The night of numbers: How smartphone manufacturers fared in Q3 2013

Yesterday evening saw the release of several big financial indicators of smartphone development, and how the manufacturers within the market were getting on.

      Overall it was a big marker for global smartphone sales, as they passed 250 million units for the first time ever this past quarter. That meant that 60% of all phones sold worldwide were smartphones. Of these 250m phones, a huge 88.4m were Samsung - over 35% of the marketshare in Q3 2013. 

Here's a quick summary of what happened with the individual manufacturers:

Apple

First off, the big news from the night came from Apple, who announced their results for fiscal Q4 2013. As always, they made for interesting reading.

As always for Apple, the financial results were pretty healthy. Of the $37.5bn revenue, Apple made $7.5bn profit. That contributed to a whopping annual fiscal revenue record of $171bn. Tim Cook announced an expectation of around $55bn for the Christmas quarter.
     Whilst the finances look strong enough, it wasn't all plain sailing for Apple. iPhone market share dropped to 13% over the quarter and analysts put this down to products failing to address the low-end of the the smartphone pricing market. For example, the Android-based 'Red Rice' smartphone in China costs $130, compared to $549 for Apple's cheapest offering, the iPhone 5c. This contributed to a slightly underwhelming 33.8m iPhones being shipped.

     The stale news didn't stop there, iPad revenues were down, with sales staying flat on the 14m sold in the same period in 2012. Mac sales dropped to 4.6m and iPod shipments dropped by nearly 50% to 3.5m.

Understandably, the value of shares in Apple initially fell over 3% during a press conference with Tim Cook. At end of trading, Apple's stock was down 5%.

Nokia

The first of the big winners from last night was Nokia. Over 8.8m Nokia Windows Phones were shipped in the last quarter - 19% up from the previous quarter. Notably, Nokia reported an incredible 367% year-on-year rise in the number of Lumia devices sold in North America. Understandably Nokia are delighted with this and attributed the increase of 6m handset sales over 2012 to the widening range of Nokia Windows Phone handsets, in particular the Lumia 520.

This is of course great news for Microsoft as well, as the more people operating the Windows RT interface, the more consumers will be comfortable with the switch to other Windows 8 devices.

Others

Nokia wasn't the only manufacturer patting themselves on the back, Huawei's global shipments grew by 67% to an impressive 12.7m in Q3 2013, becoming the world's third largest smartphone vendor in the period. Whilst this was mostly in China, it is understood that Huawei will be aggressively targeting Europe and the U.S over the next 12 months.

     Behind Huawei, LG also reported strong results by growing the fastest among the top five smartphone brands, up 71% year-over-year to ship 12 million smartphones worldwide for a market share of 5 percent in Q3 2013.

Obviously these aren't exhaustive. HTC have been reporting bad news all year, as have Motorola and BlackBerry; but these figures show that despite Samsung and Apple are still dominating the part,y there is plenty for the smaller manufacturers to fight over.

Is marketable wireless charging is close to becoming a reality?

After several years of wireless charging being a bit of a myth, reports are emerging that Samsung are aiming to have long-distance wireless charging enabled by mid-2014.

So far Nokia and LG are the only ones to break into the space of wireless charging, and it’s gone unnoticed in marketing whilst falling flat with consumers. Why? Because either you charge from within a pointless distance (say 1metre) or you have to put your device on a mat, or an ‘orb’. As you’ll agree, this renders the practice relatively pointless as you might as well stick it into a plug. However, ET News are reporting that Samsung have invested into New Zealand-based company “PowerbyProxi” to look at incorporating long-distance wireless charging into their future smartphones, and finally making the feature a ‘must-have’.

Theoretically, a feature like this would completely revolutionise the design of a phone, where manufacturers could focus more upon aesthetics and features, as the battery would be less vital. Still, it’s only reports, but hopefully this is being pursued because if it were to become reality, it would be a revolutionary moment in technology.

