Remember in the 1990s and early into 2000s when Nokia was riding high? It was at the top of the mobile phone world, selling more devices than any other company. Then, something changed and somehow we find ourselves here today with Nokia revealing an operating loss of 826 million Euro. That’s right around $1 billion US. What happened?

Well, the good news is that the operating loss is offset by licensing royalties and a regular cheque from Microsoft, getting them to a net cash rise of 102 million Euro (about US$125 million). You have to keep in mind, though, that Nokia enjoyed an operating profit of 344 million Euro just one year earlier. To make matters worse, Nokia announced its Q2 results today and it’s nothing but gloom; only 4 million Lumia’s sold worldwide, and 600,000 handsets sold in the USA.

You know Nokia was once the number one cell phone company in the world? It lost that throne too. Samsung now sells more mobile phones than its Finnish competitor. Nokia is also losing on the low-end from other competitors, mostly in emerging markets. Back in 2007, Nokia had a 40.4% market share. That dropped to 27% last year and 21% in the first quarter of this year. It’s a slow and painful bleed.

It’s not like Nokia isn’t trying to innovate. It has spent $40 billion in R&D–roughly four times what Apple has spent–in the last decade working on new devices, but there’s a problem. Many of these never made it past R&D. Frank Nuovo is a former designer at Nokia and he already envisioned a smartphone with a color touchscreen above a single button seven years before the iPhone. In the late 90s, Nokia also had an iPad-esque tablet in the works that never materialized. As Nuovo put it, “We had it completely nailed.” The company culture encouraged research, “but squandered opportunities to bring the innovations it produced to market.”

Yes, Nokia spent a lot of money on innovation, but it didn’t really produce “winning devices or software.” Instead, it now has at least two abandoned operating systems and a bunch of patents. In fact, the patents, worth about $6 billion, are said to make up the bulk of Nokia’s overall value. Even Stephen Elop agrees that if they had “been landed in products…I think Nokia would have been in a different place.” They spent too much time selling to the low-end and not enough time pushing the higher-end devices to market. And the iPhone arrived and gobbled it all up.

[Source]

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Intel Medfield chips were shown in Nokia devices that were supposed to run MeeGo back in February. At that time, some specs were leaked for the chip.

Medfield x86 architecture with 2 CPU’s being recognized by the logging software, achieved either through hyper-threading or multiple CPU cores. Which of the two is not explicitly verified. A maximum clock speed of 1.6 GHz a minimum clock of 200Mhz with a number of intermediate clock steps in between allowing for variable performance.

Using a synthetic Linux Benchmark (probably Quadrant) a score  of 6389.62 BogoMIPS was achieved. Comparatively speaking, Tegra 2 on the Optimus 2X manages to get a score of just 2391 BogoMIPS using a similar synthetic test. The caveat here is that the test on the Optimus is not optimised for multiple cores. How much is optimized for dual-core Medfield is anybody’s guess though. However, even if you assumed a generous improvement of 2 times the single core performance, there is still significant headroom as far as the Intel chip and raw CPU performance is concerned.

As for RAM, it’s 1 GB reported for Nokia device. While ROM and RAM size will likely differ in retail devices, 1 GB of RAM is on hand. There also appears to be up to 500 MB of graphics memory on tap using Intel’s dynamic memory allocation but the amount integrated on the graphics core is uncertain.

However, it’s not clear whether the Medfield chip used in Android phone, or tablet demoed last week is the same as in that doomed Nokia device of last February. If it is, which is quite probable, the extra dedicated graphic RAM of 500 MB is quite essential for graphics intensive tasks such as 1080p video decoding and 1080p encoding (stress is mine, as I wanted to outline a much more computing intensive task than just 1080p HD video decoding). GPU itself is described as PowerVR SGX core, though the specifics of said core are still unknown. GPU and associated Image Processor information is not available but 1080p encode and decode are expected. The GPU core is known to be clocked at 200 MHz, which is pretty slack for today’s SGX cores that reach 350 MHz and faster clock rates.

Medfield is the first Intel chip that follows the proven and obvious ARM design guidelines: it’s a System-on-Chip (SoC) rather than CPU and GPU and I/O and whatnot chips and circuits scattered over motherboard, like it was with previous Intel Atom-based designs.

Stephen Smith, Vice President of Intel’s Architecture Group tells us that this Gingerbread Medfield phone was powerful and pleasing to use, on a par with the latest iPhone and Android handsets. It could play Blu-Ray-quality video and stream it to a TV if desired; Web browsing was smooth and fast. Smith also says Intel has built circuits into the Medfield chip specifically to speed up Android apps and Web browsing. As of today, it’s a mystery what exactly were these magic circuits were before they were backed into that matte black Medfield chip.

