Nokia has already warned that such a slump is likely to continue through 2012, with interest in Symbian devices fading faster than previously expected. Meanwhile the company is pushing ahead with Windows Phone, though Microsoft’s platform only had 1.9-percent of the worldwide smartphone market share in Q4 2011.

Android held the Q4 smartphone OS top place, with 50.9-percent of the market worldwide, while iOS had less than half that amount at 23.8-percent. Both saw significant increases year-on-year however, unlike RIM whose share dropped from 14.6- to 8.8-percent.

Overall, Gartner says smartphone sales worldwide reached 149m units in Q4 2011 and 472m units for the full year, a rise of 47.3- and 58-percent year-on-year respectively. Smartphones made up almost a third of overall device sales, though 2012 growth is predicted to slow somewhat. Of course, market share and league tables doesn’t necessarily equal success for individual companies: iOS may be less popular than Android, but since only Apple uses it the Cupertino company keeps the spoils to itself. Meanwhile, Android’s dominance has to be shared between the many Android devices and multiple vendors using Google’s platform.

There are still several issues still to be overcome before Android on the N9 is a realistic prospect, however. Currently the battery indicator isn’t working – the N9 says it needs to be plugged in, though it’s clear from the video that that’s already the case – and network connectivity is also non-functional at present.

When we last saw evidence of the hack, OpenGL support was also causing headaches. That’s implicit to the N9′s 2D/3D graphics, and without compatibility in the ICS port using Android on the Nokia smartphone would be less than comfortable.

Still, an early alpha is promised as in the pipeline, and hopefully as more people weigh in on the hack the coveted 3.9-inch MeeGo phone might get a second wind as dual-booting demand flourishes. More on the N9 in its untampered form in our original review.

[Thanks Kevin!]

Theverge.com, which reported on the halt of Lumia 900 pre-orders, said users will see information on the official Microsoft Store Facebook page regarding updates on the phone. The Lumia 900 follows on the heels of the successful Lumia 710, though this time it will be slightly more powerful, slightly more expensive, and available at AT&T instead of T-Mobile.

Nokia has managed to garner a fair amount of attention since it launched the Lumia 710 in the US last month. It was a confirmation that the company made the right decision in ditching Symbian, and because Windows Phone is much less competitive of a market than Android, it has earned enough of a splash to make a difference. The question is whether or not the momentum will continue to grow at the same rate.

[via The Verge]

Nokia Belle – the latest iteration of Symbian, and arguably the upgrade that brings the platform within spitting distance of rival smartphone OSes – was released for the C7, among other handsets, earlier this week. A sizable upgrade, weighing in at around 250MB, it demands users plug their phone into their PC and use the Nokia Suite app to load it.

Still, all that effort is worthwhile. Belle irons out some of the numerous issues and flaws found in the Astound as we reviewed it at launch, leaving a more flexible homescreen, more useful notifications bar with settings shortcuts, vastly improved widgets and a polished browser.

Responsibility for the decision not to give Astound owners what the C7 will get is presumably down to T-Mobile USA, though whoever is to blame it’s unlikely to leave users – less than a year into their two-year agreements – with particularly positive feelings to either the carrier or Nokia.

[via IntoMobile]

The N9 was launched to much fanfare last year, though Nokia quickly shifted its attention to Windows Phone and its deal with Microsoft. That’s despite strong reviews – ours included - and a very positive reception to MeeGo itself. Development of the OS has now been pushed over into Tizen, while Nokia has said it will use its own work on MeeGo back in the R&D labs to tinker with next-gen devices.

Where MeeGo lacks the bulk of third-party apps, however, Android does not, and for some the polycarbonate 3.9-inch smartphone would deliver the best of both worlds running each OS. At present, pressing the volume-up button during boot automatically loads up Android rather than MeeGo.

Progress is being partially documented over at Maemo.org, though it seems getting the N9′s hardware to work with the functional Android kernel on the handset has caused the most headaches. There’s also ongoing issues with getting OpenGL to work, without which the whole thing is unusable. Still, we’re hoping efforts continue speedily, as this could be just the excuse we need to give in and grab an N9 ourselves.

[Thanks Steve!]

With a 4-inch display, and a body to match plus a sensor that puts the rest of the mobile world in a tizzy, this device could very well be aiming to take the part of the market looking to stick with the odd man out, Symbian, whilst still having the benefits of the iPhone 4S in shape and photo power. There’s no denying that the iPhone 4S still has the photo finesse when it comes to working with millions across the globe, even if comparable devices might contend, but Nokia bringing some fire to the camera department here is good news for everybody. If a dying operating system can work with the world’s best camera, so should everyone else!

This device, the Nokia 803, currently has a time frame of release set for somewhere around May of this year. If this device does pop up with Symbian and the world’s largest camera sensor in a mobile device, you can bet this publisher will be grappling for it. Nothing like a strange operating system to get your juices flowing and your camera finger snapping!

[via BGR]

“It’s like starting all over again” the exec conceded. “But we must succeed in the U.S. if we are to succeed in the world.” Nokia announced it had sold over 1m Windows Phone based Lumia devices by roughly the end of January, though that wasn’t enough to save the company from around €1bn in losses.