Firefox OS is finally a real thing - but faces a limited road ahead

I'll be honest, when I heard Mozilla were bringing out an OS and even flagship phones to partner Firefox, I didn't take it particularly seriously. To be honest, I still don't.

Firefox is a popular OS, it's not on the same level as Chrome.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

As you can see from recent stats, Chrome is dominating the market share and thus justifies a Chrome OS. Has Firefox reached this point? No. But still, after releasing their initial prototypes for public consumption, they've now taken the next step.

Mozilla publicly released phones running its new Firefox OS in Spain on Monday.

The ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire are very basic phones with 3.5", 320x480px screens (1/4 pixel density of the Galaxy S4). They both have 3.2mp cameras and 1GHz processors backed up with 256mb RAM. (Told you they were basic).
     At least the price reflects that: Telefonica will sell the ZTE Open in Spain starting July 2 for 69 euros. Mozilla, as a nonprofit company, is trying to shake up the typical closed app ecosystems by using open Web standards which it will appeal to Web developers who can start creating HTML 5 apps for the phones.

Mozilla holding a reasonable share in the European or American smartphone market is unthinkable. They would be focusing upon the lower price range, but by doing so they would be running head-first at Android and the specs simply do not match. Not only that, if the rumoured cheaper iPhone is on the cards they'll be running at that as well. Furthermore, with the contract market continuing to grow in Europe and the US, people are willing to pay a bit more per month for the flagships like the S4 or HTC One. So for those reasons, Mozilla are being realistic and are focusing on markets that are still dominated by feature phones, and in this respect are challenging the remaining Nokia and BlackBerry strongholds - whilst also going toe to toe with Windows Phone's targets. Initial locations are reported to be Spain, Poland, Colombia, Venezuela and eventually Brazil but with this you can see Mozilla's ambitions are limited. I just don't see any handset success in these markets translating into the major global smartphone markets.

As a geek, and a fan of Firefox, I love the idea of a Mozilla phone, but that is my heart talking. My head would steer me well clear and I worry that the majority of consumers will agree, even in the developing markets.

What do you think? Would you consider buying Mozilla? Disagree about the phones uptake? I'd love to hear from you.

REPORT: Samsung S4 sales to top 80m in 2013

Reports are suggesting that Samsung are heading towards an incredible sales total for 2013. On the Galaxy S4 alone reports are indicating that sales could top the 80m mark - an absolutely extraordinary figure. This has been proposed by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue.

“Galaxy S4 demand in the first month of availability has been incrementally better than our estimate of 10M units,” Sue wrote. “In comparison, the S-III took nearly 2 months (50 days) to achieve the 10M units mark. Our broad-based channel checks at U.S. stores indicate that demand for the 16G S-4 devices remains strong with 32G Black devices mostly sold-out and 32G White devices yet to make it to the stores. At this pace, the GS4 is likely to cross 20M shipments in 2Q13, potentially reaching 80M S4 unit shipments in CY13.”

Where exactly this market is appearing from is unclear but with sales of other Android devices remaining steady, and Windows Phone devices holding their own, this market could well be iOS, or perhaps a final shift from feature phones.

Samsung seem to be benefiting from pushing some limits on innovation with the S4, something Apple failed to do with the iPhone 5. I said at the time that, whilst some of the S4 features were gimmicky and perhaps a bit unnecessary, consumers would respond positively to Samsung's creativity with features. Whilst I didn't like the lack of aesthetic change, it appears that they've still hit the mark.

Remember that the 80m sales are S4 only, this doesn't include the continuing sales of the S3, the Note devices or indeed the likes of the Ace.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung can indeed shift 80m devices in 2013. If they can, there will be absolutely no doubt about the dominant manufacturer in the smartphone market.

Nokia's Lumia range goes premium with the 928

Nokia are set to launch the new Lumia 928 which will take over from the Lumia 920
as the flagship model - and it looks bloody good.

