

Nokia Becomes The Fourth Largest Smartphone Brand in USA in Q3 2013 - sker
http://www.counterpointresearch.com/nokia-becomes-the-fourth-largest-smartphone-brand-in-usa-in-q3-2013

======
usaphp
I am very glad to see how the company which I love and follow for so many
years is getting more and more share in the US market. The best thing I like
about Nokia is how they are obsessed with quality of their products, I think
in terms of build quality and design, Nokia is the only smartphone/tablet
maker at this time to be a real competitor to Apple.

~~~
sker
Yes, Nokia is the only company that gives me hardware envy. I've been wanting
to run Android on one of those gorgeous Lumias for a long time. I've never
felt like running Android on an iPhone.

Maybe if they reach 10%+ someone will take the trouble of hacking Android into
one of their phones.

~~~
MehdiEG
It's already been done. Get yourself an N9 (same hardware as the lumia 800) or
an N950 (most beautiful phone hardware I've ever had the chance to use but
hard to come by as only a few thousand units were produced) and install
nitdroid.

The problem is that the OS and hardware really go hand in hand. Installing a
completely different OS than the one the hardware was designed for often
results in a disappointing device. The N950 running Meego for example is still
to this day what I would consider the pinnacle of hardware and software
engineering when it comes to smartphones. It looks gorgeous, it feels amazing
- no other smartphone I've ever used (and I've used many) comes close.

But install Android on it and it suddenly looks and feels like an unsightly
brick. The way android looks like, the UI gestures, the way Android is meant
to be used in general is different than Meego and it doesn't fit the hardware
at all. It's loads of subtle and seemingly small details but the end result is
a very unpleasant device.

~~~
sker
I'll look into it, although I was thinking more of a Lumia 92x or 1020, mostly
for the camera.

------
outside1234
Nokia is going to make the turn, against all the odds. This is really
promising news for having a 3 platform horserace to keep things honest.

~~~
Nux
What are you smoking, dude? There's no more Nokia to make the turn. Their
entire phone section now belongs to Microsoft.

------
cpprototypes
Competition is good but for app development it's becoming too much. Android
and iOS and WP and maybe Firefox OS? Who can handle developing four versions
of an app? There's been a lot of debate on native vs web based on performance.
But web may become the only reasonable way to release an app on all platforms.

~~~
kronholm
Thus why cross-platform solutions are having tremendous growth. If web won't
win out, it'll certainly be a cross-platform solution in the long run. My
money's on web, if performance of those webviews catches up to native.

~~~
Joeri
The performance of the web views doesn't have to catch up, it just needs to be
adequate. Just like on the desktop browsers still deliver a much weaker
experience than native apps, but almost nobody is releasing new desktop apps
anymore.

------
pawn
I just recently got a Nokia 1020 and I love the camera so much. People keep
asking "so does it REALLY have that good of a camera?" My favorite thing to do
is to take a random picture while they watch, and then zoom way in on some
text that's unreadable to their eyes, or zoom in on someone's skin pores.

------
rbanffy
Sounds impressive until you realize they're #4 with 4% market share.

~~~
outside1234
in the US. In Italy, the Nokia line is outselling the iPhone.

~~~
oscargrouch
Also in Brazil, everything Apple is VERY-VERY expensive, because of the
taxation system.. so the market share for Androids and Nokia are bigger

~~~
riffraff
why would the taxation system penalize apple more than nokia or samsung?

It's not like the latters are made in brazil. Does brazil have special
punitive tax rates towards US based companies?

Or is it just that the local equivalent of VAT goes up fast with the phone
price?

~~~
juusto
In Brazil taxes do not "penalize" countries, products or companies.

Right in the middle of the Amazon region there is a development zone where the
majority of the electronics are made, in the country, by multinationals. It is
called a Zona Franca.

When built in the country the import taxes, which represent the majority of
the cost for imports such as electronics, these taxes are removed and make the
good much cheaper.

It is the same with Xbox and PS4 in Brazil. An Xbox is 4 times cheaper than a
PS4. If Brazil would be against USA or it's companies then it would be the
reverse.

Hope I helped.

ps. Many people in country complain about the taxes but forget that when
companies move their industries to Brazil, jobs, money and know-how stay there
too improving the competitiveness. Sadly the vast majority of the population
will look the price tag and complain without knowing the implications behind.

~~~
danmaz74
For your ps: on the other hand, just think what would happen if every country
did the same thing.