Meanwhile, Symbian demand has slowed more quickly than Nokia envisaged, with developing markets proving more interested in cheap Android phones than cheap Nokias. Saeijs says he is pleased with Nokia’s Windows Phone success, but the road ahead is still likely to be difficult.

Earlier this year, Nokia revealed its first 4G LTE Windows Phone, the Lumia 900, which is expected to go on sale with AT&T later this quarter. Meanwhile it announced a new color variant to the original Lumia 800, now in gloss white, earlier in the week.

[via Nasdaq]

As for regular production, device assembly will be moved to Nokia’s facilities in Asia. As the company points out “the majority of component suppliers” are based there, and a review of smartphone manufacturing efficiency the Finnish company completed last year suggested Nokia needed to streamline its production if it wanted to stay competitive with rivals.

Nokia announced its first batch of factory shut-downs back in September 2011, axing around 3,500 jobs from a Romanian facility. At the same time, the company also announced plans to shutter its Location & Commerce sites in Bonn, Germany and Malvern, US. CEO Stephen Elop described the move as “painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward”, later reiterating that more work would have to be done if the company wants to turn around its near-€1bn losses.

“With the planned changes, our factories at Komarom, Reynosa and Salo will continue to play an important role serving our smartphone customers” Niklas Savander, Nokia executive vice president of markets said. ”They give us a unique ability to both provide customization and be more responsive to customer needs.”

However, it’s unclear exactly what sort of customization Nokia has in mind. The company recently revealed a Batman: The Dark Knight Rises limited edition of the Lumia 800, with custom-etched graphics, and of course has a history of interchangeable covers with the Xpress-On casings of the 90s.

Update: Looks like our Xpress-On dreams will go undelivered, at least for the moment. Nokia tells us that the three locations facing job losses will focus on “the software-heavy aspects of the production chain” such as customizing software and making sure different carrier builds work properly. They’ll also be making sure that bespoke accessories, including headphones and car kits, operate correctly.

Nokia says the spread of locations – Hungary, Mexico and Finland – will work to their advantage on this, because it will mean the company can deliver custom variants to customers quickly. That could be anything from a small batch of Lumias specially created for VIPs, presumably similar to the Batman-themed models with their specially loaded wallpaper and other elements, through to larger orders of promotional devices.

The bundle will cost $899 and includes a Nokia Play 360 Wireless Speaker, Purity HD Stereo headset, and an in-ear Bluetooth headset. Initially, the Lumia 800 will not be sold separately from the bundle, but will likely be made available on its own soon alongside the recently announced white edition.

The Lumia 800 is Nokia’s first Windows Phone and has been available in Europe for some time already. Make sure to check out our hands-on for more details. A larger version of the device with LTE support, called the Lumia 900, has been announced for AT&T later this year.

[via The Verge]

As the Finnish device manufacturer continues its all-out assault on the mobile market with colorful Windows Phone devices galore, we must expect that they’ll continue to bring the fury at the year’s largest mobile-centric conference. If what Forbes’ source says is true, the fourth in a series of fairly lovely and certainly strong Windows Phone Mango devices will be dropping in a big way. This far the Lumia 710 and 800 are on the market and the Lumia 900, revealed at CES 2012, will be on the market soon.

The Luma 910 is said to be a European version of the Lumia 900 complete with a few upgrades we’ve not yet seen on a Windows Phone / Nokia device. This device is said to have at least HSPA+ speeds and will have a massively impressive 12 megapixel camera on the back. Nokia’s press conference takes place on the 27th of February, the first morning of Mobile World Congress – and we’ll be there! Stick with us here on SlashGear via our [MWC 2012 portal] and get in on it first!

[via Forbes]

According to the sales staff, the white and black Lumia 900 handsets are expected sometime in the second half of March. Pricing seems to be the source of some in-store confusion, with $150 to $200 being discussed; previous leaks have suggested AT&T is aiming for the altogether more competitive $100 point, however.

They also confirmed the latter-March release, with the 18th being mentioned before now. Last we heard, final-stage testing could see that date bumped later into the month, though, and the absence of an official release date would seem to confirm that arrangements are still in flux.

As for the white Lumia, until this morning we weren’t even sure that such a model was in the pipeline, though the confirmation of the white Lumia 800 we played with yesterday certainly implied it was likely. More on the Nokia Lumia 900 in our full hands-on.

There’s also a much tweaked and enhanced browser, as we saw on the Nokia 700, with increased support for in-page streaming video. A pull-down notifications menu borrows some of Android’s style and throws in some quick-access shortcut toggles for things like wireless power, and the iconography is updated to the “squircle” style.

Altogether, it’s the upgrade Symbian users have been waiting semi-patiently for, and something we wish Nokia had delivered two years ago. As it stands, although Nokia has been preloading Belle onto its recent Symbian devices for the past few months, it’s arguably too late for the OS overall. Nokia’s focus is resolutely on Windows Phone moving forward, with S40 for the entry-level and developing nations.

You’ll need Nokia Suite v3.3 or above in order to install Nokia Belle, which you can find here. More details of what to expect in the video above, and in our Nokia 700 review. The update is available for the Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia Oro, with the Nokia 500 getting Belle “within the next few weeks.”

