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Nokia Q2 Results Are Out. Profits Fall As Smartphones Get Cheaper

And the results are in - Nokia just announced their Q2 financial results. To summarize - sales are up, profits are down, shifting currency exchange rates didn't help and smartphones have sold more units and have gotten cheaper, compared to previous periods.

The net sales for the Nokia Corporation 10 005 million euro (12.842 billion US dollars) and the net operating profit is 660 million euro. Net sales are 1% higher than the year ago quarter and 5% higher the previous quarter. However, operating profit has fallen.

Looking at just the mobile phone division, it has net sales of 6 800 million euro (3% higher YoY and 2% higher QoQ) and 643 million euro operating profit - 16% down YoY and 23% down QoQ.

"Converged mobile devices" (that is smartphones and mobile computers) accounted for just over half of those sales. That's 12% more sales than converged devices managed in last year's second quarter.

This is likely due to the noticeable drop in the average selling price for smartphones - it's 143 euro (184 USD) for the second quarter of this year, down from 181 euro (232 USD) for last years Q2. That's a 21% drop. Feature phones have a mostly stable average selling price of 39 euro.

Nokia attributes the falling gross margins to "price pressure" in the high-end segment and depreciation of the euro. Industry-wide shortages of some components had a negative impact on sales and Nokia predicts those shortages will continue into the third quarter as well.

Apple Gets All Defensive, Free iPhone 4 Cases 4 Everyone

Apple just finished off its press conference dedicated on the iPhone 4 reception issues leaving us quite puzzled, to say the least. At one point Steve Jobs was saying that every phone has a weak spot, then he claimed everybody makes mistakes but Apple is quick to fix theirs so that's why they have loyal users. Apple wants its users happy and since everyone cries for free cases, they will give away free cases. But not because they've messed up, but only because "they loves their users".

How about that? Apparently the problem with the iPhone 4 antenna had been blown way out of proportion by the "bad press". The iPhone 4 reputation obviously has been ruined by its incorrect signal representation and the easily accessible weak spot.

"There is no perfect phone." - says Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs. This may very well be true, but we never heard of another phone dropping calls when held in the most natural of ways.

Afterwards they treated us to several slides, suggesting that only a minor portion of users were troubled by the iPhone 4 flawed antenna design.

Okay, let’s explain how this works – when it’s a design issue, it means that EVERY user will have it. Of course those lucky enough to live in an area with very strong signal will be less affected by it, but that’s a whole different story.

Obviously only about 0.5 percent of all customers complained directly to Apple about reception issues. But how about that everyone who opened a tech site for the past two weeks (or knew a guy who did) was perfectly aware what was going on and knew that this call will do them no good.

At least Apple decided to do the decent thing and give a free case to every iPhone 4 user. Plus they are willing to waive the restocking fee for everyone who wants to return the handset in the next 30 days. Just bear in mind that it’s not the Bumpers that Apple is giving away but some other type of cases by another manufacturer. User will even have some kind of choice.

Steve Jobs also mentioned the other big issue with the iPhone 4 – its faulty proximity sensor. He promises they are already working on a fix for that and it will be coming with a future software update. Not much of a consolation really, as proximity sensor problems, unlike antenna issues have been troubling even people in areas with great coverage.

Now you can bet that being treated like fools and being told that there is no problem when it’s pretty clear that a problem exists is not our favorite thing. Still we cannot see Apple doing much better than this – you didn’t really expect them to recall all phones and replace them at an indefinite time in the future when they come up with a better design, did you?

So that’s about it for now, we’ll keep you posted when we get more info about those promised cases. And of course we will continue hoping that Apple come up with a solution and fix the problem in some future batch of handsets.

P.S. Steve Jobs confirmed they're right on track with the next wave of iPhone availability scheduled for the 30 July. 17 more countries will get the iPhone 4 then. Plus the white iPhone 4 is expected to ship in the end of July too.