Bigger than iPad Medfield-based tablet was also mentioned, but there’s no reaction to it in the press: this tablet prototype might need something of Ice Cream Sandwich to run really good. A special Intel’s fork of ICS obviously  is not ready for x86 architecture just yet.  I wonder how good Windows Phone 7 would run on that Medfield phone? Or Windows 8, on that Medfield tablet?

The post Intel Demos Medfield Powered Android Phone and Tablet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This sensational feat has the N9 running all the following concurrently:

• MeeGo
• iOS 5
• HTC Sense (Android),
• Windows Phone 7
•  BlackBerry OS
•  Samsung’s TouchWiz (Android again)
• Symbian Anna.

Even if it counts like 6 “Operating Systems” and not 7, it’s still a feat that is demoed in the video link here. I want to apologize for not putting the video up in a window, but there seemed to be some difficulty getting this Chinese-originated video to embed.

Essentially this all-in-Chinese video shows a N9 switching between multiple customized instances. To make this clear, these are merely instances and the N9 is not REALLY running all these operating systems, instead it is customized to look like it is.

This collection of more or less good “customizations” are really most likely running on MeeGo, which is struggles to keep alive and relevant these days.

As Wikipedia teaches us:

Strictly speaking, the Nokia N9 does not run MeeGo 1.2 as its operating system. It instead runs what Nokia refers to as a “MeeGo instance”. During the development of Harmattan (previously marketed as Maemo 6), Nokia and Intel merged their open source projects into one new common project called MeeGo.

Jokes of 7 OSes aside, MeeGo’s chameleon abilities to run many customizations without rebooting remains quite spectacular. MeeGo Tablet UX customization principles were recently reported at the MeeGo Conference 2011 in San Francisco. There’s also quite a sizable MeeGo community that is striving to keep all such “MeeGo instances” relevant.

On top of that, there’s also a distant possibility that MeeGo might have some secret virtualization capabilities, similar to the Android App Player running on Blackberry OS 2.

I don’t believe there are some “instances” of QNX (RIM Blackberry OS), or Apple’s iOS 5.0 somewhere in the wild and running on “wrong” hardware with MeeGo. Still, it may happen one day or maybe not at all, but in any case MeeGo is fun and you should enjoy it if you can and while it lasts.

UPDATE: While still interesting to see a device that runs 7 unique customizations, many of our users have indicated this is in fact a Chinese clone and not the real N9. The real hardware in the clone is somewhat unknown. Still, this $65 clone running 7 different customizations is pretty interesting.

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With its gorgeous polycarbonate shell and liquid-like display, you might think Nokia would want everyone to have the N9.   With Meego on the way out, a recent video teases you with how the Finnish device is put together with amazing precision, yet you can’t have one.  Each part is painstakingly crafted to achieve the desired polished and exact look. MeeGo is dead, and future high-end Nokia’s will run Windows Phone and use Microsoft’s services, will the N9 be re-released with new software? We hope so.

The post Nokia N9 Manufactured Beautifully appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The iPhone has a lot of apps. Android has a lot of apps too. In the modern age of smartphones, you need your platform to have a huge number of apps if you want it to succeed. Just look at webOS: it’s a great operating system, but the lack of apps has certainly hurt the success of the Pre and TouchPad. Nokia doesn’t want the same thing to happen to its vested interest in Windows Phone 7.

So, in preparation for the Finnish firm’s foray into the Microsoft-sourced smartphone platform, Nokia has forged a deal with Polar Mobile of Toronto. Under the deal, they’ll put together no fewer than 300 media applications for WP7. Interestingly, the deal calls not only for WP7 apps, but also apps for existing Symbian and MeeGo-based devices.

The apps are media-centric, looking to format and optimize content from international publishers for display on the smaller screen of a smartphone. These content providers include WiredUK, The Globe and Mail, and Shanghai Daily. This is likely only the beginning, but it could help give WP7 the boost that it needs. After all, WP7 only had about 9,000 apps as of the end of March. Android and iOS both had well over 100,000 apps. There’s just no comparison.

To help streamline the development, Polar Mobile will be using Nokia’s Qt development framework. This is a cross-platform solution, producing mobile versions of content for the various Nokia devices. The first Nokia WP7 smartphones are expected to hit in the first half of next year.

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You know how Nokia is supposed to be doing the Windows Phone 7 thing with Microsoft these days? Well, they’re not quite ready to give up on their own platforms just yet either. It’s not Symbian, but the new Nokia N9 is hitting the streets with MeeGo instead of Windows.

As has become the modus operandi for the Finnish phonemaker lately, the Nokia N9 boasts some very svelte and very impressive hardware, but the software doesn’t quite capture us in quite the same way. The N9 comes equipped with a 3.9-inch curved AMOLED display, NFC support (pre-loaded with Angry Birds Magic), Ovi Maps, Gorilla Glass, 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and LED flash.

