Another 4,000 production jobs axed at Nokia
Nokia may have some hot new smartphone models coming this year, but its financial turmoil isn’t over. The Finnish phone giant said Wedneday morning that it plans to cut around 4,000 jobs.
The company is reducing production at plants in Hungary, Mexico and Salo, Finland. The three plants make smartphones now and Nokia is now shifting a lot of that work to Asia to be closer to its suppliers. Nokia wants to speed the time … Continue Reading
IDC: Apple now the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer
Apple has moved up two spots in the world phone manufacturer rankings, with LG and ZTE dropping down a rank and Nokia and Samsung taking the top two slots, according to new IDC research.
IDC’s latest report on the state of the worldwide phone market says it grew by 6.1 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2011. But that growth is actually quite a bit weaker than the 9.3 percent year-over-year gain for Q3, … Continue Reading
Nokia Lumia 910 headed to Europe with a 12MP camera
While Americans eagerly await Nokia’s Lumia 900 Windows Phone, Europeans have something even better to look forward to: the Lumia 910.
The newer model will sport a 12 megapixel shooter, an upgrade over the 8MP camera on the Lumia 800 and 900, according to a product page by Dutch retailer Typhone.
We’ve asked Nokia to comment on the new model, but we don’t really expect the company to reveal much so soon. The existence of … Continue Reading
Apple takes back world’s top smartphone maker crown from Samsung
In what will likely be a constant back and forth between Apple and Samsung, the iPhone maker has apparently reclaimed the title of the world’s largest smartphone vendor for the fourth quarter of 2011.
That’s according to research firm Strategy Analytics, which points out that Apple shipped 37 million iPhones during the quarter versus Samsung’s 36.5 million. Samsung still remains king for all of 2011 though, with 97.4 million smartphones shipped compared to Apple’s 93 … Continue Reading
The opposite of Apple, Nokia posts huge loss to end 2011
Nokia is flailing while other companies, despite a later start, zoom past it it. One day after Apple reported an eye-popping $13 billion profit for the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia reported a $1.4 billion loss.
That’s a big difference from a year ago, when Nokia managed to turn a profit of a little under a billion. Perhaps more troubling, the company’s operating margin shrank by a factor of four, falling from 12.1 percent to … Continue Reading
AT&T may launch Nokia Lumia 900 on March 19 for just $99
Nokia’s Lumia 900 Windows Phone, one of the most promising products we saw at CES 2012, may be available through AT&T on March 19 for just $99, according to a report from BGR.
Two weeks ago, we heard from Windows guru Paul Thurrott that the Nokia Lumia 900 could arrive March 18. A first quarter launch for the Nokia Lumia 900 would be a great move for Nokia and Microsoft as they begin converting customers … Continue Reading
Nokia’s Windows Phone bet pays off, over 1M Lumias sold
Even though Nokia has remained tight-lipped about the success of its Lumia Windows Phone lineup, analysts have estimated that the phones have sold at least one million units since their November 2011 debut.
In a survey of 22 analysts, the average Lumia sales estimate was 1.3 million units, with only one predicting a figure below a million, Bloomberg reports.
To be clear, the estimates only include shipments of the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 phones … Continue Reading
Nokia’s first U.S. Windows Phone already free on contract — and that’s a good thing
That was quick. Just days after its introduction on the U.S. market, Nokia’s least-expensive Windows Phone, the Lumia 710, is being sold for free with a 2-year contract at Walmart stores.
Nokia and Microsoft made a huge push last week at the Consumer Electronics Show with their Windows Phone offerings, and the upcoming Nokia Lumia 900 even topped our list of 10 most promising products revealed at CES. But the first Nokia Windows Phone in … Continue Reading
The 10 most promising products of the coming year, as revealed at CES
We spent hours combing the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to sleuth out the most compelling tech trends and the most exciting new products of the coming year.
Now that we’ve returned from Vegas, pounded enough Emergen-C cocktails to get us back into a semblance of health, and compared notes, we’ve settled on this list of the show’s top products.
Read on to see the most promising hardware that will be … Continue Reading
The coolest technology and moments from CES 2012 (slideshow)
Last week, four VentureBeat reporters and our videographer braved the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They covered 1.861 million square feet of show floor, visited many of the 3,100 exhibitors, and sorted through the 20,000 new products that were launched at the event to find the most interesting stories and gadgets.