~~~
oscargrouch
Not everybody could do it.. only countries with big markets could have this
privilege..

Small contries would get simply ignored by the industries, since its too much
trouble..

So it would get reduced to: China, Russia, Brazil, US, Japan.. and if managed
in block: Europa..

This policy from Brazil is not a bad one if you think that the only other
possibility left for industrial growth(technology transfer) would be one of
the cheap labor.. like what happened in China, South Korea and the Asian
Tigers..

------
AnotherDesigner
When I finally gave up my Wifi+Skype plan for a cell phone with data a while
ago, I went with a Nokia phone. It's stylish and affordable and Nokia is known
for building things that last. The phone is great. But my feelings for
Microsoft haven't improved. Shortly after I purchased the phone, Microsoft
announced they wouldn't provide an upgrade path for Windows Phone 7 to 8. Then
they announced they would release a mini-update to Windows Phone 7.8 for us
that would bring some of the features. I waited six months or so for a tiny
update and then they took it away and never released it on my phone. As long
as Nokia is running Windows Phone, I will never buy another. And I certainly
won't ever buy another Windows Phone anything again after the way they treated
their users. I feel like my phone is running a beta version of Windows Phone
and will never get updated to the real thing.

------
IOException
Just got Nokia 520 last week as a throwaway phone (while I wait for 5s). I
must say its great phone with windows phone 8 looking very polished and useful
- only problem MS-Nokia has is quality and number of apps - hopefully they
will be able to reach tipping point soon.

For 80$, no contract this is great deal going on now.

------
programminggeek
This is all because of the Lumia 520, which is really driving Nokia's sales.
There is a good space at the low end of the smartphone market and with people
moving towards prepaid or no-contract in the US, a cheap off contract
smartphone like the 520 is a really winner.

This is also good because Nokia is like 80+% of Windows Phone sales, so that
means Windows Phone is creeping upward against Android (for better or worse)

~~~
Tarrosion
The 520 really is a fantastic phone for its price point. Less than $100 no
contract, and for 99% of daily activities I find it to be as good as or better
than my friends' iPhones and Galaxies.

~~~
barista
then you should check out Lumia 1020. The Camera is just awesome on it.

------
devx
It's too bad they didn't continue things with Meego. I would've preferred
another open source OS to be the 3rd platform instead of another closed source
one.

Windows Phone owes the vast majority of its success to Nokia anyway, because
most of the early adopters bought Nokia phones because of the hardware and
_despite_ Windows Phone, which is why Nokia has like 90 percent market share
of the WP market.

If this wasn't the case, the market would've been more decentralized. You
could also test the theory another way - if Nokia would've quit WP for Android
this year (if Microsoft wouldn't have bought them), Windows Phone would be
dead almost immediately.

Plus, Nokia's phones actually looked nicer with Meego:

[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/06/nokia-...](http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/06/nokia-n9-family.jpg)

[http://cdn.theunlockr.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/11/Android...](http://cdn.theunlockr.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/11/Android-ICS-Nokia-N9.jpg)

~~~
freehunter
That looks almost exactly like Windows Phone with an iPhone or Android style
apple launcher.

~~~
Geee
Well the UI is much more than a launcher. The N9 / MeeGo had the most
redefined and brilliantly designed user interface on smartphones, both
visually and functionally. Miles ahead of current-gen Android, for example.
IMO It's the only interface that had the same 'magic' of iOS through
simplicity, yet it was way more powerful. Here's couple of nice animated
examples to get a glimpse of it:

[http://harmattan-
dev.nokia.com/docs/ux/pages/PB_Opening_and_...](http://harmattan-
dev.nokia.com/docs/ux/pages/PB_Opening_and_Closing_Applications.html)
[http://harmattan-
dev.nokia.com/docs/ux/pages/PB_Backstack_an...](http://harmattan-
dev.nokia.com/docs/ux/pages/PB_Backstack_and_Multitaksing.html)

------
smegel
This is more about the fall of once strong companies like HTC than Nokia's
rise...and the eternal dominance of Apple and Samsung.

------
pessimizer
But it took that share from Motorola, not the leaders. A better headline would
be "Nokia ships more smartphones than Motorola, this quarter."

------
stuaxo
Nokia: The U.S. or the rest of the world; pick one.