Going under the hood, we discover a 1GHz TI OMAP3630 SoC, 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGC530 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. That’s pretty powerful. Rounding up the specs are HSDPA, WiFi-n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, accelerometer, digital compass, and a microSIM slot. Strangely, there’s no microSD slot to expand the 16GB or 64GB of internal memory.

The styling on this slate-style phone is similar in some ways to the Nokia N8, but you get to pick from a few different colors for the polycarbonate unibody. No word on a launch date yet, but I think Nokia would have been better off focusing on its WP7 efforts instead.

The guys at engadget got some hands on time with the Meego N9, here are the comments and a video below:

The Clear Black AMOLED display is truly a sight to behold, with stunning viewing angles, a curved Gorilla Glass front, and some pretty excellent (for AMOLED) performance out in the sunlight. We compared it side by side with a Super LCD-equipped Incredible S and the N9 more than held its own. The screen is easily one of this new phone’s great strengths, though we’d argue the intuitive UI, responsiveness, and eye-catching industrial design are pretty high up on that list too. All in all, we’re highly impressed by what Nokia has put together here, though the N9 does beg the question as to why the company has opted against making MeeGo its long-term smartphone OS of choice.

The post Nokia N9 with MeeGo under the hood has quite the intuitive UI appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Just about all of the major smartphone companies are jumping on board the tablet bandwagon. We’ve got everything from the HTC Flyer to the Motorola Xoom, but where does Nokia fit into this mix? This design patent might answer that question.

Yes, it’s just a drawing, but this could be an upcoming Nokia Tablet device of some kind. Nokia isn’t new to the realm, thanks to older releases like the N800 Internet Tablet, but this type of “pad” is a different beast altogether. It seems to borrow some styling cues from the Nokia N8 and, based on the proportions, it looks to be in the 10-inch range.

Looking through the slots in the drawing, it looks like we can make out a pair of USB ports, HDMI out, SD card slot, SIM card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Aside from that, we’re left guessing about this patent that was filed way back on May 28, 2010. This means that it’s likely a MeeGo unit, but the more recent partnership with Microsoft could see it converted to a Windows Tablet 8 machine? Maybe?

[Electronista]

The post Patent Stretches Nokia N8 to Tablet-Sized Proportions appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Apparently, according to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, they opted for Windows Phone 7 to because they wanted to avoid a “duopoly.” They were concerned that the Nokia-Google tandem would create a market wherein it’d only be them and Apple. Instead, Elop says they “wanted to create a challenger.”

Right, because everyone would much rather be a strong third than split the top spot with one other party. Right, because it has nothing to do with the fact that Elop was formally playing for the same team as Ballmer and Gates. I’m not necessarily saying that going with WP7 is bad move (though the stock drop and massive exodus appear to indicate otherwise); I’m just saying the avoidance of a duopoly isn’t that good a reason.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how these two juggernauts combine their efforts. Bing Maps or Ovi Maps? Ovi Store or Windows Marketplace? Or, more likely than not, we’ll get some Frankensteined combination of the two.

[MWC]

The post The “Reason” Why Nokia Said No To Google Android appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The announcement isn’t new — Intel said it was going to do this — but now we’re getting our first real look at a phone powered by Medfield. Sort of. What you see here is a shot of Anand Chandrasekher holding a Medfield-powered phone. He’s the VP and GM of the Intel Ultra Mobility Group.

So, what do we know about this handset? Not much, unfortunately. The Medfield processor is supposed to rival the ARM chipsets, providing plenty of horsepower with minimal power consumption. The expectation is that Intel will, at the very least, be working with Nokia on something. The Nokia N9, for example, could get a 1.2GHz Medfield to go along with its MWC debut, dropping the physical keyboard in the process. There’s also word of a MeeGo tablet with Medfield.

Will Intel work with the Android crew too? How about its old buddies at Microsoft for Windows Phone 7? From Hummingbird to A4 (and soon A5), there certainly is no shortage of mobile processor options these days.

[Maemo via Twitter]

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Even though Nokia is promising a bunch of updates to Symbian next year, it’s also hard at work on developing its MeeGo mobile operating system too. This isn’t even really beta material yet, but a video has been put together of MeeGo doing its thing on a tablet device.

For starters, you get a pretty good look at what to expect from the home screen with its fairly large icons and reasonably simple navigation. This borrows something from Maemo 5 user interface, as does the way that multitasking has been arranged. The on-screen keyboard isn’t really anything to write home about, but it does have some predictive text stuff going on.

The highlight of the video demo, at least for me, was the quick tour we get of the Mozilla Fennec mobile web browser. As far as I can tell, it’s rendering websites beautifully and navigation is done through the usual touchscreen flicking dynamic that we see on so many other devices. It will be interesting to see what MeeGo will look like as a final product, not only on proposed handsets and smartphones, but also on tablet devices like this.

[SlashGear via MyNokiaBlog]

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