I was an iPhone 3G user for a while, then went to the darkside with a MyTouch 3G, then Nexus One, and yesterday I picked up a VZW iPhone 4. I can honestly say that with due time for developers to get up to speed with Windows Phone... it will offer a much nicer experience than Android. I still think that Apple does it best though, and adore this new VZW iPhone.

Is this thread full of Nokia/Microsoft PR people? Seriously. How does this not look like every other modern Android, WP7, iPhone rip off?

  - Black minimalist screen ✓
  - Horizontal speaker port ✓
  - Buttons on the bottom ✓
  - Cheap plastic case ✓

I really don't get the appeal of this device from a hardware perspective. The software may be a different story, but the hardware looks is pretty boring.

That said, there's more fundamental value in the software, how well that software performs the functionality I want to use, and how well the battery, touch interface, and other hardware support that functionality.

"Shiny and makes me smile" in the end is just a nice adjunct to "does what I need and helps me make money." Apple has both. That's a hard combination to beat in the short term. In the long term, the latter is the foundation.

That's the problem. Everyone is copying Apple. Most cars are just four wheels, an engine, some seats, and a steering wheel, but between Lamborghini, Ferrari, Königsegg, Maserati, etc. there is a ton of variation and very iconic design unique to each brand.

The only company _designing_ phone hardware right now is Apple, and the only two companies designing phone software are Apple and Microsoft. For a piece of phone hardware to elicit the responses in this thread it should do something more than copy Apple's design from 4 years ago.

Edit: Put another way: the Nokia N8 is distinctly a Nokia product and would never be confused with an Apple product from any angle. I consider that a handsome phone and something exciting and fresh. On the other hand, something that looks like an iPhone seems lazy and unimaginative from a company that has done much better.

Put those logos on the back or make them very subdued.

Smart-phones are about the software, not the hardware (above a certain threshold). And even then, WP7 can be the sliced bread of smart-phones, but if they don't have an apps ecosystem, they're not going to take off. With iOS and Android at roughly 20-30% each, and with WP7 at, what, 0-1%? -- who is going to develop WP7 apps? We might not think about it now, but it took a long time for the cool kids to start developing for Android, and even longer for them to do it properly. I only see this slowing down for each new platform added.

It's foolish to underestimate the developer muscle of MSFT.

1. Nokia was on the verge of non-existence. Honestly, Meego and Symbian were not going to cut it. Nokia just didn't have the chops to do it and that was obvious.

2. MSFT was aching to get in the game w/ something/someone other than HTC and this was a real opportunity.

3. Nokia hand Android available to it or this partnership w/ MSFT. By choosing MSFT they got cash infusion and also got to outsource dev to MSFT (which I'm assuming from what I read is the arrangement).

So far, so good. Given those parameters it actually seems to make strategic sense for Nokia to choose MSFT and this route. But wait..that isn't all.

5. Who is going to write the apps for this? Had Nokia chosen Android, they would have literally gained hundreds of thousands of apps instantaneously. Does anyone know the number of people writing WP7 apps? It is not a huge number and most of the apps are not good. Sure, it is early and this announcement will likely boost the numbers but still...it isn't android numbers and it certainly isn't iOS numbers.

Given #5 all of the sudden the decision looks quite questionable.

I guess, what I don't see, is who is Nokia really going to call a customer? If Nokia wants to capture the smartphone market, this is just plain dumb. If nokia wants corporate phones, it might be quite smart..being able to replace RIM/Blackberry just about a launch (really, it would be that easy if they focused). If they want to capture Corporate market AND capture ultra cheap entry cell phones....now it sorta makes sense.

Ok...so what am I missing? Anyone know their real strategy?

Only in the smartphone context. They have strong sales and would have strong sales for quite awhile, even if they just gave up making anything new.

>The best part about this whole discovery, however, might be that it confirms Steve Ballmer's assertion that the engineers of both companies have "spent a lot of time on this already."

Which then links to the original with the quote from Ballmer here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/live-from-nokias-capital-...

Or it's some Photoshop renders. Either way.