However, there’s no AT&T branding to be seen on this white Lumia 900, lending weight to speculation that Nokia will indeed be selling it – probably without LTE, however – outside of the US. That’s no bad thing, as the 4.3-inch phone has a great ClearBlack AMOLED display, 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing camera, along with a bigger, 1,830mAh battery than its Lumia 800 sibling.

Exactly when the international Lumia 900 will be confirmed is unclear, though with Mobile World Congress fast approaching there’s plenty of reason to assume it may be brought out into the light in Barcelona at the end of the month. Some UK retailers have already started listing it as a June release.

Meanwhile there’s also talk of an improved Lumia 910 complete with a 12-megapixel camera. That’s been tipped to arrive in May 2012.

[via WMPoweruser]

Some headlines regarding the new report claim that “only” 8.5% of Internet downloads and uploads come from smartphones. From our perspective, though, the word “only” is a complete misnomer. Just look back one year – StatCounter’s version of this same study one year ago found that 4.3% of Internet usage came from mobile, and in 2009 the number was 1.6%. So in the span of just two years, mobile Internet usage has increased more than five-fold. That’s pretty impressive if you ask us.

As for who is responsible for that usage, Nokia remains the leader in mobile Internet access, purely because of the volume of handsets it has throughout the world. In addition, in many of the areas where Nokia has never declined in its ubiquity, like developing countries, much of the population does not haves access to a computer so phones are the primary Internet medium. Second on the list was Apple, for a completely different reason – though it does not have the global reach Nokia does, the customers it does have are far more likely to eat up gobs and gobs of mobile data. Samsung, RIM, and HTC rounded up to the top, in order.

[via PaidContent]

We’ve got a rather lovely feature up now to put a header on your humble narrator’s week with the iPhone 4S: Switching between Android 4.0 ICS and iPhone 4S – check the comments! The first ever 3D printed pirated Pirate Boat has been printed via the Pirate Bay as btJunkie is shut down forever. For those of you in the mobile world, heed this: the Galaxy S III will continue the line’s dive into thinness at 7mm.

Netflix is releasing its first ever original program Lilyhammer this week. We’ve got our own official hands-on look at the brand new Nokia Lumia 800 in white if you’d like to take a look. Meanwhile the AT&T Galaxy Note LTE is up for pre-order – Galaxy Nexus in white is also up for sale on the 13th of February. Samsung is really dishing it out with these numbers here and during the Superbowl with no less than The Darkness itself, complete with white and pink stripes.

HTC is not doing so well on the other hand, even though both iOS and Android are decimating the competition. In two completely unrelated stories, Google Earth has removed Atlantis and teased their soon to be released Solve for X project.

Like the white Nokia N9 before it, the white version of the Lumia 800 is gloss-finish rather than matte. That makes it a little more slippery to hold, though it’s still compact enough to grip neatly in one hand. Glossy phones are usually fingerprint magnets, but the white Nokia manages to hide them reasonably well.

Otherwise it’s the same Lumia 800 we know from before, so you get a 3.7-inch WVGA ClearBlack display, 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with 720p HD video recording, and a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm processor. OS is Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, and Nokia preloads its Nokia Drive app for free turn-by-turn navigation, along with Nokia Music for free streaming music.

Nokia Lumia 800 White hands-on:

We asked Nokia whether the white Lumia 800 – and the which N9 before it – meant the company had a white version of the Lumia 900 in the pipeline, though it wouldn’t comment. Still, with the production process so similar for the slightly larger, LTE-equipped device, we really wouldn’t be surprised to see a white Lumia 900 show up later in 2012.

Until then, we’ll have to make do with the white 800, though that’s no great hardship. It’s set to go on sale sometime in February, country and network depending.

This of course isn’t the first attempt at using phones to break the language barrier. There are several other apps that allow text-based translations, or even allow users to speak something in one language and have the translation read aloud. However, this project from Nokia unique because it actually sends the message between phones. Although, according to Nokia, it isn’t just about sending messages between different languages.

“The team working on the project estimate that the need for speech interactions with work colleagues could be eliminated entirely by 2015,” Nokia boasted in an official blog post. Is that really something to brag about, though? There have been many proposals for how NFC technology will revolutionize the market, but this is the first time we’ve seen someone talk about using it to prevent manking from needing to exchange verbal communication.

[via GigaOM]

According to WMPoweruser, you can pre-order your Nokia Lumia 900 today at Microsoft retail stores by paying $25 upfront and you can choose between the two colors of Cyan and Black. To see if there’s a Microsoft store nearby, you can see all the locations here. Also make sure to check out our hands-on video with the Lumia 900.

The Lumia 900 is expected to feature a 4.3-inch WVGA ClearBlack display, an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss rear-facing camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 512MB of RAM, 1.4GHz single-core processor, 16GB of internal memory, and support for AT&T’s LTE network. Rumors have suggested that the handset will be priced at $99 with a new two-year contract.

The name Windows Phone 8 does not share the number by accident with the Windows 8 software that’s popping up on desktops and tablets galore this year. Instead we’ll see a setup that will look very similar to those selections in its User Interface and will allow developers to “reuse — by far — most of their code” when they want to port applications from one to the other. The kernel, security, networking stacks, and multimedia support will be heavily overlapping in many ways. Zune’s desktop client will be dropped in favor of a much more dedicated companion application and ActiveSync will be pumped up to compensate.

