News Catch Up: 07-13/01/2013

The Nokia Pure font making an appearance

Over the last week I was inundated with news concerning Nokia and the phone industry. Whether it was CES pumping out new happenings, or Nokia’s surprise preliminary report, I did not get the chance to write articles on any of it! In the future I don’t expect that to happen a lot as last week I was distrait with my own happenings, but it did make me realise that a website with just one author is going to have a rough ride trying to keep up with a truly global company that employs roughly 100,000 people and is a key participant in the fastest paced industry in the world. So, a new type of article has been born on my site: a news catch up. It is certainly not a novel idea, but it does mean I can take a holistic view at what has happened that I have missed over the last 7 days. It will look at certain things with the benefit of great depth, and others with just a quick summary. Rest assured that it will be a reliable weekly post, as the weekend is the perfect time for me to write it.

Do not fear: news will still be posted on asap. This is just a way of me not missing anything that may have slipped under my radar. Consider it extra reading for the keen amongst you.

Well here we go! For the first edition of ‘News Catch Up’ I have been beaten into submission by the sheer number of news pieces, therefore, this is just a collection of links to other websites. This way you still get the brief on what has gone down, but without me spending another day on trying to get this posted.

Monday

• Corning released Gorilla Glass 3 with what they call ‘native damage resistance’. It is meant to be 3x as damage resistant as its predecessor.
• Nokia is definitely not going down the Android route, contrary to what Gizmodo reports. Somewhere between the Canadian Stephen Elop, a Finnish Nokia, and a Spanish reporter, there was a mistranslation! WMPoweruser and Motley Fool report on this rumour very well.

Tuesday

• The Nokia Purity Pro headset wins an award at CES and gets a special mention.
• Nokia gets appointed 100% rating on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
• The Justice Department is against most sales bans for infringing key patents.
• For the first time in history CES opens with a keynote not spoken by Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer (sort of). Check out the full keynote video as some parts are just bizarrely hilarious.
• Data from AdDuplex shows that Windows Phone 8 usage is on the rise and that Lumia’s account for 54% of Windows Phones in the US, 76% in the UK, and 85% in India. The Nokia Lumia 920 is the most used Windows Phone 8 device.

Wednesday

• Nokia’s Chennai factory in India was raided by Indian tax officials. Since then no more news has been announced about the outcome of the raid.
• Nokia signed a deal with Avanade to help push the Lumia range to large enterprises. Avanade is a multinational IT consulting and software company that develops business software from a Microsoft products platform. It is a subsidiary of Accenture who holds a majority share in the company. Microsoft still has a minority share in it.
• Nokia’s new head of imaging Juha Alakarhu hinted at what is in store for Pureview in 2013 during an interview.

Thursday

• Nokia announced a surprise preliminary earnings report for Q4 2012. Nokia exceeded their previous outlook, sold 4.4m Lumia’s, 9.3m Asha Touch devices, and 86.3m phones in total. If you include Asha Touch devices as smartphones, they sold 15.9 million smartphones in Q4 (up from 6.3m in Q3 and the best all year). The Devices & Services segment of the company achieved underlying profitability (after 6 consecutive losses by quarter). Nokia Siemens Networks had a record quarter for profitability. Shares rose by as much as 19% on the NYSE.
• Nokia explained ‘supply problems’ and its strategy.
• Nokia launched the new line up of Lumia’s in India. The Lumia 920, 820, and 620 are all making their way to the country along with aggressive marketing and carrier efforts.
• An interview with Chris Weber (VP of sales and marketing in the US) revealed that Nokia is planning on expanding its device portfolio in the US and bring high-end devices to Verizon and T-Mobile. Sprint was not mentioned in the interview.
• Buzz Marketing Group said Apple is no longer cool among teenagers.

Friday

• The press across the globe reported positively on Nokia’s preliminary earnings report. Reuters said ‘Nokia’s results breakthrough buys it time and options’. The Register said ‘ship’s now stable, all we need is passengers’.
  

Saturday

• An IDC analyst spoke to Bloomberg and said Nokia will be profitable throughout 2013, despite Nokia lowering their own expectations for Q1 2013.

Sunday

•  At&t is offering $100 off a second Windows Phone device purchase and is extending the free wireless charging plate offer. This is good news for those of you in the US who are looking to buy a Windows Phone- now is the perfect time!
• An interview with Viral Oza (director of marketing in India) set in stone Nokia’s ambitions in India with the launch of the Lumia 920, 820, and 620.

Other Catch Ups

• An article on Symbian Newb made a good case for things missing on IOS which are on Symbian. There are 22 pretty poignant things to think about if you are considering making that switch.
• Nokia Suite received an update providing Windows 8 and Office 2013 support.

If you could stomach all of that I hope you are now more caught up with Nokia and technology news. Despite it being thorough, there are bound to be a few news items from last week missing. Overall it was a good week for Nokia, and with all but one of those news items being good, I would say a successful one too. Stay in tune for news as soon as it’s made this week!