Last week we covered the analyst accounts that Apple’s iPhone was more profitable than Nokia’s handsets. Since Apple makes high margin on one premium phone, while Nokia has a range of featurephones and smartphones, including low-to-no margin ones, it didn’t seem too unlikely. Joe Wilcox, however, broke out his abacus and begged to differ, saying no they weren’t, and everyone was stupid for thinking they were. John Gruber then tapped Calculator on his iPhone, looked at GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and non-GAAP numbers, and said the estimates were within reason. Wilcox updated his original post, decrying the use of non-GAAP numbers, and re-asserting his original conclusion.

Who’s side are we on? Why, the audiences’ of course, with popcorn, hotdogs, and spicy drink in hand. It’s not like either Apple or Nokia give us a cut of the winning profits, and though we love our iPhones a lot, we’ll take a blog v.s blogfight any time.

[via TUAW]

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Was iPhone More Profitable Than Nokia Handsets Last Quarter? — Blog vs. Blog!

Engadget’s resident legal gadget eagle, Nilay Patel, has put together a great, depth analysis of Nokia’s recent lawsuit against Apple and the iPhone over patent infringement.

As usual, the race to hype this dispute as a bitter standoff between two tech giants desperate to destroy one another has all but ignored the reality of how patents — especially wireless patents — are licensed, what Nokia’s actually asking for, and how it might go about getting it. And as you know, we just don’t do things that way, so we’ve asked our old friend Mathew Gavronski, a patent attorney in the Chicago office of Michael Best & Friedrich, to help us sort things out and figure out what’s really going on here — read on for more.

In a nutshell, Nokia believes Apple is infringing on 10 patents that are core to GSM/UTMS/Wi-Fi. All the other major players have paid up. Apple hasn’t. Apple may believe the patent fees are already paid by the manufacturer of the components they bought for the iPhone, or they may just be using the legal system as way to negotiate a lower ultimate licensing fee from Nokia.

If the area interests you, check out the whole analysis and then let us know what you think!

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Why Nokia is Suing Apple Over the iPhone

Out sibling site NokiaExperts.com brings word that Nokia is suing Apple in Delaware court. Why-for?

ten patents related to GSM, UMTS, and WLAN standards that Nokia states they established after investing more than EUR 40 billion in R&D over the last 20 years. Nokia stated that they have successfully entered into license agreements including these patents with approximately 40 companies, including virtually all the leading mobile device vendors, allowing the industry to benefit from Nokia’s innovation.

Seems other companies have coughed up the cash to use them, but Apple’s waiting for a court to force their hand. With $35 billion in the bank, they can obviously afford to give a fortune away to the lawyers, but why go to the effort? Do they really think a court will somehow dismiss the patents as invalid?

Pass the popcorn, get ready for some patent pugilism, and let us know what you think!

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Nokia Sues Apple Over iPhone GSM Patent Infringement

Nokia’s latest latest and greatest, the N900, is being shown off at Nokia World, and it again has our own NokiaExpert, Matt Miller, all shades of excited.

While some have complained about it’s meager 3 rows of keys (3 rows too many for me, but I know many others like physical keyboards…) most are really excited about it’s Maemo (Linux-based) operating system, and it’s new user interface.

In fact, antonioj, who sent the link our way, thinks it might be enough to pressure Apple into refreshing the 2007-era iPhone UI…

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The Competition: Nokia N900 Hands-On

Nokia has announced a new, Maemo-powered N900 which our good friend Matt Miller of NokiaExperts.com is beaming about in an iPhone and Palm Pre competitive sort of way:

I have to say I have not been this excited about a Nokia product for quite some time and with the T-Mobile USA 3G support I will definitely be picking one up as soon as I can. The N900 fixes all that is wrong with the N97 and then throws on a slick Maemo UI and feature set that should have most any geek drooling.

32GB, OpenGL 2.0, ARM Cortex A8, 800×600 screen, 5mp camera… Pretty clear that Nokia is doing their usual hardware magic, many specs closely mirroring the iPhone 3GS, in fact (though what’s up with 1GB of application memory?!) And Maemo 5 UI…

Does this mean Nokia is abandoning Symbian on the high end for this hot new Debian Linux-based OS? Will they be able to really come up with a user experience that can take mind share away from the iPhone and Palm Pre? And will this device finally give them some sort of presence in the North American market?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Competition: Nokia Goes Maemo, Announces N900

Our friend Matt Miller over at sister-site NokiaExperts has just posted up his first impressions of the white Nokia N97. Like most premium handsets over the last few years, the N97 has been played up as another “iPhone killer” so we figured we’d better keep an eye on it at well.

What’s Matt’s take away? Good but not great if we’re reading it right, though Nokia is promising updates that might make it even better.

Head on over to NokiaExperts for the full rundown and video overview, and let us know what you think!

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iPhone Competition: Nokia N97 First Impressions

Our newest sibling site, NokiaExperts.com has linked up an article suggesting Nokia and Verizon’s previous iClonic efforts were just generations one, and now they’re preparing to transform and merge into… A Nokizon (Verkia?) uber-iPhone killer?

It seems that Verizon may have deep hard feelings against the Apple and iPhone exclusivity deal and appears to be making a deal with Nokia to create a 4G LTE (long term evolution) touchscreen device for the US market.