As far as games go, the Xbox Companion app will be given a partner client in the desktop version of Windows 8. Skydrive will allow you to share seamlessly (FINALLY) between devices, and such examples as a music collection being instantly available on a new Windows Phone without the need for a PC sync – streaming, that is. App-to-app communication will be coming to life in a much more real way, Skype hooking into the operating system allowing for nearly perfect non-VoIP-like telephone action.

The camera on your Windows Phone will have a basic camera application that can be skinned by OEMs or third party groups wanting to make new camera applications. These apps will fall in line and very possibly be better than the camera selection already available in the 100,000 apps that’ll be in the Marketplace at the launch of Windows Phone 8 – we’ll see about that when the time comes. Native code support will be in play as well, this making it easier to make more powerful applications and bring a great ease to the porting of code on the whole.

In the hardware department, scale and choice will be the top words in the environment. Apollo will have support for multicore processors, high resolution displays, removable microSD card storage, and a whole lot more (tailored to finally compete with their biggest competitors in specs, iPhone and Android.) NFC will be supported, tap-to-share will be a reality, and sharing will be a much more integrated experience on the whole. Can’t wait to see what’s really in store!

[via PocketNow]

Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila warned yesterday that the impact the major changes in Nokia’s smartphone operations and the partnership with Microsoft for smartphone operating systems would affect the earnings at Nokia throughout most of 2012. Nokia made the announcement last week of a 73% decline in fourth-quarter earnings. Ollila said, “For a significant part of the year the transition will be seen in the results.”

Nokia has failed so far to make significant sales with its Windows Phone smartphones. However, the phone giant is pointing out that any new operating system took while to catch on and take off. Android certainly had a rocky year so before it gained traction became wildly popular. Nokia maintains that the Windows Phone platform will take off, but it will take time. Nokia says that each of the popular operating systems has one strong manufacturer, and it believes that it will be that strong manufacturer for Windows Phone.

Jorma Ollila said, “Nokia will make it into the three, it’s completely obvious and the first signs are already there. None of the operating systems have taken off quickly. It will take time, as we have seen, and as was expected.”

“When looking at the bigger picture, it shows that three operating systems will dominate in the near future and each of them will have one strong manufacturer, with Nokia having a very good chance to be one of the three.”

[via Yahoo]

Ahtisaari has been alluding to NFC in Lumia devices for some time now and it certainly won’t be any surprise since a few Nokia devices, such as the MeeGo N9, already support NFC. Nokia will have to wait until the Windows Phone platform is ready to support NFC, which Microsoft had confirmed previously would be ready in 2012.

Additionally, future Lumia designs will strive to be even more minimalist, eliminating as much as possible any moveable parts, such as the flip-up plastic tab that’s currently covering the micro-USB charging port for the devices. Ahtisaari hinted at having no ports whatsoever on the device, suggesting the possible integration of wireless charging in future Lumia devices.

“If you can take away a moving part and make it [the phone] more beautiful in the placement of the components, we’ll do it, so that’s something where we can certainly keep improving,” said Ahtisaari. “Take it to the extreme, and why are there any connectors?”

[via The Guardian]

Now, developer Willem Middelkoop has revived the archaically simplistic game on Windows Phone, as ably demonstrated by Pocket-lint in the video below. And no, it doesn’t just put a black-and-greenish screen on the display and let players have at it. This app effectively turns your Windows Phone into a mid-1990s Nokia handset, complete with buttons and all. The experience is meant to be as faithful as possible, giving players a limited play area and requiring them to push numerical buttons to move the snake.

It is perhaps a fitting tribute to the fact that Nokia now runs a third-party operating system, something that mobile enthusiasts just a few years ago would have said was a ludicrous idea. Of course, Nokia didn’t create Snake; it lived as an old-school computer game long before you could carry a phone outside your house. But the simplistic game made a perfect splash into the mobile gaming sector. Incidentally, Nokia tried to release a modern-day Snake on its N-Gage phone several years ago. Neither the game nor the phone was successful. But when it comes to retro goodness, you can’t lose.

[via Digital Trends]

The white Lumia 800 will follow in the footsteps of the white Nokia N9 – shown above – which went on sale in certain markets back in December. Like the N9, the Lumia was originally shown in just three colors, though the CNC’d polycarbonate manufacturing process lends itself to any hue that the raw plastic can be supplied in.

Nokia will also launch the Lumia 800 in the US come February, though the handset will be supplied direct from the Finns rather than through a carrier with subsidy. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed, but CEO Stephen Elop made no mention of the white model being included in the line-up of unlocked options.

More on the Lumia 800 in our full review of the smartphone. It’s unclear whether Nokia will release the upcoming AT&T Lumia 900 in white eventually. We’ve got a request in for more information from Nokia, and will update when we know more.

[via The Australian]

Nokia Belle has already been seen on the market in the shape of the Nokia 700 – our review of which is here - but the upgrade for earlier handsets was a little longer in coming. The company had originally expected to release Belle in Q4 2011, bringing Anna-based phones up to speed, but that was subsequently delayed.

