undefined | Better HN

0 pointsspeeder12y ago0 comments

I must disagree. In 2010 Nokia was 70% of Brazil smartphone market and their share was still rising, very fast. Symbian phones were known to.be solid, fast, and had apps and games ( even a port of counter strike! )

As soon Elop announced Symbian death, the whole thing tanked, and I cannot help but feel that Elop is stupid.

0 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

skc12y ago· 1 in thread

This would seem to imply that Brazilian consumers read the burning platform memo.

I highly doubt that. I have a huge problem with people flat out claiming that Symbian was an acceptably competitive phone offering in 2010. That's a bald faced lie in my opinion.

speederOP12y ago

It was, because it was what people could pay.

Symbian phones were much cheaper than a iPhone, and Android had not yet really arrived in force.

Nokia was known here for making sturdy, durable phones that you could use for a long time. If they paired that with also having a solid app ecosystem for the most popular brazillian uses (like, Facebook, Mail and Youtube) they could have easily won the smartphone wars here.

Instead they dumped Symbian and went for Windows Phone, allowing Android to get their former place in the market.

Mind you, most Android phones here are now no-name chinese ones, Nokia left the cheap but solid phone market, and cheap (but not-solid) phones took over the vacuum.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse