Espen Fumes, a fund manager for Storebrand Asset Management, which manages more than $60 billion, including Nokia and Apple, admitted that Nokia must maintain and even surpass 1 million in order to restore its credibility and regain investors confidence.

The move that put Nokia in a pinch was made by CEO Stephen Elop last year, when he dumped the Symbian and MeeGo phones and announced the coming Microsoft only line of smartphones. The estimates are significant, because there was low confidence that the Nokia-Microsoft team could provide adequate competition against the iPhone and Android devices.

Elop was able to manage the confidence game, by avoiding inflated expectations. He placed special emphasis on the gradual development of a new world order within Nokia, both applications and developers, that would be Microsoft oriented.

According to Lee Simpson, an analyst at Jefferies International in London, there is plenty of room for Nokia to capture a significant portion of the market, what with none of the other big players stepping up to the bat. RIM, HTC, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola have all shied away.

The big hit on Nokia’s revenue and profit will ultimately be the 36% drop in Symbian smartphone sales in only two quarters. This was due to the announcement of Lumia. Independent analysts indicate Nokia has taken a 92 million-euro loss in the fourth quarter.

Just for the year 2011 the shares plummeted 52%. However, the gains this year amount to a 15% increase. Compare this to HTC, down 1.7, and Apple, up only 3.8. According to the many positive reviews, Nokia’s Lumia phones are to thank. They took over a dozen awards at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. The European markets saw Lumia 800 start in November 2011 at 420 euros, while the Lumia 710 hit the Asian and Russian markets at 270 euros in December.

Nokia was overtaken by Apple between 2007 and 2010, when Apple introduced the iPhone. Elop was then given the helm of Nokia, coming from Microsoft as a kind of secret weapon in the smartphone market. Apple wiped out 60 billion euros of Nokia’s value. However, Standard and Poor slashed Nokia’s debt ratings, as well as by Moody, indicating an anticipation of a sluggish recovery from such a devastating blow.

Nevertheless, Nokia was unable to sell out the Lumia models. One theory is that the Lumia 800 was just a bit too high priced for those considering jumping into a Microsoft-based phone. When Nokia does release their fourth-quarter results, they will include the Nokia N9, which is identical to the Lumia 800, but is loaded with their proprietary MeeGo software.

After months of waiting the Chronic Dev Team (a team of iOS hackers dedicated to freeing Apple products from their obnoxious constraints) began teasing followers with tidbits of information on the release of the jailbreak.

At first it was just tweets stating they were working on it tirelessly and that they “were close” and then, much to everyone’s delight, a video was released showing an untethered iPhone 4S sporting Cydia (see it here on YouTube). This video literally sent many into “check twitter every 10 minutes” mode – their perseverance was only rewarded with more frustration when the Chronic Dev Team released the Mac version of the iOS 5 jailbreak. Finally on the 21^st the jailbreak titled Absinthe was released for Windows.

Since the jailbreak was hosted on the Chronic Dev Team’s servers the first  hours after the release the servers crashed multiple times with only a lucky few getting their jailbreak done. Now, days later, the Dev Team is totaling the amount of jailbroken devices.

Jay Freeman (aka saurik) is a leading part of the hacking team that produced the jailbreak. Via Twitter saurik released some astonishing figures: “So, @MuscleNerd’s 205k number was just the number of on-Cydia iPhone 4S’s; I believe that is now 494k. iPad 2 5.0.1 adds an additional 463k.” Additionally it was reported that Absinthe was downloaded over a million times so far and this is only a few days after the release of the jailbreak – imagine what the totals will be a week from now!

Jailbreak Your Device in 5 Easy Steps!

1. Jailbreaking your iOS 5 device is incredibly easy. First go to the Chronic Dev Team’s site http://greenpois0n.com/  and choose the correct file at the top right (there is Mac or Windows).
2. Once you’ve downloaded the files connect your ipad 2 or iPhone 4S to your computer and then launch the Absinthe program.
3. Once that is launched you’ll be told to back up your device so do so. If you attempted to download the Mac jailbreak and use that on your iDevice then you will likely lose all of your data when reverting the jailbreak as we attempted that and found out firsthand what impatience does!
4. Now that you’re all backed up and ready to go then hit the “Jailbreak” button on the right side of the Absinthe program. It will now begin the jailbreaking process starting off with a restore so be patient as it can take a while!
5. After the restore is done unlock your phone and then click the Absinthe icon and your device will reboot after it’s made contact with the GreenPois0n servers. In a few moments your device will be done rebooting and your Absinthe icon is going to be replaced by a glorious Cydia one!