Nokia 700 hands-on:

Belle brings with it an arguably more Android-style interface, with greater flexibility over widgets and iconography on the homescreen, a pull-down notifications bar with settings shortcuts, and a generally more polished user experience. Nokia’s decision to yank the launch page could be a change in strategy, a sign of a premature reveal, or just housekeeping: after all, as you can see in the screenshot above, the E7 is mentioned twice.

[via My Nokia Blog]

Groups such as Filesonic are cutting out file-sharing publicly to stopper up Megaupload-related mishaps. Conspiracists have an idea on why Megaupload has been targeted. Megaupload’s CEO’s home has been raided. Meanwhile the supreme court has ruled warrantless GPS tracking illegal. Pirate sharing websites have upgraded to 3D. A judge has ruled that the Fifth Ammendment does not cover hard drives. There’s a battle going on involving the ex-Megaupload users and the FBI. And Dotcom has been denied bail. Guy Fawkes has been called upon again to defend piracy, this time in Poland parliament.

We got a Spectrum by LG in the house and have reviewed it in full. The Samsung Galaxy S III has been tipped, confirmed, and considered for release at Mobile World Congress 2012. Samsung’s iPhone burn ad series continues. We’ve been slapped in the face. We’ve got a review of the ASUS Transformer Prime with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ve got an unboxing and hands-on of the DROID RAZR MAXX with a review on the way. We’ve got a fight going on between Speck, Logitech, and Cygnett for the iPad 2. We got a hands-on look at Qualcomm AllJoyn.

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets a major update. You might want to get your tissues out again because Diablo III is getting more pre-release tweaks and a producer change. Good luck seeing that inside the first couple of quarters here in 2012. Saddest days!

There’s a brand new Xbox 720 in the works with an AMD 6000 GPU and an inability to play used games. A Windows 8 based Kinect notebook has been spotted. Both Microsoft Xbox Live and Steam are coming to iOS and Android. Nintendo will be releasing the Wii U fabulously. We’ve got a review of the V-MODA Limited Edition Crossfade LP2 super deluxe over-ear headphones. We went hands-on with a Mercedes-Benz DICE interior concept as well as the new Mercedes-Benz mbrace2.

Facebook Timeline is now fully live and mandatory. Wikipedia is in works to become the world’s free mobile website. Philip Berne wrote a lovely column about Booth Babes. Chemists have created the first envelopes for artificial life.

Evi turns up as a surprise hit in the Siri alternative world. Over 350,000 iBooks textbooks were downloaded in the first three days they existed. Half a million iPhone 4S users downloaded and loaded the brand new jailbreak that broke this week. Apple’s secret packaging testing room has been revealed. More iPads than HP PCs have been sold in Q1 2012. Some fabulous new iPhone 5 specs have been leaked by a Foxconn worker. Chris Davies calls Apple TV an embarrassment while Don Reisinger spoke on what Apple TV needs to become more than a hobby – he also noted how he’d much rather have an Xbox 360.

We disprove Lytro on iPhones. On how well Nokia did this past quarter, Chris Davies noted that they bought time, That Clock Is Ticking. In the Windows Phone world we’ve got a Nokia Lumia 710 review while the much more fantastically spec’d Nokia Lumia 900 comes closer and closer to an LTE UK release. There’s also a Nokia Lumia 910 coming up soon as well. The 2012 version of MIX for Microsoft Developers has been nixed for the year. So has BlizzCon 2012. There’s also that teeny tiny Raspberry $25 PC edging closer and closer to reality. Alienware’s 2012 lineup has been revealed.

Financial results came in from Verizon and the folks at Apple (complete with the most fantastic quarter for iPhone EVER.) There’s a few Nokia financial results plus Netflix dropped their numbers down and AT&T jumped in too. Nvidia let loose their earnings as well.

Without that final point-of-sale touch, all else will certainly fail, at least that’s what Nokia’s top minds seem to be saying this week. Though the devices are perfectly legitimate in their build and execution, and the advertisements surrounding them may be lovely, there’s always a third step that must be taken. Elop said thusly this week in Nokia’s sales call:

“We need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumers and puts the Lumia device in their hands. For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.” – Elop

What do you think, average citizen? Do you think it’s the final step that’s most important to your deciding on which device to pick up? Or are you the sort of person who reads reviews on the internet and heads to the store with your cash in hand? What about your relatives, your mothers and fathers, your grandmas and grandpas? Who do you think they pay the most attention to when picking up a brand new smartphone?

For the full year, Samsung shipped 97.4m smartphones versus Apple’s 93m, making their marketshare 19.9-percent and 19-percent respectively. In contrast, Nokia dawdled in third place, with 15.8-percent of the market over 2011 and shipping a dwindling number of devices.

The race for the smartphone top spot sees Apple take the lead even as it loses marketshare in tablets. According to figures earlier this week, Apple’s iPad has 57.6-percent of the worldwide tablet market in Q4, down from almost 70-percent the year previous.

The strong iPhone sales – amid dwindling iPod demand – have led to suggestions that Apple will significantly trim its standalone PMP range as more users combine multimedia and mobile functionality into a single device.

