Only 10 Million Series 60 Phones by End of Year
WHAT?!?!? This quick news item on Forbes is disappointing to me:
Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia said on Tuesday it expected to sell 10 million phones in 2003 using its Series 60 software platform that runs on high-end phones offering advanced services.
The comment from Nokia's Erik Anderson at the Cannes wireless trade show come after the company said its plans to deliver its high-speed third-generation phone in the first half were on track.
Such phones will be key for Nokia in keeping its phone selling prices at good levels. Rival Sony Ericsson said on Monday it saw a fall of more than 10 percent in 2003 in average selling prices.
Since Nokia's going to sell like 400 million phones this year, I was hoping that there would be a higher percentage of Series 60 phones shipped. And this is a top end guess, I think. I guess it's not that bad, and if you look at the numbers of Symbian phones as a total, I'm sure it'll be a lot more than Palm (both as a PDA or phone) and waaaaaaaaaay more than MS Smartphones.
Symbian is a great bet if you're a developer. But still... only 10 million for Nokia's Series 60? Urgh! Maybe they'll be a bigger hit than expected ;-). (But then there'll be shortages, and that sucks too...)
-Russ