Comments on: Surging Sales But Tighter Margins Reported by Nokia in Q4 ’05 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/01/17/surging-sales-but-tighter-margins-reported-by-nokia-in-q4-05/ Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino on mobile technology. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:56:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Paul Whitaker http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/01/17/surging-sales-but-tighter-margins-reported-by-nokia-in-q4-05/comment-page-1/#comment-1479 Paul Whitaker Tue, 17 Jan 2006 20:24:10 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/01/17/surging-sales-but-tighter-margins-reported-by-nokia-in-q4-05/#comment-1479 I agree with Olly. The RAZR isn't really a high end phone. I'm not picking on the RAZR but making that point that in the US market you could consider it a high end phone simply because it's not the freebie you get when you sign a contract at the local mall kiosk. The camera, UI and other features are simply not very noteworthy. It's a phone, like so many others, that is sold based on sex appeal in a market where people care less about what the phone can do and more about what it looks like and what their friends have. It's interesting that at a time when carriers are desperately seeking ways to generate revenue from something other than voice minutes the low end fashion phones still get the spotlight. It seems that having a high volume of feature starved phones on the network would be something of a problem. Perhaps that will begin to turn around when companies like EA, Clear Channel, Yahoo and Google help "average joe" realize that there's more to that phone in their pocket than making voice calls. I agree with Olly. The RAZR isn’t really a high end phone. I’m not picking on the RAZR but making that point that in the US market you could consider it a high end phone simply because it’s not the freebie you get when you sign a contract at the local mall kiosk. The camera, UI and other features are simply not very noteworthy. It’s a phone, like so many others, that is sold based on sex appeal in a market where people care less about what the phone can do and more about what it looks like and what their friends have.

It’s interesting that at a time when carriers are desperately seeking ways to generate revenue from something other than voice minutes the low end fashion phones still get the spotlight. It seems that having a high volume of feature starved phones on the network would be something of a problem.

Perhaps that will begin to turn around when companies like EA, Clear Channel, Yahoo and Google help “average joe” realize that there’s more to that phone in their pocket than making voice calls.

]]> By: Matt "olly" Crandall http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/01/17/surging-sales-but-tighter-margins-reported-by-nokia-in-q4-05/comment-page-1/#comment-1477 Matt "olly" Crandall Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:09:16 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/01/17/surging-sales-but-tighter-margins-reported-by-nokia-in-q4-05/#comment-1477 Thanks for the report, very interesting to look at. I find it interesting to see the differences between where various manufacturers have success as well. For example, the two competitive phones you named to Nokia, the RAZR and SE's Walkman line, are seemingly competing in very different spaces. Nokia has been aimed at the functional/smartphone/camera phone markets for quite a while, while their fashion phone offerings have seemed almost an aftersite, and their musicphone flagship, the N91, has of course yet to be released. The RAZR certainly appealed to the fashionistas of the world (before it became so ubiquitous that every 13 year old had one), and the Walkman phone was a clear (obviously by the branding) push into the emerging music phone market. My point? I find it really interesting that, despite the different market aims of all of these phones, they still compete directly with one another.. showing just how homogenized the mobile market at large really is. In computing, you can draw a very distinct line between workstations, servers, business, home computing, laptops, etc, but that kind of stratification of the market hasn't really hit mobiles yet. Thanks! -olly Thanks for the report, very interesting to look at. I find it interesting to see the differences between where various manufacturers have success as well. For example, the two competitive phones you named to Nokia, the RAZR and SE’s Walkman line, are seemingly competing in very different spaces. Nokia has been aimed at the functional/smartphone/camera phone markets for quite a while, while their fashion phone offerings have seemed almost an aftersite, and their musicphone flagship, the N91, has of course yet to be released. The RAZR certainly appealed to the fashionistas of the world (before it became so ubiquitous that every 13 year old had one), and the Walkman phone was a clear (obviously by the branding) push into the emerging music phone market.

My point? I find it really interesting that, despite the different market aims of all of these phones, they still compete directly with one another.. showing just how homogenized the mobile market at large really is. In computing, you can draw a very distinct line between workstations, servers, business, home computing, laptops, etc, but that kind of stratification of the market hasn’t really hit mobiles yet.

Thanks!

-olly

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