Nokia To Apple: We're "Biggest Mobile Company By Far"

One of Steve Jobs' more controversial claims during the iPad keynote referred to Apple's position in the mobile device rankings.  Apple are, Jobs reckoned, "the largest mobile devices company in the world", just as long as you take into account every mobile device they produce: not just iPhones, but MacBooks too.  That made them bigger than Nokia, and unsurprisingly the Finnish company aren't especially happy about that.

Over on Nokia's official blog, Mark Squires – the company's head of social media communications – points to a Financial Times report among other things, which suggests that by more traditional measures, e.g. limiting the count to cellphones and smartphones, Nokia are still ahead.  That's both in terms of revenue – Apple's turnover between October and December 2009 was €7.25bn (using their own definition of mobile devices), whereas Nokia's was €8.18bn for the same period – and in actual number of devices sold.

"We continue to be the biggest mobile company by far" Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is quoted as saying.  Expect this to be one of those arguments that goes on for some time.