[zmmmmm]

> Don't forget that only a fraction of people can afford these >= £500 device

No - fairly good Android devices are already available for US$150 unlocked (see Huawei Ideos). In the next year they'll fall below $100 and after that they'll be coming free with your breakfast cereal.

Elop is absolutely right with his analogy of a burning platform - there's a very real prospect that within 2 years Nokia could be entirely wiped out from the low end market - down to single digit market share and making very little profit on those. It's nothing short of an existential crisis for them.

[PaulHoll]

I know very little about the smartphone market, but in the console market, Sony were happy to sell the Playstation at a loss to get the hardware out there.

Is this what you are predicting for the smartphone arena? Having the hardware at increasingly lower prices in order to make money on the app sales?

Surely, this is the only logical conclusion if Nokia move into an app store-like closed marketplace?

[wtracy]

That only works as long as the console makers mostly lock out unlicensed applications from their platforms. Only AT&T and Apple seem to be willing to take this route.

Now, we have tons of carrier-subsidized phones that come with a service contract. (You get a cheap phone, but you have to pay $80/month for the next couple years.) That seems to be where the money is in phones.