The main difference between the 920 and the 918 is the outer shell. Nokia have adopted a more premium feel to the handset with the addition of an aluminium shell. Personally, I’m delighted to hear this because I’m not someone who loves novelty colours on my phone. This could bring the Lumia range to a completely different audience and continue the admirable growth.

So what are the other changes? Well in truth, not much. The 928 is very much a slight upgrade to the 920. It's a 23g lighter than the 920 at 162g (which is good because the Lumia range has attracted criticism because of its weight). The screen also extends to the edge of the phone, which makes the most of the 4.5" screen. It has the same 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm processor and the same 8.7MP camera as the 920.

Here's the teaser video from Nokia:

What do you think of the new look? Would it make you #switchtolumia?

Are flexible and curved screens technology’s next important race?

Technology is constantly on the search for the next consumer interest trend and I believe curved, and flexible screens are just what they've been looking for. LG seem to be currently leading the way, as they just announced the 56” curved OLED TV screen. Samsung are hot on their heels though.

Since November last year, Samsung have promised to deliver flexible screen smartphones during 2013, and at CES in January Samsung unveiled a prototype flexible smartphone, interestingly running Windows Phone 8. 

With Corning the makers of Gorilla Glass, confirming that they are in the process of creating a flexible version of the screen, the ball is certainly rolling. Several reports have suggested that any consumer form will be delayed to the tail-end of the year (just before Christmas no doubt) because of issues with ‘Encapsulation technology’ that stops displays getting damaged by water or air pockets. Rumours of Samsung Galaxy Note becoming the first flexible screen phone seem wide of the mark but there should be a couple of offerings from both LG and Samsung by Q1 of 2014. Perhaps the most interesting of these rumours regards the next Nexus 5 from LG which is reported to be aiming for a 5.2" flexible screen. There have been no noises from other manufacturers like Apple, HTC, or Motorola on this so far but they are sure to be closely monitoring developments.

We are still a little way from the likes of digital paper but it certainly won’t be long. What a flexible screen does allow for is to put a computing device on any object – not just our bodies. When we’ve already focused upon designing technology around our ergonomic requirements, screens are the one piece of the puzzle that remains restricting. The opportunities the flexible screens open up to developers is staggering and that’s what makes it so exciting. Who knows - we could see life like this in 2020 (well it's the dream, right?):

     Whatever we end up seeing from the initial consumer flexible screens, it’s likely to begin in a similar fashion to the first camera phone. The technology is unlikely to be ready for mass consumer consumption, and there certainly isn’t the burning desire to have it. This is technology for the sake of it, but then again – as always, I can’t wait.

The Battle of the Android Flagships: HTC One vs Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Sony Xperia Z

For arguably the first time, there are 3 Android devices that could be considered better than the iPhone and as the best on the market: The HTC One, the Sony Xperia Z and the recently released Samsung Galaxy S4. So, which is the best?

The easiest place to start is with the key stats, so let's have a look:

Now, let's be clear, there is very little discernible difference in quality between these three phones. They all offer some neat features that will suit varying tastes but overall they all represent the Android platform very well and stack up comfortably as 3 of the best handsets on the market. What I'm saying is - you'll be happy with any of them. But then again, where's the fun in sitting on the fence? Picking apart the statistics: The Samsung Galaxy S4 is by far the most powerful with a sensational octo-core chip (yes, EIGHT! Who knew we were past the quad-core already!?) but it's a tad unnecessary. Both the One and the Xperia will perform at very swift speeds. On paper the S4 also possesses the best battery, however, there have been numerous reports of excellent performance from the Xperia Z with Sony's new 'stamina mode'. There is little difference in weight, no difference in RAM and they all boast full HD screens, 4G LTE, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0. The HTC One joins the S4 with Gorilla Glass 3 whereas Sony have developed their own 'shatter-proof glass'. Resistance tests are yet to be conducted on the Xperia Z's shatter-proof screen but you would hope it would be in-keeping with the 'durable' USP that Sony have chosen.