Major UK Roadmap Leaks - HTC Gold, Ace & Vision, Nokia E7 & Samsung Cetus On The Way

Today I stumbled upon a major UK roadmap leak, bringing bringing some juicy information. HTC Gold, Ace and Vision, Nokia E7, and Samsung i8700 Cetus and brand-new BlackBerry Curve 9300 - they're all unannounced and they will all star in this year's releases.

August is the month for BlackBerry Curve 9300. It targets the mid-range market and will come with 3.2 megapixel camera and the typical portrait QWERTY keyboard.

October is the time when Nokia N8 and Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8 will hit the shelves. But the good news don't stop here.

HTC Vision and HTC Ace are also scheduled for launch in October. Vision is a Desire twin with a sliding full QWERTY keyboard, while Ace is still a mystery.

November seems to be the most interesting month of all. HTC Gold (also known as Mondrian) should make its premiere then. It's supposed to be the company's first Windows Phone 7 device.

Nokia E7 (most probably the rumored Nokia N9) will launch as well borrowing the N8's aluminum body and Symbian^3, while upgrading it with QWERTY keyboard and tilting screen. It might turn out that E7 is the successor of the Nokia N97.

Finally comes Samsung i8700 Cetus, which is also rumored for November release. Perhaps it will be a high-end Bada OS device.

Well, that's all I know so far. I expect some of these handsets to make the news this summer.

Android 3.0 Gingerbread Detailed, Juicy Specs Confirmed

Froyo is barely out the door, but attention is already turning to the next Android version - 3.0 Gingerbread. It will impose minimum hardware requirements, the UI is getting overhauled and Android is splitting into two.

Android 3.0 Gingerbread, says Eldar Murtazin, edotor-in-chief of Mobile-review.com, will be for high-end devices only. A 1GHz CPU and 512MB RAM at minimum plus a display over 3.5" inches in diagonal. Android 2.1 Eclair/2.2 Froyo will remain and run on mid-range and low-end phones.

This will officially lead to the Android platform splitting into two. With so many complaints about platform segmentation now, we can only imagine what it will be when this happens.

Anyway, Android 3.0 Gingerbread will add support for a new resolution - 1280x760 (just over 720p) for screens 4" and bigger (the iPad has a 4:3 1024x768 screen). This should mostly benefit Android-based tablets, which have only recently started cropping up.

The new version will also bring the end to 3rd-party UIs - still, HTC, Samsung, Motorola and the rest will be able to keep their mods for the 2.1/2.2 branch of Android. The new UI for Android 3.0 Gingerbread is said to take its cue from the Gallery App on the Nexus One - the feel, the transitions and so on.

Android 3.0 Gingerbread is expected in mid-October - and we expect the first phone to get it to be the Nexus One (it meets the requirements). Unless the oft rumored Nexus Two beats it to the punch.

And as always unofficial ports will become available for current phones. But let's not put the cart before the horse - all this is still rumors, there's no official word from Google just yet.

Rumored Nokia C7 Is 4 real, Still Not Official Though

One of Nokia's next full touch smartphones, the Nokia C7, which posed for some photos a couple of weeks back is for real. The confirmation comes from Nokia itself - the C7-00 UA profile surfaced on the company's website. Sadly, there are still plenty of unanswered questions concerning the upcoming device.

However, the Nokia C7 images that showed up a bit earlier this month gave clear answers to some of the questions. The phone features an 8-megapixel snapper and comes with a large touchscreen and no hardware keyboard.

According to the UA profile of the smartphone, the screen will be of nHD resolution (360 x 640 pixels). As for the other features, Nokia C7 will support HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (v2.0). The new Symbian^3 platform has also been confirmed as the Nokia C7 OS of choice.

Unfortunately, the launch date and the price of the Nokia C7-00 are still pretty much a mystery.

QWERTY Enabled Nokia N9 Surfaces, Runs On Symbian^3

The Symbian^3-powered smartphone with a tilting slide-out QWERTY keyboard packs an 8 megapixel autofocus camera and it has already been leaked once before.

