[ZeroGravitas]

Although you'll not hear about it on Engadget (as it's not interesting to high-end gadget hounds, they barely mention the low-end Androids, which are high-end by world standards), Nokia got demolished at the low end by a bunch of companies you've never heard of. It was basically coincidental that at the same time they missed the bus on the new portable computer (with phone capabilities) market that Apple invented.

Pretty bad luck for a company that was raking in billions selling lots of different low-cost phones to developing nations (which you wouldn't even believe is possible if you went to the John Gruber School of Business). Unfortunately those billions insulated them from the shocks, much like Microsoft happily ignored the internet for years. But the perfect storm of Apple, Android and low-end commodity competitors hit them hard from multiple directions (nice hardware, open ecosystem, low prices were all previous Nokia advantages).

Elop mentions it though, so at least Nokia is aware of the problem: "Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally - taking share from us in emerging markets."