Ice Cream Sandwich is the first Android version that is capable to run on both mobile phones and tablets and also the first one that completely changes the UI, design, style and so on. When Apple released the iPhone they introduced a whole new way of interacting with the phone and later with the tablet. This experience was simple, fast and beautiful.

When Google announced Android mobile operating system and Open Handset Alliance, we expected to see a real competitor for Apple, but we end up with some disappointment. It took 4 full years for Google to understand the real meaning of keeping things simple and only a person was necessary to completely change Android from top to bottom.

This article is not made for that person, but still we have to congratulate Matias Duarte for what he had done at Google since its arrival in May 2010. If Android Honeycomb 3.0 was already developed when he first started to work for Google and was called like an emergency arrival, with Ice Cream Sandwich update we can discover the brilliant mind of Matias Duarte.

Talking about Android and things related, let’s look a little inside Marketplace. It’s a mess!!! Till now every Android app developer used his own hands to design an app and that’s why there are a lot of apps that try to copy the ones from AppStore.

The good news came just few hours ago at CES 2012, where Matias Duarte announced that Android will introduce a style guide website to guide app developers on how they should design an Android app to keep up with the trend. I used the word guide, because according to Matias, this is not something Google will try to enforce, so anyone can use what style and UI they want. The website is available now and app developers or Android users can visit to discover it: Android Design Guide

On a first view of the website I discovered that Android can indeed compete iOS in the future. It’s because now everyone has a start point, a guide that they can follow and discover the design principles, user interface, typography and the pure specifications of the Android. It’s great because there are a lot of “don’t do that”, or “keep in simple” so expect the best from Android in the next months of years.

Overall, this is good for Android, as I said before, because it gives them the change to finally admit that what they were doing was completely wrong and to raise the bar for the future by introducing these guidelines. If this works or not we will probably see in the next months/years, but till Matias Duarte, the brain behind WebOS is in charge, I thing we can expect to see simple and nice things.

The Nokia Lumia was built exclusively for AT&T (yes, Verizon is left out again!) and it is a powerful new smart phone with a large screen, incredibly thin case, fast processor, and much more! The download speeds alone on the Lumia 900 are as fast as 50Mbs on the AT&T 4G LTE network. These speeds will drastically increase the users experience while using the web. No more waiting for movies to load before watching them, no more wait to view emails – everything responds instantaneously and without pause.

The screen on this new smart phone is a nice 4.3 inch AMOLED ClearBlack display. Web pages look clear and crisp on the Lumia and movies are phenomenal with the 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Despite having a larger screen, the Nokia Lumia fits perfectly into the palm of your hand. It’s smooth, lightweight, and incredibly stylish looking – something AT&T customers will enjoy boasting about to their friends!

So what’s under the hood of this powerful LTE capable phone? Well, you can thank the updated chipset for allowing the 1.4GHz processor to support LTE data transfers. The processor (for those of you who are just dying for the specs) is a Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8055 + MDM9200. The Lumia also has 512 MB RAM, 16GB internal memory (SkyDrive cloud storage also available), and will run on the Windows Phone OS called Mango.

The surprising thing about the Nokia Lumia is the fact that, despite the larger screen size, its battery life is fantastic. It has a 1830mAH battery that will allow the user an astonishing seven hours of talk time. Additionally it can stay up on standby for three hundred hours and can be switched into flight mode so that you can listen to music for over two and a half days!

Still not good enough for you? Well, how about the phone this bad boy has. The Lumia is equipped with an eight megapixel camera on the back that has a Carl Zeiss lens and an incredibly bright LED flash. On top of being able to take fantastic pictures (in both bright light or dim light) you can also take high resolution video at 720p.