The backstory here is that Apple reportedly went to Verizon first with the iPhone and was rejected, so despite the recent rumors (and Verizon’s rather sad little surveys), there’s no reason to think Apple will be helping them out any time soon, hence… Vernokiazon?

No word on specs or release dates or whether it will have phaser functionality and arrive on unicorns or anything yet, but in all seriousness, Nokia puts out amazing specs (see the n97) and Verizon has a great network, so is it possible that whatever they put out could join the Android G1, BlackBerry Storm, WinPho 6.5/7, and the Palm Pre in the long list of “iPhone Killers”.

[NokiaExperts.com via TheStreet, thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]

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Attack of the Super iClone: Nokia and Verizon Team Up for 4G iPhone “Killa”

UPDATED: Daring Fireball nails it. Closed or open, the smartphone industry was stagnating before the iPhone…

ORIGINAL: Steve Ballmer is the gift that just keeps on grief’ing! Proven wrong about the iPhone already, both the Microsoft CEO and his counterpart at Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvu both decided to take fairly transparent jabs at Apple, who once again didn’t even bother to attend the show. CNet (via MacRumors) has the gory details.

Said Kallasvu (taking a break from iCloning the iPhone App Store):

Apple’s vertically integrated model, where its hardware and software are tightly controlled by the company, further fragmented the market. And he added that what is truly needed is more openness in developing applications.

Said Ballmer, (who’s been getting his own fair share of grief this week over WinPho 6.5):

“I agree that no single company can create all the hardware and software. Openness is central because it’s the foundation of choice.”

One disgruntled European expressed displeasure at all the iPhone talk, asking why it deserved attention when it had only a tiny sub-percentage of the market.

Responded AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega:

“Because the other 99.5 percent of the industry is trying to copy the iPhone.”

It wasn’t all hugs and kisses from AT&T, though, even with the iPhone providing life support to their bottom line. Jabbed de la Vega:

“The iPhone is a great success, but it would be even better if the applications were interoperable,”

Um, yeah, because then people might actually want to buy those other, less innovative, non-iPhone you have stockpiled in your warehouse?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Microsoft & Nokia CEOh-Snap: iPhone Should Be More Open! AT&T: Then Why Keep Copying It?

If you haven’t heard, Apple’s a no-show here at Mobile World Congress 2009, this show pretty much belongs to Microsoft, HTC, and Nokia (with a side of Samsung and Sony Ericsson). However, as with other trade shows like CES and CTIA, Apple’s presence is felt in its absence. Rather than join their brethren in the mobile community, Apple sits it out and watches while other companies are forced to make their announcements in a context Apple has created. To wit: Both Microsoft and Nokia announced App Stores this week. Microsoft’s Market is basically a no-show, though, all we have is promises. Nokia’s isn’t ready yet either, but it will be in May.

Actually, we know quite a bit about Nokia’s App Store, called the Ovi Store. It’s an extension (and replacement) of their earlier services and includes everything from apps to ringtones to wallpapers to widgets. Here’s the thing, folks: Nokia may have solved the #1 problem at Apple’s App Store: finding apps that are 1. good and 2. interest you.

What Nokia has done is build a sophisticated relevancy engine that can sort apps based on a variety of factors that are actually relevant to you — like what you friends are using, or what kind of app you like to download, or what music you tend to prefer. It looks to be much better than your standard “top 50″ list and if Apple is smart and shameless (we know they’re both), they’ll steal these features as soon as humanly possible.

The Ovi Store also looks to be a little kinder and gentler on developers too, giving them more power over how (and if!) their app will be distributed.

I’ve written the whole thing up over at sister-site Nokia Experts, go on and take a look.

[How about Apple needs to expand iTunes GENIUS recommendations to the App Store immediately? -- Rene]

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Dear Apple: Please Steal Features From Nokia’s Ovi Store

Yeah, yeah, Michael Dell once said Apple should be shut down and the money returned to shareholders. We all know the can of whupApps Steve Jobs has unleashed on the industry since then. These days, Apple’s profits look as good as their products and Dell’s… likewise.

So it’s with no small amount of trepidation we notice WMExperts noticing the world noticing Dell might just be making an entry into the smartphone market…

What’s wrong with that picture is pretty much what’s wrong with the exhibit in general. While Apple holds a fairly small percentage of the global cellphone market (as it does the global computer market), it happens to enjoy among the largest percentage of profit in the market (also, as it does with computers).

MacDailyNews highlights that while Apple ships an insignificant number of units compared to a behemoth like Nokia, it makes DOUBLE the profit of Nokia. Likewise, while rivals such as the Palm Pre are getting some much deserved attention, their finances (and thus ability to pay talent and fund much needed R&D) are on the brink — while Apple has nearly $30 BILLION in the bank.

So, while carriers are increasingly desperate for “hero” phones to make a splash and attract high-spending customers, according to mocoNews.net, current performance is showing few — if any — can currently match either the return on investment, or user experience, of the iPhone.

Sure, the smartphone market in general is continuing to grow, and may even be recession proof according to Forbes, but is anyone outside of Apple really poised with enough creativity, cash, and cunning to leverage it?

[Thanks to Jeremy and Dieter for source links!]

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Apple’s iPhone Advantage — Profit, not Volume (Plus, Friday Dell Fun!)