Let me first start by saying I am a long time fan of Nokia smartphones. I started using them in 2002 with the Nokia 3650 on T-Mobile and I am the writer of the Nokia Experts site, part of the Smartphone Experts family of sites. I write that site because of my interest and passion in their products and am not paid by Nokia or anyone else to write the site. I have gotten a couple of devices from the SPE staff to evaluate for the site over the year and a half I have been writing it. I wanted to let you know this about me since I do have strong feelings for Nokia products (positive and negative) and am writing this as an opinion piece, which is much of what this blog is about.
There is also the Maemo 5 UI in the Nokia N900 that is pretty revolutionary and offers a multi-tasking interface that may be the best on the market with one of the most powerful mobile browsers we have ever seen.
We still see some low end Nokia phones at T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon today and Nokia does have a small US market share. We have seen some recent S60 smartphones released by AT&T (Nokia E71x) and T-Mobile (Nokia E73 Mode and Nokia Nuron), but nothing like what we see in Europe and other countries. AT&T hobbled the experience of the ESeries with the E71x having an overabundance of crapware and carrier lock down (nothing new for AT&T outside of the iPhone) so it wasn't as good of an experience as it could have been. T-Mobile USA doesn't work like this and both the Nuron and E73 Mode are good choices for smartphones. I personally have been using the E73 Mode as my main T-Mobile device for over a month and find it to be a fantastic and very capable smartphone. The great thing about the Nuron is that T-Mobile has some very low data plan rates for the device while it gives you the full free Ovi Maps navigation capability and S60 5th Edition operating system.
The mindshare of Nokia in the US still appears to be one of the cheap low end phones and Nokia is going to have to work hard to help people understand that powerful smartphones are available for an excellent price and offer some amazing services like Ovi Maps. They are also going to have to continue working with carriers because most folks in the US will not buy unlocked smartphones and do not understand that the initial price of a mobile phone is nothing compared to the carrier monthly minimum fees that subsidized phones require them to pay.
The higher end Nokia devices are sold only as SIM-unlocked devices from the Nokia USA site and through other online retailers like Amazon and Newegg. The great thing is that these devices are sold both as SIM-unlocked devices and as no-contract required devices while the smartphone sold through carriers are no-contract phones only that are still locked to the specific carrier. The upcoming Nokia N8 is available for pre-order now through the Nokia USA site for $549 and by comparison the 16GB iPhone 4 is $599, the 32GB iPhone 4 is $699, and the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant is $499.99. Again, keep in mind that these carrier phones are still locked to the carrier and AT&T and/or Apple will not SIM unlock the iPhone. I understand that most people don't care about non-contract pricing since they plan to stay with a carrier for a long time, but it may be important to those of use who travel overseas or who buy new smartphones quicker than the 2-year contract length.
Nokia previously stated that 2010 would be a transition year as they moved from their S60 platform to the Symbian platform that includes Symbian^3 devices launching first with the N8 in September. They also switched their high end strategy a bit and dropped Maemo to work with Intel on the MeeGo platform with devices likely not appearing until early 2011. I don't think they are sitting on their laurels and they must understand and see what is happening in the smartphone market. There are some very intelligent people at Nokia and I think we can count on them rolling out compelling products in the future and fighting hard to maintain and even increase their worldwide market share.
Nokia does extremely well in the lower end mobile phone market with their S40 products flourishing in developing countries. There is very little profit made on each device here, but Nokia is helping to connect the world and improves the lives of millions with these products as you can see with projects such as their Ovi Life Tools.
Nokia is also very conscious of the environment and works hard to promote good stewardship of our planet.
Nokia will continue to sell millions of their low end devices around the world and if they play their cards right they should maintain and maybe grow their smartphone market share as Symbian and MeeGo devices start hitting the street in 2011. Their influence and impact in the US still remains questionable as they must work with the carriers to succeed here in our rather dated infrastructure. I am trying to educate people through my Nokia Experts site and think there is a lot of room for improvement here in the US.
My hope is that the media and other smartphone enthusiasts approach and look at Nokia with a more open mind and just because you may not be familiar with an operating system that doesn't mean it sucks. Nokia is very well liked by millions of people (the Symbian Foundation reported that they and a majority of them are from Nokia while Nokia also reports 1.7 million Ovi Store downloads per day) and it sure would be nice to see people in the US appreciate their products too.
UPDATE: Thank you all for the comments made so far, much more encouraging than I thought I would see at this point. One of the main points being made that I should have focused on a bit more is that Nokia smartphones are still indeed first and foremost great phones. I know many of us that read these blogs are all about the data and computing power in our smartphones, but there are millions of people who just want a good phone and Nokia excels in this department.
I also meant to point out that people do not get much hands-on experience with Nokia's smartphones since so few are sold via carriers and when people actually get the chance to use them they are often surprised at how good they are. As you can see in the Third Annual Smartphone Round Robin that I participated in last year, every editor of the Smartphone Experts family of sites was caught off guard by the functionality and capability of the Nokia N900 and N97 mini with one comment made that I shouldn't be allowed to bring a mini computer to a smartphone battle.