Don’t worry, there is more than one camera on this beast! The camera facing the user is only a one megapixel camera however its primary use is video calls. Also, for you social lights, there is an integrated social networking section on your phone that allows you to view all of your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn contacts!

The Nokia Lumia is a fantastic smart phone that is completely designed for high speed web browsing, video watching, and more! With some innovative features behind it, and the speedy LTE data transfers, this will surely be a fan favorite when it hits shelves!

January 8:

- Acer (Press Conference): 01.30 PM

- CES Unveiled (Official Press Event): 04.00 PM

- Toshiba (CES Party): 06.30 PM

January 9:

- LG (Press Conference): 8:00 AM

- AT&T (Developer Summit): 9:00 AM

- Samsung (Press Conference): 2:00 PM

- Nokia (Press Conference): 3:00 PM

- NVIDIA (Press Conference): 4:00 PM

- Sony (Press Conference): 5:00 PM

- Microsoft (Steve Ballmer, keynote): 6:30 PM

- Pepcom (Digital Experience): 7:00 PM

January 10:

- Qualcomm (Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, keynote): 8:30 AM

- Intel (Paul Otellini, keynote): 4:30 PM

Apple iPad 2 

Size: 9.5in tall x 7.31in wide x .034in depth   Weight at only 1.33 lbs. ( 1.35 lbs. for 3G)
Storage: Both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB storage options
Models: There are only two models. The first has Wi-Fi only and the second has Wi-Fi and 3G, each are available in black or white.
Display: Both models boast a 9.7 inch LED touchscreen display that is backlit.
Battery life: For both models using Wi-Fi only, you”ll have a battery life of 10hrs for web surfing, videos, and even music. For the model with 3G capabilities, if you are using 3G instead of Wi-Fi it drops the battery life down to only 9hrs of use.
Additional features: Both models are equipped with dual cameras (one on each side), video recording capabilities, one headphone jack, a decent built in speaker, multi file format support, and much more. The 3G model has a built in GPS system, and 3G capabilities on top of all of the basic features.
Price: Wi-Fi Only: 16GB $499.00 , 32GB $599.00 , 64GB $699.00
Wi-Fi +3G: 16GB $629.00 , 32GB $729.00 , 64GB $829.00
Overall Opinion: The Apple iPad 2 is one of the hottest items on the market for a variety of reasons. Not only does it offer incredible versatility, but also has all of the great Apple apps that truly make Apple products one of a kind. Unfortunately the high price tag deters many would be customers away and rightfully so. Additionally the cameras that this product is sporting are a complete waste and should only be used for Facetime rather than picture taking.

Amazon Kindle Fire

Size: 7.5in height x 4.7in wide x 0.45in depth with a weight of only 14.6 oz.
Storage: 8GB internal storage and additional storage space on amazon’s cloud.
Battery life: 8hrs of reading time when fully charged and wireless off.
File formats: TXT, DOC, DOCX, Kindle (AZW), PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP, JPEG, WAV, MP3, MP4, VP8, and a few others.
Additional features: Wi-Fi abilities, access to the thousands of apps and movies on the Amazon marketplace, free storage for all of Amazon’s products, music capabilities, and more!
Price: $199.00
Overall Opinion: The Kindle Fire is a great multifunctional device that provides incredible functionality for a relatively low price. Despite not having some features like Bluetooth capabilities and a camera, the low price tag on this device definitely makes up for that. The Kindle Fire is a great device that serves as both a tablet and an e-reader!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Size: 10.1in wide x 6.9in height x 0.34in depth weighing only 1.24lbs.
Storage: Offered in 16GB or 32GB storage.
Models: This device is offered in either a gray, or an all-white color.
Battery life: with music only playing, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 can last up to 72hrs, however when you play videos the battery drops significantly to only 9hrs.
Additional features: The Galaxy Tab offers full HD video playback, support of a variety of file formats, extensive Google Mobile services, a Samsung Hub, 2 cameras, Wi-Fi, and much more.
Price: Both 16GB models are $499.99 while the 32GB models are $599.99
Overall Opinion: All in all the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a great iPad alternative. Not only does it boast all of Google’s unique android features, but it also has a great stylish look. Unfortunately this tablet is the same price as the iPad2 models and since the iPad 2 is a more popular tablet, then consumers will likely choose the iPad2 over the Galaxy Tab.

