Hasta La Gadget!

The past three months haven’t been the best for Finland’s former world number one. It hasn’t been helped by the three biggest credit agencies lowering the company’s bond rating to “junk,” and the Lumia 900’s violently slashed price. Unfortunately the latest results reveal continuing gloom: the manufacturer made an operating loss of $1.01 billion dollars for the quarter. The company managed to make €7.5 billion in sales ($9.2 billion, down .5 billion since the last quarter), shifting four million Lumia handsets in the process. In fact, the only cause for optimism is that sales of the Lumia range have roughly doubled each quarter.

The number of handsets pushed out the door increased (thanks to the Asha range of budget phones) with the company selling 73 million phones. That said, the company has clearly failed to crack America, selling a paltry 600,000 handsets in the States. The cash pile has also continued to dwindle, with the piggybank currently standing at €4.1 billion ($5.1 billion), down from $6.3 billion in Q1, despite getting a further $250 million in kickbacks from Microsoft. Unsurprisingly, the prediction for the third quarter of the year was similarly dour, summed up rather euphemistically as “difficult.”

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s Q2 2012 financials: 4 million Lumias sold, $1.01 billion dollar loss originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Nokia’s Lumia 710 may have been imagined as the Jan Brady of the Lumia line, this supposedly awkward middle child does plenty of things right. In fact, for everyone outside of the smartphone hardcore, it’ll serve you very well at a far lower price than the better-looking (yet similarly specced) 800. That said, does it really need to exist? Would you pick this over the cheaper 610, the better designed 800 or the LTE-packing 900? That’s the question we’re asking you today — if you were bending Stephen Elop‘s ear off about his trials and triumphs, what would you say about the 710, and more importantly, what would you change?

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How would you change the Nokia Lumia 710? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, Motorola debuted the RAZR V in Canada and the Sony Xperia Ion was spotted at Rogers — curiously, the phone has yet to be formally announced for the carrier. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of July 9th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of July 9th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software

Mobile Miscellany: week of July 9th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a hole in Nokia’s heart and it goes all the way to China. Following news this past April that a massive restructuring effort was underway for Espoo’s Asian operations, comes word that offices in Chengdu and Shanghai have been closed amidst declining market share. That’s according to the Wall Street Journal which says the layoffs are targeted at the company’s Chinese sales division — an area Elop’s made clear is essential for growth — as Nokia’s presence in the region has dwindled to 11 percent in Q1, a sharp drop from its more robust 30 percent share last Q2 2011. And with increasing competition from rival OEMs, the layoffs are expected to continue while the house that Lumia’s attempting to rebuild gains its footing.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Nokia shutters two Chinese offices as part of strategic reorganization in the region originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re no CSI, but if we were Amazon, planning to make a phone, we’d definitely want to make sure developers were happy, that we had some weight in the patent world, and had an idea of the end design. With that all sorted, we’d likely hire a senior Director of Business Development from a major competitor — which is exactly what has happened. Robert Williams, formerly of said position at Microsoft Windows Phone is joining his fellow WP alumni, Brandon Watson, over at camp Bezos as Director of the App Store. Of course, this could just be a strategic move on behalf of the company’s Android market, and the Amazon phone is still very much just a rumor, but with more pieces of the puzzle starting to fit, and the book seller’s ability to turn things on their head, we’re far from ruling it out just yet.

Filed under: Cellphones

Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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