Given that they are similar under the hood then we come down to aesthetics, features and gimmicks.

Aesthetically, the HTC One is the clear winner. It's a beautiful phone. Clean edges which are complemented with the aluminum casing. The Xperia Z comes in second and not because of faults in design (it's also a lovely looking phone) but more because of the HTC One's excellence. I've already made my feelings clear on the design of the S4 - it's an S3 replica but slightly bigger. Out of the three, the S4 doesn't ooze quality like the other two and this is largely because of the plastic casing. This is a personal thing, and I'm not saying the S4 is an ugly phone, it's simply not as pretty as the HTC One or the Xperia Z. Check them out below:

Lets have a look at a few other areas that could be winners in the eyes of the consumer:

Camera
This is an intriguing one. HTC have really stuck their neck out by developing their very own 'Ultrapixels' to compete with the 13MP powerhouses. Whilst others continue to strive for higher and higher pixel numbers, HTC have proven that 4MP (when developed correctly), is plenty. However, I have my doubts over whether this will work in the cut-throat eyes of the consumer who may not read the endless reviews of the HTC One's performance and plump for the highest numbers. HTC have developed a camera that is certainly competitive but is it a game-changing feature? Probably not. The Xperia Z and the S4 both hit high standards in the camera category and in truth, any of these would be a good selection. Samsung have added some interesting (if perhaps a little pointless) features such as Drama Shot, Eraser, Cinema Photo and Sound Shot which you can find more about in my S4 review but again, these should not deter you from selecting the other two.

Music
Sound-wise, HTC have taken the spoils (not by a short distance either). As someone who uses an HTC One X as a portable sound-system, I appreciate the Beats Audio inclusion and it certainly enhances my listening experience. If you enjoy listening to music/watching films on your phone - the HTC One will do the job brilliantly well. Where the Xperia Z has good internal sound, the 'loud'speaker is particularly woeful and Samsung does a similarly solid job with the music - but does include the 'Group Play' which allows up to 8 S4's to connect as one 'surround-sound speaker'.

StorageThe HTC One has stuck with HTC's recent love for a non-removable battery and non-expandable memory via memory card. This is a major pet hate of mine and it's a real shame. The Xperia Z has unfortunately followed suit with the battery but at least Sony have kept the removable SD card. The S4 has included both of these and kudos to Samsung for doing so.

Other
The game of gimmicks has been dominated by Samsung as can be seen in my original review. They've brought in smart pause, smart scroll, smart stay; it's smart-bloody-everything with Samsung right now. The attractiveness of these features will vary greatly on the end-user. I see them as a bit gimmicky and pointless, but I like Samsung's desire to demonstrate and test new technology to perhaps find another niche.
      Sony's main USP is its durability. It is dust resistant and water resistant for 30 minutes and up to 1m deep. This is a massive claim for a flagship phone and Sony have certain put their 'money where their mouth is' with marketing.
     HTC and Samsung have included pretty neat TV controller adaptations on the phones, which allow you to control your TV and also check out the TV listings. Again, these are nice additions but not game changing features.

Price
With the fight being this close, the price may just swing it. The Sony Xperia Z's longer market exposure has allowed prices to slowly fall, and with the release of the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4, these prices are continuing to drop. On a 24 month O2 contract, with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1 GB internet the Xperia Z comes out at £27 per month (with a £30 cost for the phone); about £10 cheaper per month than the HTC One (£37). The S4 contract prices haven't been released yet but it is likely to be in the same bracket as the HTC One. Looking at what is on offer, would you be willing to pay over £200 more for the HTC One or the S4? That's up to you!