To recap: Nokia and Microsoft shake hands and agree to make the beast with polycarbonate backs in February 2011, shelving MeeGo and confirming that the end is nigh for Symbian. The news prompts months of speculation and will-they-deliver-on-time controversy, until Nokia World 2011 in October and the unveil of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, only slightly blunted by Nokia reusing the industrial design for its de-facto flagship from the N9 several months before.

Fast forward to today, and Nokia has its all-important sales figures for the new Lumia devices – “well over 1m” in a little over two months of availability – and plenty of bad news too. Loses nearing a billion Euros, device sales down 29-percent, and Nokia making less on each smartphone it sells. Meanwhile the developing market Steven Elop had counted on providing the Symbian long-tail decided to rebuff the offer of cheap Nokia smartphones in favor of cheap Android ones instead.

The market has spoken, anyway: Nokia’s share price is up over 4-percent today, though you’d still struggle to confuse it with that of Apple or Samsung. Windows Phone has an above-average track record of striking a chord among tech reviewers, and that – taken with the fact that many have a soft-spot for Nokia, and that the Lumia 800/900 are genuinely tactile, delightfully designed phones – has resulted in a shiver of positivity despite the diarrhea of cash.

It gets harder from here, though. To succeed at this point, Nokia had to show up with a device or two, get them onto the market before the end of 2011 so as to prove its new CEO could keep his word, and sell more than a handful. Three boxes ticked. But Nokia has plucked a lot of the low-hanging fruit now: the true “Nokia faithful” have gone out and grabbed their slice of Finnish history, and much of what’s left is a market obsessed with Apple and Android.

It’s also unfamiliar territory for the company. In the past, Nokia has had both unique hardware and software to rely on: after a few tentative – and quickly aborted – attempts to use Symbian by other firms, the Finns were pretty much left to their own devices. Now Nokia faces not only Android and iPhone, but a raft of other Windows Phone OEMs keen to make some return on the licensing and marketing budgets Microsoft has squeezed out of them. If it makes a success of Windows Phone, if all those color-block adverts promoting the platform take hold, there’s no guarantee that the WIndows Phone shoppers leave the store with will necessarily have a Nokia logo on it.

Apathy works in its favor; HTC, Samsung, LG and others are all distracted by their Android investment, whereas Nokia knows its future is dependent on Windows Phone clawing market share. The risk of failure is obviously higher, too.

Nokia’s strength has always been in economy of scale: making lots of devices that use the same core hardware and driving down pricing that way. As its Windows Phone effort ramps up, there’s a decent chance that will increase gross margin per handset. Still, it needs demand to justify producing warehouses full of Lumias, and that means a compelling range for the US, Europe and Far East markets where smartphone choice has us jaded, along with affordable models for developing markets that, crucially, won’t cannibalize cheaper device sales too quickly.

Mobile World Congress is late next month, and Nokia is likely to have at least one more Windows Phone to show us. Shortly after that, the Lumia 900 will launch on AT&T and give the US its first decent taste of Nokia in some time. We’ve already said our piece on why AT&T should go against form and hammer down the sticker price of the LTE Lumia if it wants to stand a chance at getting traction.

Wielding a firehose of cash that’s gushing like a sick snake isn’t a great way to begin 2012, but Nokia has had it worse. This time last year, for instance, it had slumping profits and nothing compelling in its line-up whatsoever. The end is nowhere near in sight, but then again it never really is: there’s always something shinier and cleverer just around the corner. If Nokia can grab even a minority share of that roller-coaster then its prospects are good.

“The increase in our Smart Devices volumes in the fourth quarter 2011 was primarily driven by the broader availability throughout the quarter of the Nokia N9 and the shipments during the quarter of the Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 in selected markets, as well as increased seasonal demand for our devices” Nokia

The importance of the N9 in Nokia’s sales results, however, could be significant. The company confirmed to us that the “well over 1m Lumia sales” soundbite referred to Windows Phone sales to-date, rather than solely for the Q4 2011 period; that’s a small chunk of Nokia’s 19.6m unit smartphone sales that quarter.

However, Nokia includes Symbian^3 handsets in its “smart devices” category, and without knowing exactly how many of those phones – such as the C7 and E7 - were snapped up, we can’t fudge an overall estimate for the N9′s share of the segment.

“Nokia launched the Nokia N9, the outcome of efforts in Nokia’s MeeGo program. The Nokia N9 is a pure touch smartphone which introduces an innovative new design where the home key – typically located at the bottom of the device – is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Under Nokia’s new strategy for smartphones, MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences” Nokia

Nokia repeated its mantra from late 2010 on MeeGo’s future in the company, that it would be marginalized as a research platform for “next-generation devices.” Meanwhile, the open-source OS has also been folded into Tizen, an Intel and Samsung led project.

“Our broad strategic agreement with Microsoft includes platform support payments from Microsoft to us as well as software royalty payments from us to Microsoft” Nokia said in its results today. ”We have a competitive software royalty structure, which includes minimum software royalty commitments.”

The deal suggests Nokia could well be paying Microsoft significantly less to use Windows Phone on each of its handsets than other licensees, such as HTC and Samsung, are. Comments from ZTE earlier this month indicated the company pays Microsoft around $27 per Windows Phone it produces.

