News - Smartphones overtake feature phones in W Europe

[HEXUS]

It’s all about Apple and Android right now.

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[crossy]

"... the smartphone segment was strongly impacted by the sharp decline of Nokia, which was not totally offset by the remaining players, which may indicate that Symbian fans are holding off on their phone replacements until Nokia launches its Windows Phones. Lastly, operators focused on clearing inventories for the introduction of the new devices expected in the third quarter, such as the iPhone5 from Apple and Windows Phones from HTC and other players."

That second paragraph implies there's latent demand from Nokia loyalists, of which there are presumably still quite a few. This adds weight to the general feeling that Nokia is set for some kind of bounce when it finally gets its WP7 act together, and that the drama surrounding Android may play into Microsoft's hands.

Yep, here's one smartphone owner who wouldn't have strayed into being a SonyEricsson customer if Nokia had got something suitable in the range when my then-current Nokia smartphone started playing up badly.

My current contract runs out middle of next year, so if Nokia do manage to deliver something good (and to be honest I would suggest that anything other than a tour de force is going to see them continue to struggle - and they're very aware of that fact themselves!) then I'd consider defecting from Android to WP7 (very reluctantly - I actually quite like Android).

And I'm assuming I'm not the only one who thinks this ... so if Nokia do "deliver the goods" then maybe we'll see Android and iPhone market share take a hit as a result.

Sounds like Q3 next year could be a good time to be 'in the market' for a new smartphone...