Conclusion
To conclude - you will be happy with any of these phones and that's what makes it such a hard decision. They are all powerful devices, each running adapted - yet effective - O/Ss and with some great features to boot. Simply put - they demonstrate everything you want from a handset. However, they do excel in certain areas and perhaps that will turn your head. What would I choose? Probably the HTC One, followed closely by the Xperia Z and not far behind - the Galaxy S4. This is partly because of my affection for HTC, and partly because of the beauty of the phone - but hey, what do I know!

What do you think? Which do you prefer? Hopefully I've helped you ever so slightly if you are trying to make a decision; if not, just enjoy watching the 3 fight it out to becoming the ultimate Android flagship.

Watch the Samsung S4 launch live here

Samsung are streaming their launch event from Times Square. All kicks off at 7pm EST (11pm GMT). If it's all a bit late for you (or you're happy catching up after the waffle) then I'll be posting an overview soon. If you fancy staying up and seeing what Samsung have got to offer though - check it out below:

A look at what HTC are about to launch

Today HTC are seemingly ready to announce the follow up last years One series with the HTC M7, aka 'HTC One'. What we don't know is whether there will be cheaper alternatives or any other announcements. There have been rumours about a couple of other models: The HTC G2 and M4. These are far less solid rumours though.

Leaked images suggest that the design of the phone will follow the BlackBerry 10, or Sony Xperia, with the two blocks on the top and bottom. The most authoritative leaks show an incredibly attractive phone so fingers crossed that is the case.

The rumoured spec for the HTC One is a 4.7 Full HD screen, with a 1.7GHz quad-core processor to support. Further rumoured specifications suggest it could include 2GB of RAM, Jelly Bean, Sense 5.0, a huge 12Mp camera and 32GB of storage. Whether they'll return to the removable battery or optional SD card is unknown. The HTC One's success or failure could rest on the price - and whether or not it is competitive, somehow, I doubt it.

HTC can still generate a huge amount of excitement over its products and that's testament to the quality of the products they produce. They have a couple of launch events in London so it will be interesting to see what they produce. The looming problem for HTC is the Samsung Galaxy S IV's launch date - under a month away, on March 14th. HTC have a job on their hands to convince consumers in a short space of time that the HTC One is a better device than the 'guaranteed to sell' Galaxy S IV. 

Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of HTC, I like their products and their customer service. I own (and love) the HTC One X, and currently would change it for anything except the One X+. It has been a bad few years for HTC, but, for a relatively small company, their market share is more realistic for future sustainability. I wasn't a fan of their period of attempted market flooding but I understand the reasons behind it. This is a big year for HTC, and the smaller shares of the phone market. To avoid Samsung and Apple completely strangling the competition, they need to respond. Hopefully the HTC One is the beginning.

I'll be posting a review of the HTC One when it's all confirmed over the next couple of days. I'm also hoping to pop along to the launch event in Oxford St.

What do you think of the rumoured HTC One? Can HTC convince you to shun Samsung and iPhone?

Windows Phone trys to fight Android - and fails miserably

I saw a few tweets appear on my Twitter stream this morning all involving "#droidrage" and "#windowsphone". Intrigued I searched deeper into the topic and discovered thousands of sarcastic tweets from happy Android users trolling the hashtag.

Yes, this was another Twitter campaign #fail. The perpetrators this time were Windows Phone. 

Following in the footsteps of MacDonalds and RIM, Microsoft encouraged all Android users to tweet the malware irritations they had with the Android OS and phones. Yep, you know the rest... Compared with Windows Phone there are few weaknesses and this came through in the sarcastic tweets that ensued. Popular topics were Instagram (which Windows Phone doesn't have), widgets (which Windows Phone doesn't have) and Windows Phone popularity (which... You get the idea!!).

If you read my blog regularly you'll know that I have plenty of time for the Windows OS. It's crisp, clear and intuitive. However, the marketing teams are in the precarious situation of taking on iOS and Android, the latter of which is at an all-time height of popularity and strength. With the best spec handsets and Android 4.0 onwards - Windows Phone really has misjudged this social campaign.

