THE CUTTING ROOM

Paul Withers

Nokia is no stranger to criticism but following the launch of its Lumia 1020 handset in New York this month, the manufacturer deserves some long overdue credit.

For those who don’ t know, the device’ s main feature is a 41-megapixel camera( see page 26). Yes, Nokia has tried this before – and with little success – with the 808 PureView around 18 months ago. The launch was a bit of an anticlimax and few if any retailers pushed it – if they even stocked at all. O2, Vodafone, EE and Three all rejected it.

Righting wrongs This time around things appear different. O2 has got an exclusive variant. Phones 4U, Carphone Warehouse and Three have also got involved.

So why the change? For starters, the original ran on Symbian, an operating system which arguably played a key role in the firm’ s recent downfall in the smartphone arena.

The 1020 uses Windows Phone 8, which is a vast improvement regardless of your feelings about the operating system.

Significantly, it brings something new to the market – something really useful which almost everyone with a phone today can appreciate.

Innovation Nokia president and CEO Stephen Elop’ s comments on page 2, suggesting other manufacturers are too focused on rehashing older models, sounds like sour grapes and, when comparing sales figures, is unlikely to hurt anyone’ s feelings at Samsung or HTC.

Apple’ s latest results are a strange mix of very good and very bad news for the company. Early headlines suggested the Californian firm had an astounding third quarter, with iPhone sales in April, May and June up 20 per cent to 31.2 million compared to 26 million in the same period last year.

According to CFO Peter Oppenheimer, the manufacturer is“ very pleased” with this result, which is the culmination of growth across developed and emerging markets, he said.

And perhaps it should be – but the fact that iPhone sales grew 51 per cent in the US, 66 per cent in Japan and around 50 per cent in the UK, shows it must be doing quite poorly elsewhere for this average to be dragged down so significantly.

Indeed, there are three signs that the Apple may be rotting and that the firm’ s products may not have quite the appeal they once had.

But he does have a point. The popularity of Samsung’ s Galaxy S range has gone through the roof and, like Apple, it continues to bring out very similar follow-ups – a boost in speed here and an increase in megapixels there.

HTC has done the same with the equally impressive HTC One by bringing out a marginally smaller( both in size and spec) model, the HTC One Mini.

Nokia is no stranger to this, of course – in fact, back in the early noughties, it was one of the worst offenders, bringing out numerous new models that were virtually identical to their predecessors( 6230-6230i, N95-N95 8GB, N97-N97 Mini).

But it appears the firm has made efforts not to fall into the same old trap again. Whether long term this has an adverse effect on its coffers we’ ll have to wait and see, but it’ s good to see. I’ m sure Nokia’ s rivals will be ready to pounce if a followup‘ Mini’ version of any of its devices emerges.

Excitement For now at least, the Lumia 1020 is an exciting addition and has some great embedded technology. There are six physical lenses, the most found

The first is the company’ s significant smartphone decline in China, where Tim Cook admitted it had seen“ dramatic downturns” in iPhone sales. He said sales in Hong Kong, a“ shopping haven” for tourists as well as residents, fell by 20 per cent. Of more concern was that Cook said he didn’ t know why this had happened, although he said China’ s economic situation had been unhelpful.

Analysts asked Cook how he could turn Apple’ s fortunes in China around. Plans appear

“ There are signs the Apple may be rotting and its products are losing their appeal”

to be thin on the ground – basically double the number of retail stores and hope for the best – although Cook seemed to hint at something a bit more proactive.“ iPhone sales are lower in China than we want them to be,” he said, adding the company will do something about this“ but we are doing it very cautiously because we want to do it with great quality”. Was this a hint at a cheaper iPhone in any smartphone, as well as optical image stabilisation to increase picture quality in low light. It also features dual capture, enabling it to take a 38-megapixel image and create a five-megapixel picture that can be shared across social networks.

Nokia did a fine job of demonstrating the camera

during the launch, with Elop comparing images of two Nokia employees jumping in the air taken with the 1020, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Apple iPhone 5. The results were eye-catching – the S4 and iPhone 5 pictures were blurred, while the Lumia 1020 snap was clear. He also showed a video close-up of some bees in a beehive. This, assuming it was 100 per cent genuine, was incredible, and it more than backed Elop’ s claims of being able to see things through the 1020’ s lens that your eyes cannot.

