Hasta La Gadget!

We like, ok, love poking fun at analysts’ long term forecasts given the volatility of the smartphone market. Nobody, neither Gartner nor IDC, predicted the meteoric rise of Android and iOS, thus making their four-year projections (measured to a decimal point) laughable, to say the least. Shorten that timeline to the end of the year, however, and the accuracy of these forecasts tends to increase dramatically.

Gartner just released its smartphone projections that align very closely with the numbers released by IDC a few weeks ago. Both research firms see Nokia hemorrhaging its smartphone dominance in 2011 after announcing plans to adopt the Windows Phone platform. Gartner sees Symbian pulling in a remarkably low 19.2 percent (down from 37.6 percent in 2010 or an impressive 46.9 percent share held back in 2009) regardless of Nokia’s insistence that it still has some 150 million Symbian handsets to ship — IDC, as you’ll recall, was a bit more gracious with a 20.9 percent projection for Symbian in 2011. Like IDC, Gartner sees Microsoft making a dramatic comeback just as soon as Nokia can flood its global channels with mid-tier handsets by the end of 2012 with the Windows Phone operating system ultimately rising to the number two spot in global marketshare (Gartner says 19.5 percent to IDC’s 20.9 percent) by, eh hem, 2015. Gartner expects the iOS smartphone slice to peak with a 19.4 percent share (to IDC’s 15.7 percent) in 2011 before dipping a bit under the strain of an Android juggernaut and Apple’s reluctance to sacrifice margins (and profits) for market share. Gartner expects Android to increase the 22.7 market share it enjoyed in 2010 to 38.5 percent in 2011 (compared to the IDC’s slightly more aggressive 39.5 percent share) on the way to dominating the competition with a 49.2 percent share in 2012. Bringing up the rear then is RIM with an estimated chunk of just 13.4 percent in 2011 (compared to 16 percent in 2010) with further declines through 2015 even after the BlackBerry maker migrates to QNX in 2012. Ouch.

As for WebOS: sorry HP, you’re in the “other” category along with Bada.

Continue reading Gartner: Android grabbing over 38 percent of smartphone market in 2011 on Symbian’s demise

Gartner: Android grabbing over 38 percent of smartphone market in 2011 on Symbian’s demise originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia T7-00 surfaces again, looks like N8 redux originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia loves telling the world about the 150 million Symbian handsets it will ship in the years to come. Problem is, that’s far from a factual statement — it’s a goal, a hope, and something that will only be possible if developers and fans don’t abandon the platform wholesale as the company transitions from Symbian to Windows Phone smartphones over the next two years. As such, Nokia is desperately trying to convince us that Symbian and the Qt developer framework are far from dead. In an open letter of encouragement to developers from Purnima Kochikar, VP of Nokia Forum & Developer Community, Purnima attempts to coax devs into fine-tuning their Qt skills in preparation for a “strong portfolio” of new Symbian products with “GHz+” processing and faster graphics coming in 2011 and 2012. Presumably she’s talking about the T7, X7, and E6 leaks among others. And because Symbian is still the leading smartphone platform in markets like China, India, Russia, and Turkey, she hints that Nokia will likely continue to support Symbian well beyond the transition to Windows Phone, at least in select markets.

Of course, hardware has never really been Nokia’s issue so it’s nice to hear Purnima commit to a first major Symbian user experience update this summer that includes the new home screen, icons, browser, and navbar we’ve already seen, in addition to a “fresh look and feel” to the Ovi Store and Maps with the latter also getting a integrated social media services update. The Symbian update — some of which has already been seen on the C7 Astound — will come to “all users” over the air. Too late to save the platform but just in time for the Symbian faithful.

Nokia promises strong Symbian devices through Windows Phone transition, major OTA update this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 03:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want to know where those next 150 million Symbian devices that Nokia wants to sell are going to come from? Well, here’s a little sliver of your answer. We’ve just swung by Nokia’s swank dinner event well outside CTIA’s convention center grounds in Orlando tonight to check out the official introduction of the rumored Astound for T-Mobile. Make no mistake — this is a straight-up C7 in every sense of the word, featuring the same 3.5-inch AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera, and 720p capture as the original announced last year atop Symbian^3 — so the only real differences are the T-Mobile branding (or should that be AT&T branding?) tastefully featured along the bottom chin and a slight platform bump to Symbian^3.1, which we’re told features “some, but not all” of the PR2.0 update’s features like portrait QWERTY support and a refreshed browser. Interestingly, the carrier will be offering WiFi calling on this one — just as it did on the E73 Mode — and you’ll be able to do unrestricted video calling over Qik thanks to the front-facing cam. Look for it to launch on April 6th for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on contract (and pre-orders start tomorrow). Follow the break for our hands-on video and Nokia’s press release.

Continue reading Nokia Astound for T-Mobile coming April 6th for $80 (hands-on with video)

Nokia Astound for T-Mobile coming April 6th for $80 (hands-on with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A stylish, colorful Nokia Windows Phone concept

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a Windows-powered Nokia.

According to the managing director of Nokia India, D. Shivakumar, Nokia is working on a 12 month timeline to release its first set of Windows Phone smartphones.

A 2012 release date likely means that the handsets would run the next version of Windows Phone 7, aka Mango, which is supposed to be made available to manufacturers in late 2011.

According to Shivakumar, the Nokia-Microsoft partnership should bring new life to the fledgling smartphone OS, which made up only 3% of total wordwide smartphone sales at the end of 2010. Nokia’s flailing Symbian smartphones held a strong 31% of the global market that same quarter.

“Microsoft has been looking for a strong hardware partner, but they have been on phones [platforms] which have not given them that strength. With Nokia, suddenly the scales are huge.”

In February, Nokia announced it would be teaming up with Microsoft to “transform the company.” The move meant that Nokia would be abandoning Symbian in favor of Windows Phone 7 and future Windows Phone installments, much to the chagrin of its developers.

Nokia still plans to release about 20 Symbian smartphones in 2011 out of the 40-50 total new models it’ll be launching.

The Finnish company plans to follow a two-year time frame to complete the transition to Windows Phone-only handsets.

In the mean time, Nokia has redirected its primary business strategy to reach the 3.2 billion people who don’t currently own mobile phones, and the other nearly 3 million who can’t or don’t access the Internet on their devices, while Apple and other smartphone manufacturers vie for the high-end spectrum of tech power users.

Nokia’s First Windows Phone to be Released in a Year [DNA via Slashgear]