They also took a lot of photographs. Here are some of our favorite images and finds from the CES 2012 floor, including … Continue Reading
Nokia’s Lumia 900 rumored to land on March 18
Nokia’s Lumia 900 Windows Phone pretty much owned the smartphone field at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show and is now expected to launch on March 18.
That’s according to Windows guru Paul Thurrott, who dropped the date on the most recent Windows Weekly podcast. Thurrott isn’t one to share spurious rumors, and he’s often equipped with insider Microsoft knowledge, so there’s good reason to believe him. He also previously mentioned the March 18 date in … Continue Reading
Hands-on with Nokia’s best phone in years (pics, video)
Nokia announced the anticipated Lumia 900 smartphone earlier this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, and we decided to spend some well-needed hands-on time with the device.
Simply put, the Nokia Lumia 900 may be the single best phone Nokia has produced in years. It features a beautiful 4.3-inch AMOLED Clear Black display that makes Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system pop. For specs, it has a single-core 1.4-GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera with an LED … Continue Reading
Microsoft CEO Ballmer pimps new Windows smartphones at CES
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took to the stage at CES 2012 in Las Vegas, and the first thing on his mind, naturally, was the young Windows Phone 7 operating system.
Earlier on Monday, Ballmer took the stage with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega to promote the upcoming Nokia Lumia 900, which was biggest unkept secret of CES. The Nokia Lumia 900 will be available on AT&T and features … Continue Reading
Windows Phone’s savior: Nokia officially unveils the Lumia 900 for AT&T
Nokia’s Lumia 900 smartphone was perhaps the biggest unkept secret at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, with rumors about it first appearing several months back. Now the phone is very real, and it could be the miracle the Windows Phone operating system needs in 2012.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop unveiled the Lumia 900 on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show today, which is notable for being Nokia’s first LTE smartphone, as well as its first … Continue Reading
AT&T announces a slew of LTE 4G devices, plus an API platform for devs
In a bid to catch up with Verizon’s LTE lead, AT&T announced a plethora of new LTE 4G smartphones and tablets today at its annual developer summit — many of which will be exclusive to the carrier.
Additionally, AT&T unveiled its grand plans to court developers with a new API platform, which will make it easier to create compelling apps, together with a new cloud platform dubbed AT&T Cloud Architect.
At the developer summit, which … Continue Reading
Nokia’s killer Lumia 900 Windows Phone to hit CES on Monday, says NYT
Just as we expected, Nokia will unveil its Lumia 900 Windows Phone — which will be tasked with reinvigorating the mobile platform as its new flagship device — on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Lumia 900 will be initially available on AT&T, and is described as “sleek” and “metallic,” sources tell the New York Times. It’s a particularly exciting device for Nokia and Microsoft because it will likely be the … Continue Reading
Nokia scoops up Smarterphone, now has another mobile OS to deal with
As if Nokia needed yet another mobile operating system to deal with, the company has purchased Norwegian company Smarterphone, creator of an operating system that brings smartphone-like features to basic cellphones.
The acquisition was actually completed back in November, but today it was made public by Smarterphone investor Ferd Capital, which put 6.5 million euros (about $8.3 million) into the company since 2007.
Given Smarterphone’s target market of dumbphones (pretty much anything that’s not a … Continue Reading
The top 5 CES trends that will matter in 2012
If you couldn’t tell by the avalanche of product news hitting VentureBeat over the past few weeks, the next Consumer Electronics Show is almost upon us. The annual trade show, which has been held in Las Vegas for more than a decade, is where many of the world’s biggest electronics companies debut their new products, announce major news, and desperately try to remind us that they exist.
A flood of news is par for the … Continue Reading
Windows Phone’s big bet: Nokia Ace to get massive $100M marketing push
How important is the upcoming Nokia Ace Windows Phone? Important enough that Microsoft, Nokia, and AT&T are willing to pour $100 million into a massive marketing campaign for the phone.
The Ace, which is expected to launch exclusively on AT&T in March, is being positioned as a “hero” device by the carrier and Microsoft, reports Betanews. That means AT&T will promote the phone through advertising, in stores, and via store associates.
It’s the sort of … Continue Reading
Nokia’s AT&T-bound Ace is the Lumia 900, a potentially killer Windows Phone
We heard last week that Nokia was preparing an LTE-powered Windows Phone for AT&T, dubbed the Ace, and it now appears to be much more than just a 4G version of the Lumia 800.
The Ace is actually AT&T’s name for the Lumia 900, an unannounced Nokia Windows Phone with other notable upgrades over the Lumia 800, reports PocketNow. We expect Nokia to announce the device next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las … Continue Reading
