One more point: if the pricing was true that was portrayed on Gizmodo then Nokia wouldn't be the #1 cellphone maker in the world and it wouldn't have grown its marketshare between 2007 to 2008 while the iPhone was out and super hyped. In the real world Nokia's high end devices don't cost 1200 USD or anything close. That's why Nokia sells over 500 million devices per year, of which over 100 million are high-end N- and E-series devices.

Kim98

@sisedi: Pretty cheap here in Brazil.

about one brazilion dollars.

Ariel_Wollinger

If for once you would want to be fair and compare fairly then lets not say "1200 USD for the Nokia" yet you quote "199 USD" as the price for the iPhone. Lets instead pick the subsidized prices for some typical carrier that has both and subsidizes both. Unfortunately since the N96 isn't for sale yet there are no price points to compare, so lets use the N95 8GB as a proxy. The pricing will most likely be quite close:

Telia in Sweden sells the N95 8GB for 995 SEK (Swedish crowns), which is 164 USD. The iPhone is 199 USD in the USA, and for Telia in Sweden the cheapest you can get it for is 1695 SEK (the smaller 8GB model, 2 year contract, crappy contract with just 100MB data per month). 1695 SEK is 280 USD.

If you want to talk un-subsidized price then you can get an N95 8GB at Amazon UK for 262 UK pounds - that's 331 EUR or 509 USD. An un-subsidized iPhone runs at a bit over 500 EUR in Italy, the only place that I know you can currently buy them without a carrier contract.

Kim98

A friend of mine has one. Beautiful phone. And a good one too.

Ariel_Wollinger

Nokia....tasty but overpriced...

sisedi

@sisedi:
For sure a X USD iPhone is preferable to an X USD any other phone, except for certain special cases like people who type so much that a physical keyboard outweighs any other conerns, etc.

IMHO, the reason Nokia has held (and gained) market share actually isn't so much Motorola but more that the iPhone wasn't sold so widely yet during 2007 and 2008. The couple-million devices that lots of people are all psyched about are actually very low numbers compared to Nokia's numbers. That is about to change though as of a month ago when Apple really is starting to roll out the iPhone internationally and with full steam. If Apple moves, say, 25 million iPhones that will surely take out at least 15 but possibly as many as 20 million from Nokia's high end sales. Even if the total market volume grows by some 10% in the same timespan, that will hurt Nokia.

Now as far as the US market is concerned, that's an area of the world where Nokia is traditionally not very strong. Nokia has said that they are actively targeting the US market but we've yet seen any results from that. I have a feeling there will be some pretty good carrier deals in the near future though; perhaps with some of the carriers who are desperate to get something good to fight against AT&T and iPhone.

Kim98

@Ariel_Wollinger: Hah, touche.

@Kim98: Well there are plenty of Nokia phones in low range price categories which the iPhone does not inhabit. Considering how much Motorola is sucking right now it's no surprise Nokia is holding their own in that market with a decent selection of budget mobiles. I think their strongest competition of course is Samsung or LG. They beat Samsung phones IMO with their speedier UIs and more reliable quality. I'm not too familiar with LG's quality but they're holding their own as well.

But for those that want a truly sexy Nokia phone, you need to jump a pricing gap that is all too obvious here in America. You have a decent cell at <$100 that will last you a while but then you want an N series or E series and you've added 2 or 3 hundred dollars. And what happens is you have non-smart phones at smart phone pricing when comparing to the competition. A $400 iPhone vs. a $400 N78? The choice becomes obvious. This applies to Sony Ericsson too.

sisedi

thats the chinesse fake copy!

xicofixas

@Kim98: Actually I would argue that X USD iPhone beats all phones at the same price unless it were particularly cheap that day. There are a lot of benefits a competing phone can offer such as, no mandatory data plan, no 2 year contract, MMS, GPS (full), Stereo bluetooth, tactile keys, etc.

The reason Nokia is doing poorly here (if you mean higher end markets) is definitely the price first and lack of advertising second. The prices are just too high and carriers aren't picking up and flaunting the Nokia high ends. The iPhone is cool yeah but Nokia has phones that rival blackberry (I'm looking at an E71 myself and yes considered the iPhone but did not get it for the aforementioned reasons) and those phones should be pushed to the public, the E71 is sexy, sleek and could totally begin infiltrating the business world and compete head to head vs the Bold.

On a tangent, why do people compare the Bold and the iPhone? I saw a youtube vid and the guy said "it looks kinda like the iPhone" and I just scratched my head. Is it because they have a silver rim on the edge? The iPhone has curved sides, oooo never seen that before, let's compare everything to it.

sisedi

T-mo USA better get their act together or I will have no choice but leave for greener pastures. Tower coverage is spotty and the phone selection S-U-C-K-S.

F_munk

Kim98, just an addition to your comment.
I bought Nokia N95 8GB (Rogers Canada)with three year contract for CAD $79.99
Cheers

robbie.brar