“Over the life of the agreement” Nokia says, “both the platform support payments and the minimum software royalty commitments are expected to measure in the billions of US Dollars.”

Overall sales of devices were down 29-percent year-on-year, with “smart device” shipments down to 19.6m units from 28.6m a year ago. Gross margin on smartphones also dived, from 28.7-percent to 19.9-percent, though Nokia did at least curtail its smartphone expenses by over €150m.

“In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field. And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field. Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing. To date we have sold well over 1 million Lumia devices. From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful. We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012″ Stephen Elop, CEO, Nokia

Meanwhile, Symbian devices are facing issues of their own, with the developing markets that have previously flocked to Nokia’s cheaper handsets now looking elsewhere. “Changing market conditions are putting increased pressure on Symbian” Elop says, pointing out that in “certain markets, there has been an acceleration of the anticipated trend towards lower-priced smartphones with specifications that are different from Symbian’s traditional strengths.”

That will mean Symbian demand will tail off quicker than Nokia originally expected, and the company isn’t making any 2012 predictions because of the instability of the market.

Elop says to look to the Lumia 900, announced earlier this month and expected to hit AT&T in the US on March 18 for a competitive $99.99 with a new agreement, to renew its challenge to the market. Whether investors and staff have the stomach to go along for the ride remains to be seen.

Update: Nokia tells us that the “well over 1 million” figure for Lumia sales is to-date, as in including January 2012, rather than solely for Q4 2011.

The March 18 date isn’t final and could change, the source reckons, since the Lumia 900 is still going through technical acceptance and that might introduce delays. Still, it’s the price that will make the biggest waves; $100 for a 4.3-inch device with LTE is a stand-out figure, and – along with Microsoft’s hefty marketing budget for Windows Phone in the US – should make some waves in the US market.

As we wrote earlier this month, AT&T, Nokia and Microsoft need to be ambitious with the Lumia 900 pricing if they want the smartphone to stand out from the overwhelming crowd of Apple and Android. We won’t know final pricing until AT&T announces it, however.

More on the Lumia 900 in our full hands-on from the launch at CES, and in the video below.

In fact, Nokia’s much-vaunted Lumia 800 promotional push failed to get it into the top ten smartphones chart in the UK in Q4, the research firm reckons. It’s possible that Microsoft, Nokia and the carriers need to look to RIM and the BlackBerry sales strategy to win sales: 57-percent of BlackBerry handsets were bought as gifts in Q4, rising to 76-percent during December specifically, something likely down to competitive price plans and pre-paid availability appealing to the youth market. 55-percent of BlackBerry gift recipients were apparently under the age of 16.

“Apple has continued its strong sales run in the US, UK and Australia over the Christmas period” Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kanta Worldpanel ComTech said. ”Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover.”

Apple market share rose from 22-percent to 34-percent year-on-year in the UK. However, Android is making strides in developing markets, with Brazil and Mexico seeing significant demand and that only likely to increase as low-cost handsets from vendors like ZTE and Huawei push pricing under the $100 mark.

The success for Apple comes shortly after the company announced a new record for quarterly revenues. Apple sold over 37m iPhones in the three month period.

[via Reuters]

Production at the Cluj, Romania plant had actually stopped in November, not long after Nokia World 2011 and the reveal of the company’s newest feature-phones, the Asha range. Earlier today, Nokia revealed it had sold 1.5bn S40 handsets in total, the milestone model being an Asha 303 purchased by a woman in São Paulo, Brazil.

What, specifically, De’ Longhi will do with the Romanian facility is unclear. All Nokia has said is that the new owner sees the plant as “a key part of its development strategy”; ironically, just as the Finns are restructuring their production to a more Asia-biased arrangement, so De’ Longhi is apparently shifting its own balance from the Far East toward Europe.

Nokia will announce its latest financial results on Thursday this week. All eyes are on whether the company will detail exact sales figures of the newest Windows Phone range, the Lumia series, about which there have been conflicting reports in the absence of official numbers. Earlier this week, analysts suggested Nokia could have shipped over 1.3m Windows Phones so far, though contrasting claims of apathy from carriers and consumers have thrown such predictions into doubt.

Nokia notes that the first mobile phone in the 40 Series was the Nokia 7110 back in 1999. None of the devices in the Series 40 range are considered true smartphones; Nokia refers to the latest devices in the range as “smartphone lite.” They sit in the area between smartphones and feature phones.

The latest of the 40 Series devices have Nokia Maps, Nokia Browser, and Web Apps along with Nokia Money and Life tools. Nokia is looking forward to the next billion in sales of the Series 40 devices. Part of the next billion in device sales will be pushed thanks to the recent purchase of Smarterphone OS that already looks better than Symbian.

The Nokia Lumia 910 has never been announced before and given Murtazin’s hit-and-miss track record, more misses than hits as of late, we’ll have to take this rumor with a grain of salt. He doesn’t reveal much in the way of details on this device except that it will sport a 12-megapixel camera instead of the 8-megapixel camera that’s on the Lumia 900.

Murtazin also doesn’t dismiss the possibility that the Lumia 900 is still heading to the UK in June, but only suggests that there’s no reason to wait if the 910 gets there first. Other claims he’s made today include details on the rumored Samsung Galaxy S III, for which he spills the specs and pegs to arrive in April following an announcement at Mobile World Congress in late February.

[via PocketNow]

HP, meanwhile, struggled to find buyers with the TouchPad and canned the whole tablet project, while webOS phones also died out in 2011. The company is still a force to be reckoned with in the PC segment, in terms of sales volume at least, but has seemingly relinquished any real ambitions for the consumer mobility market.

The biggest drop was seen by Nokia, its semiconductor demand diving by over a fifth, though it still remains ahead of Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo and LG. The top ten consumers of semiconductors together accounted for 35-percent of total revenue in the segment, a whopping $105.6bn.

Apple is expected to announce its latest quarterly financial results later today.

According to WMPoweruser, Nokia has 45% of the second generation Windows Phone market. HTC holds the other chunk of the market that Nokia doesn’t have with 40% going to HTC. All the other vendors offering second gen Windows Phone devices make up what’s left with Samsung having 12% and ZTE, Acer, and Fujitsu having the little that remains.

The data collected come from the OccasionalGamers game collection with more than a million installs. According to WMPoweruser that number allows them to estimate the number of devices on the market. Most of the second gen handsets that Nokia has out there are the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.

[via WMPoweruser]

Although the UK was among the countries to get the original Nokia Lumia, the 800, first, neither it nor the Lumia 710 include a front-facing camera. Right now little in Windows Phone actually makes use of that secondary camera, but that’s expected to change as Microsoft readies a version of Skype for the platform.

Otherwise, it’s the familiar polycarbonate unibody casing and a ClearBlack AMOLED display, still running at WVGA resolution but using an RGB matrix panel for improved visuals. It seems Carphone Warehouse jumped the gun in announcing the smartphone, which so far Nokia is yet to date for a European release.

AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 hands-on:

More information on the AT&T Lumia 900 in our full hands-on from CES earlier this month.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Hardware

Nokia has presented the world with a Windows Phone that’s got the backing of a well-known manufacturer mixed now with a relatively new but recognizable brand for smartphones. What Nokia is bringing to the party here is a device with a fabulous feel and a high-quality build that will have purchasers of the more expensive Windows Phone devices on the market saying “wait, why did I pay all this money when that free Nokia phone is just as sweet?” It’s got a pretty excellent camera on the back (just 5 megapixels, but nice nonetheless, read more below), the front has a display that’s the perfect size for accessing it in its entirety with just one hand’s thumb, and the plastic is smooth and high-class feeling to the touch.

One of the reasons Nokia seems so cool to the rest of the world, USA citizens, is that it’s essentially ubiquitous, as the ringtone suggests. What Nokia has done here is to bring that feeling in to the USA with Windows Phone as its passenger, bringing two relatively great names together in hopes that they’ll finally get the recognition they feel they deserve here in the United States. With this type of build, they should have no problem. Now what they’ve got to worry about is pushing it all with the correct advertisements and backing from, for example, celebrities galore.

Software

You’re using Windows Phone Mango here, and with it comes all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from this version of Windows Phone. We’ve got a full review of this software from back when it was first released, and it’s not all the different now save for a few applications. What you get when you jump in to this device is a few bonuses that come only with a T-Mobile phone. One of these is the T-Mobile TV app, one where you can get all sorts of live television channels and pre-loaded episodes of TV shows for one monthly price: $9.99. It’s certainly a decent value proposition for those of you wanting to watch television on the bus or the train, and I would mention that you should be wary of your connection, but they’ve got a “download now” feature now to keep your shows for later, so it’s pretty neat. That and Netflix should have you drowning in video content until the sun comes up.

From there it’s all personalized tiles, color changes, and moving content galore. Included here as well is a fantastic Maps apps which, if you’ve never seen it before, will blow you away with how nicely it works for viewing your house from outer space and getting turn-by-turn directions. Tell that to the Samsunged people, why don’t you?

Camera

The camera is a surprising perk on this already relatively neat little device. In that it’s just 5 megapixels strong, it’s certainly not the greatest capturer of all time, but it’s quick! Take a peek at the hands-on video above to see how fabulously fast it is able to take photos, then check out these examples below. You’ll find the top-quality video and photos being shown here and in the gallery at the bottom of this post, each with different lighting and at different distances.

Phone and Battery

The battery has also been a surprise star, lasting at least one full day (right around 8 hours) with medium use throughout the day. Like any smartphone, you will want to charge this device up as often as you can, just incase you have some heavy usage in an odd spot. Watching streaming video when you’re in a traffic jam, for example. The phone quality for talk through T-Mobile’s network has been similarly excellent, with no dropped calls happening during our testing and just as clear a voice out as in throughout the week we’ve had the device.

Wrap-up

The T-Mobile carried Nokia Lumia 710 is a fine addition to the Windows Phone family. Nokia has played it safe here with a collection of hardware bits that not only fit the Microsoft set of parameters set out for devices running their mobile OS, but fit right inside what we’ve seen in the past for Nokia’s own line as well. It’s a convergence of minds here, ladies and gentlemen, and if Nokia can stay the course with Windows Phone here for a few more devices, I’d say they’re good to go for quite a few more years in smartphone manufacturing on the whole.