Unfortunately, the Nokia N9 doesn’t share the xenon flash of its N8 sibling, but goes for a modest dual-LED unit instead. There is also no confirmation yet if the N9 can do HD video.

While the source is unable to provide any further specs about what seems to be the Nokia new smartphone flagship, it seems that Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G with HSDPA are pretty safe bets. A 3.5” screen with a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels is also pretty much certain.

This leak is somewhat surprising, given that Nokia made an official statement that the N8 will be the last Symbian-running member of the Nseries. We guess that there is still a good chance that the prototype will not go by N9 but will join the Eseries instead.

You Are Holding Your iPhone 4 The Wrong Way, You Know!

iPhone 4 launch was full of surprises - dead on arrival, yellow spots or white dots on the screen, lost reception signal and a bunch of happy users. It seems the yellow spots will disappear in a few days, what about the spotty reception?

There are numerous iPhone 4 users reports of the phone losing signal when you hold it covering the bottom left corner where the GSM and Wi-Fi antennas meet.

Apple states they know of the issue and their official statement is amazingly instructional:

"Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."

Reportedly, Steve Jobs was even kind enough to reply to some user emails - briefly, but straight to the point:

"Just avoid holding it that way."

Ok, we understand how clever it was of Apple to design the iPhone antennas in that way and we can accept new technology comes with its own quirks. But stating a right and wrong way of holding your phone with the latter able to leave you totally signal - less - well that's plain wrong. Not to mention even THEY hold it the wrong way on their ads.



In this particular case what we don't like is Apple's attitude. Pretending such thing is not a big issue, saying it's a normal thing for a cellphone to lose signal, and not admitting a design flaw - that's arrogant. Fans will probably be willing to avoid holding the iPhone 4 that way. Being polite and confessing a wrong goes a long way. So does giving a bonus Bumper case to all affected. Just sayin'.

Nokia N8 Looks Good

Reviews of Nokia N8 are spawning all over the place as if Nokia has lifted some sort of an embargo on the N8 public appearances. We just stumbled upon a pretty nice video that offers a rare sight – the Nokia N8 Symbian ^3 UI in action, including some pinch zooming and some gaming action (the office favorite, Angry birds). Plus both – you can pinch zoom in Angry birds, too. How’s that for cool?

In some quite related news, we just got that Doug Dawson, a Nokia spokesman, has confirmed for Reuters that the Nokia N8 will be the last N-series device to run Symbian OS of any kind. From now on, N-series flagships will only use MeeGo. But that doesn’t mean Nokia will drop Symbian. The company will still use it for the rest of its touch smartphones, such as the X-series and even the C-series. The rest of the smartphones will use the regular non-touch variety of Symbian S60.

Other new stuff includes the fluid Cover flow-style layout of the music player.

Source of the presenting video (DK): http://webtv.comon.dk/Premiere-Nokia-N8-1.363530.html

Google Maps 4 Android Updated To v4.3, Google Voice Graduates From Beta, Open 2 Everyone

The latest version 4.3 of Google Maps has been released for download. It updates the users experience in several ways – some of which more subtle than others.

Not only you can get upcoming public transport schedules so you can see when is the next bus or train leaving, but also there are color-coded review aggregations of places to eat so you don’t have to go through all reviews individually.

Further on, Google Latitute now makes it even easier to share your location to friends.

You can get the latest Google Maps app for Android on the Android market app repository. It’s compatible with Android 1.6 and upwards.

Google Voice is final

In related news, Google Voice just graduated from beta and it’s available to everyone (in the US, at least) without invites. If you haven’t jumped on the VoIP calls bandwagon with Google Voice so far, not it’s a good time to test it out. You can get all of the available features explained right here, but as the Google blog puts it, “Google Voice gets you one number to ring all your phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more.”

http://google.com/voice
http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/google-voice-for-iphone-and-palm-webos.html