Scepticism However, analysts threw lukewarm – rather than freezing cold – water on Nokia’ s strategy. IDC research director for European mobile devices Francisco Jeronimo said the

High-resolution picture taken on the new Nokia Lumia 1020 phone

to match Chinese consumers’ budgets? We’ ll have to wait and see – Apple said it will bring out new products in the autumn and throughout 2014.

The second worry which may keep Apple execs up at night is falling iPad sales. Global sales fell from 17 million in Q3 last year to 14.6 million. This looks worse when you put it into context with tablet sales forecasts. IDC, for example, predicts a 58.7 per cent yearon-year increase in tablet sales in 2013. Either the analysis firm is incorrect or other manufacturers are encroaching on Apple’ s tablet market share.

It’ s not all doom and gloom though. Cook pointed out that recent research shows 84 per cent of tablet data usage comes from iPads.“ Maybe other tablets are being sold, but I don’ t know what they are being used for,” he joked.

The third source of potential concern is the continuing decline in the average selling price, or ASP, of iPhones( we saw very similar things in Apple’ s Q2). Apple’ s profits fell from

Lumia 1020 could become a niche product, while Ovum principal device analyst Tony Cripps and uSwitch. com telecoms expert Ernest Doku doubted its appeal.

Following the publication of its Q2 results one week after the launch, Elop spoke of Nokia’ s need to be different and

“ If you want to leave your digital camera at home, the 1020 is an obvious choice”

innovative and took a shot at rivals for rehashing products. The firm’ s smartphone growth was also impressive – sales of its Lumia range were up by 32 per cent from Q1.

Nokia has to separate itself from its smartphone rivals in order to continue its recovery and in doing so, must have technology and devices that will make consumers sit up and take notice.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z, two of the most high-end smartphones, have 13-megapixel cameras. The iPhone 5 has an eightmegapixel camera and therefore doesn’ t even come close to the Lumia 1020.

Camera appeal According to smartphone owners interviewed in 25 countries as part of the IDC 2012 ConsumerScope 360 Survey, camera resolution was the 15th most important feature out of 23 they said they looked for when buying a smartphone.

I’ m dubious about these results. Visit any tourist attraction or concert and the scene is dominated by people taking pictures on their phones.

Conversations overhead during Mystery Shopper demonstrate camera quality is a key selling point for a device, and for those wanting to leave their digital camera at home the Nokia 1020 is an obvious choice.

$ 8.8 billion(£ 5.7 billion) in Q3 2012 to $ 6.9 billion(£ 4.5 billion) in the same period this year. According to analyst firm IHS, Apple’ s ASP has been declining since Q1 – October, November, December 2012 – due to a shift in product mix towards the older iPhone 4 and 4S models.

IHS said this will continue as the high-end market is so saturated.

Indeed, with the proliferation of top-spec phones on the market, Apple needs to do something to protect its ASP, while at the same time capturing the Chinese market. There’ s talk of iPhones with bigger screens( it worked for Samsung) and cheaper versions of the iPhone( Samsung and HTC have both released cheaper‘ Mini’ versions of their flagships) so it will be interesting to see if Apple goes down either or both of these routes.

From what Oppenheimer told investors last week, Apple’ s autumn is set to be“ very busy” – we only have a few more months to wait to find out.

September

6-11 IFA 2013 Berlin, Germany

b2b. ifa-berlin. com

October

8-11 Spectrum Management Forum DexterHouse, London

spectrumevent. com

14-17 GSMA NFC and Mobile Money Summit New York, USA

nfcmobilemoneysummit. com

16-17 IP Expo Earls Court 2, London

ipexpo. co. uk

November

4-6 MVNO Networking Congress The Hilton, Paddington, London

mvnoevent. com

11-13 Enterprise Mobility BYOD Dexter House, London

byod-event. com

12-13 Mobile Roaming World Summit The Hilton, Paddington, London

roamingworldconference. com

14 What Mobile Awards Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Knightsbridge, London

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MN 2013-0730 Opinion. indd 20 24 / 07 / 2013 18:04