When running a campaign like this it is important that the gamble you take does not get trolled and backfire in making you look more stupid. This is exactly what has happened here.

Windows Phone is a good product being dragged down by stupid stunts like this.

UPDATE: I was later informed that this was the second failed attempt at the campaign - the mere fact I hadn't seen the first one speaks volumes. To attempt this for a second time and fail again is dreadful practice and shows just how out of touch Windows Phone is from the buying masses.

Nokia and Samsung poking at Apple: Is it pointless?

Recently Nokia released a video mocking Apple fanboys:

I like this video; I think its creative and pretty good but it got me thinking: Is this anything more than a bit of fun? And, does it do the brand any good?
     Samsung are the trailblazers in this field. Their mocking videos are becoming somewhat a tradition around the release of each iPhone. Here are the 2 they've released so far:

The Galaxy SII (wonderful phone) mocking

And "It doesn't take a genius" (the better of the two in my opinion - more witty)

The videos all target the queues and the lack of change from one iPhone to the next which are easy target points but do consumers look at this and think favourably upon the company producing them? More importantly, do consumers think 'oh, that's true, maybe I'll buy a Samsung Galaxy SIII or a Nokia Lumia'? I just don't think so.
     Personally, I enjoy these videos. I find them funny, sometimes lacking in class and not as witty as I'd prefer. But my feeling is that these videos simply highlight the superiority of Apple as a brand. Ouch, that hurt to say... but its true. How often to winners find it necessary to poke fun at those behind? Companies like Nokia are not really in a position to poke fun at the hugely successful Apple ecosystem.

Whilst I agree with the videos, and chuckle whilst watching them I'm not convinced on their use as a marketing tool. Then again, perhaps I'm just missing the point all together.

As always, I'd love to here your thoughts!

The Perils of Forcing Mobile Market Saturation

It's been a while since my last blog so apologies for that! I have little excuse but a short holiday as distraction.

With the release of the iPhone 5, the Android vs Apple debate has intensified with both parties feeling more superiority than ever. It made me think of the perceptions of different company's and the impact of an attempted market saturation on this perception.
      Apple famously release a single phone every 18 or so months and this makes its sales success even more impressive. Their 'one size fits all' models have captured an audience and got it hooked. Considering the competition, it really is an incredible feat. Regular readers will know that I'm not the biggest fan of the Apple ecosystem and its 'no way out' virtuous loop but you have to admire their success in the execution of that model. HTC initially followed this model with the the flagship HTC Hero. This has limited, and steady success but they wanted market share so they embarked on an old-school Nokia process of attempted market saturation bringing out the Desire, Desire HD, Desire S, Desire Z, Wildfire etc etc inside not much more than 18 months. Does this cheapen a brand in the eyes of the consumer, does it confuse the consumer or does it give the perception of power for a brand? Could the iPhone be successful because it is the simple option?

So has this attempted market saturation affected the perception of the likes of HTC and Samsung? Do people look at both company's and too readily remember the perhaps negative experiences of their friends who used each company's budget models and automatically dismiss the higher-end models on that basis? Perhaps that was poorly worded but I hope you see what I'm getting at. I've heard friends turn their noses up at the HTC One Series because of a friend who had the Wildfire and didn't like it. They then compare the Wildfire with the iPhone being completely oblivious to the sizeable difference in price.

I guess there is a big difference between HTC and Samsung. Samsung is a reputable and long-established, wide-ranging electronics company, HTC do not have that luxury as they joined the smartphone race as a young company. Their meteoric rise and fall in stock has been well publicised and that greed of shareholders could well be behind HTC's eagerness to grow at a rapid rate instead of focus solely on a good reputation. For many the first impression of HTC would have been the budget models and that affects long-term image. However, the counter is that HTC would not be in the public eye. Is the cost of image repair less than the cost of public awareness? And is that completely outweighed by impatience?

I would love to hear views on your perceptions of these brands and if you view either brand negatively because of their budget models after market saturation attempts?

