A Nokia 3210 Shaped Coffin

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It’s been a long time coming, but I think Wednesday finally sealed the fate of Microsoft’s ailing phone hardware (aka Nokia) division with the news they were cutting a further 1,850 jobs. Any of us over a certain age will fondly remember the Nokia devices of the late 90s and early 00s with their monophonic ring tones, green and black screens, and who can forget the phenomenon that was Snake?

Thinking about how rapidly Nokia declined over recent years made me think about the mixed fortunes of other contemporary handset makers and how they might fare in the future. There’s an interesting page on Wikipedia that lists the top selling phones of all time, and Nokia still occupies 8 of the top 10 slots. As you move down the table, there are only a handful of manufacturers that appear, mainly Apple, Samsung and Motorola. All bar one of those companies have experienced financial trouble (in their phone divisions) in recent years and industry analysts seem keen to constantly ring the apparent death knell of the iPhone.

Interestingly none of the new wave of Chinese manufacturers appear on this list, but I think this is to do with a lack of reporting data or that the data is too old. I also suggest you read further down the page to get an idea of yearly sales vs year-on sales and form a bigger picture of how many devices have actually sold.

Tides and trends move quickly in mobile, and nearly ten years after the introduction of the iPhone, maybe the time is right for a new disruptive player. The question is who? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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