't know many people that used Windows Phone and switched back to Android/iPhone. Beside the app factor (which is much less of an issue than what people think), Windows Phone is an excellent mobile OS.
  • bhughes 13y ago
    The reason why people don't use Windows Phone is because they don't want to. It's easy to say in a place like HN that there is a "social stigma" around using Windows, but for the average consumer this is clearly not the case. For a lot of typical desktop users, Windows is the computer ("reboot your Windows", "start up Windows", etc). Microsoft simply couldn't find a way to leverage that in the mobile space.
  • cheery 13y ago
    Shut up Microsoft shill. Most people do not even have a clue about which operating system their phone has. And they do not care. Just like they do not do with PC either. If Windows Phone doesn't interest anyone. It is because they were unable to fit a niche. It is because their phone is a disaster. The operating system is irrelevant for most of phone users.
    • freehunter 13y ago
      See, that's the problem. Someone says something nice about Windows and suddenly they're being told (in an incredibly fucking rude fashion) that they must be working for Microsoft because Microsoft is the devil. You just proved his point that no one talks about Microsoft because of the social stigma attached to it. You just proved that if you say something nice about Microsoft, your peers will make you an outcast.
      • mst 13y ago
        Looking at cheery's comments, it seems that he's that negative about pretty much everything.
• cdooh 13y ago
  The Maemo platform had so much promise, and it was open source too!! The original Iphone and the N900 were on par. I'd know, I'm using the N900 now
  • toyg 13y ago
    > The original Iphone and the N900 were on par. I wish. I own an N900: it's twice as big (and twice as heavy) as the original iPhone, with a very unsexy industrial design, and the OS is a hodgepodge of toolkits and hacks, deprecated the minute it came out. It was incredibly hackable and customizable, but nowhere as robust and coherent as an iPhone. I loved the concept and would have loved to see it become a platform for commercial Python/PySide mobile apps, but it was nowhere near the iPhone when it came out. Its successor, the N9, was on par with the iPhone, but never got a chance, commercially, thanks to one Stephen Elop.
    • cdooh 13y ago
      Your definition of sexy is not the same as mine.:) But we can both agree there was serious potential