Windows 8: The Saviour of the Old Guard - Microsoft and Nokia?

Nokia has just announced the next in the line of its original and slick Lumia series, (this time operating the full Windows 8 instead of the similar Windows RT) - the 820 and the 920, and wow, do they look good. (Well in my opinion anyway!)

But regardless of how much the critics rave about the UX and Win RT OS the sales are still uninspiring. Perhaps it a similar problem that many companies suffer from; that you have to experience, and live with the product before you can be convinced, and then perhaps you will be a convert for life? If this is the case then Nokia and Microsoft are well placed to enforce this. But can they combine, with Windows 8, to reign once more in tech fashion, innovation and popularity? The Nokia launch of the next Lumia phones precedes Microsoft's upcoming release of the widely anticipated release of Windows 8. This is a significant period for both companies and what is fascinating is the similarities in the paths taken by both companies. It simply highlights the dangers in complacency, especially in the tech world. I believe Apple have also fallen into this trap in a way. It is a very difficult trap to avoid. Why try and fix something that isn't broken? And by the time you realise it is broken, someone else is ready to topple you as market leader. With Windows 8, Microsoft has undertaken the mother of all transformations.

As can be seen - the block-style UX that is used on Windows RT can be used on a machine running Windows 8, but there is also the option to revert to the familiar UX Microsoft is famed for, simply looking sleeker, and glossier. There is a commitment from Microsoft to use this new UX and they clearly trust that the consumer will eventually revert to this thinking. By linking all platforms; the hugely successful XBOX, PC, Windows Phones and the upcoming 'Slate' with Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to dominate all aspects of tech life in your home, and although they've been late to the party I wouldn't bet against them. Microsoft lost it before. Very little denying that. The company fell into the very same trap of complacency that Nokia did. Both companies were comfortable market leaders having saturated their respective markets. In this position, as aptly demonstrated by this example, it is necessary to continue to dictate by controlling the market. This means continuing to innovate. Microsoft and Nokia missed this. Microsoft missed the fashion wave with computing, and Nokia missed the smartphone wave. Both mistakes cost each company greatly.

But what does the future hold? Well Microsoft are in the fortunate position of continuing to hold a market share with the Windows platform on PC. The shift to Win8 is dramatic, as dramatic as the technology world has seen from a major player but I admire this gamble. Microsoft have recognised (late, il grant you that) that the platform was tired and in need to rejuvenation. So kudos for that. Will it work? It certainly won't be an overnight shift but I believe it will work. Whilst many tech bloggers, reporters etc have found an easy target for ridicule in Nokia and Microsoft, we're still talking about giants of the technology world. The power Microsoft have at their disposal is still hugely significant. With over 700,000,000 PCs in operation and Windows 7 having recently taken over as the most used OS, there is the market still for Microsoft. Not only this, those priced out of the Apple market (with computers that is A LOT of people) will be looking towards Microsoft and the new Windows 8 platform. This will help adoption rates early on.
     Nokia face a different, more treacherous path. Win8 on the Nokia Lumia series is a joy to use. But will consumers give it a chance? Nokia have taken the correct steps by following the HTC 'less is more' route. Their recent release will no doubt be overshadowed by the hype of the New iPhone (or whatever they try and call it) and to a lesser extent - the Galaxy Note II. Does that matter? Perhaps the timing was well judged by getting in just before the hype becomes unbearable but at the moment especially, Nokia cannot attract the clamour that Apple can produce. I like their forward thinking though, and being a fan of social media I recommend you check out www.windowsphonehub.com which is another interesting investment.

Either way, these two juggernaughts have found strong partners in each other, and it will take time plus a lot of effort but they will get there. By combining, familiarising the public with a new Windows, the adoption will snowball and it won't be long before Microsoft and Nokia are fighting back on a positive sales incline once more.

Thanks for reading, if you fancy it just click the follow button up on the right! As always, thought, criticisms etc are most welcome!