Apple iPhone 4S

Size: 4.5in height x 2.31in width x 0.37in depth with a weight of only 4.9 ounces.
Storage: Both models are offered in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB storage options.
Models: The iPhone 4s is available in either black or white colors.
Battery life: standard talking will allow your iPhone 4S to last for up to eight hours, however if you are using 3G for web browsing your battery drops down to 6hrs.
Additional features: On top of having a fantastic HD camera and the ability to record 1080p video, the iPhone 4S also has Siri which truly makes the device unique. The virtual assistant performs a variety of actions commanded to her via voice.
Price: With a contract: 16GB $199 , 32GB $299 , 64GB $399
Without a contract: 16GB $649.00 , $32GB $749.00 , 64GB $849.00
Overall Opinion: Despite the fancy Siri addition, the iPhone 4S is not much different than the iPhone 4 except for the outrageous price tag that’s attached to it. If you are looking for a new phone contract and see this device, it’s a good buy, however if you already have an existing contract the unlocked device is way overpriced. People would be better off signing up for a contract, getting the phone, then selling it for a profit rather than keeping it themselves.

Galaxy Nexus

Size: 67.94mm wide x 135.5mm height x 9.47mm depth with a weight of only 150g.
Storage: 32GB
Models: only one model offered in standard matte black color.
Battery life: around 8hrs of hard usage and web browsing, however can last over a day with simple talk and normal use.
Additional features: Now you don’t have to worry about constantly unlocking your phone because the facial recognition feature automatically does that for you. On top of that the Nexus sports all of Google’s fancy android apps and has a great HD screen with 1080p video recording.
Price: Amazon has recently dropped the price of the Galaxy Nexus down to an astonishing $149.99 completely undercutting all of their competitors’ prices.
Overall Opinion: With Amazon’s incredibly low price the Galaxy Nexus is a great buy for the holidays. Not only does it have a ton of awesome apps and features, but it is only a fraction of the price that competing smart phones cost (thanks to Amazon’s help).

Samsung Galaxy S II

Size: 125.3mm height x 66.1mm wide x 8.49mm depth weighing only.
Storage: 16GB or 32GB
Models: Offered in either white or black.
Battery life: this phone lasts for about 8.35hrs when talking, but only 4.24hrs of solid web browsing.
Additional features: This phone doesn’t have Siri, but it’s got the next best thing. With Voice Solution you can command your phone to do a variety of different tasks (making memos, writing notes, scheduling, and even launching apps). On top of that the Social Hub integrates all of your online social activities into one streamlined interface that allows you to sift through each notification efficiently.
Price: Right now Amazon is charging only $527.99 for this phone as opposed to the regular listing price of $899.99
Overall Opinion: The Galaxy S II is one of the thinnest phones out there and is incredibly light. Top it off the display is outrageously good, its SUPER AMOLED touch screen display makes every picture crisp and unmistakably clear. With a much smaller price tag than many other smart phones, the Galaxy S II is definitely a great, and affordable, gift for this Christmas season.

Nokia Lumia 800

Size: 116.5mm height x 61.2mm wide x 12.1mm thick weighing only 142g.
Storage: 16GB
Models: Available in black, cyan, or fushia colors.
Battery life: 9.5hrs of talk time with 55hrs of music playback time.
Additional features: The Nokia Lumia 800 has Wi-Fi capabilities, a curved AMOLED touchscreen display, stunning 8mp camera, Bluetooth capabilities, ActiveSync, and more.
Price: the average price is about $666.64 however the actual price will be determined by the service provider.
Overall Opinion: Despite not having additional storage options the Nokia Lumia is a beautiful phone that has an incredibly stylish design. It is Nokia’s first Windows smartphone and Nokia is showcasing all of its capabilities in a beautiful phone that is available in three stunning colors.

Apple Macbook Air (2011-edition)

Size: 11.6in model dimensions are 0.11in-0.68in height x 11.8in side x 7.56in depth weighing 2.38lbs.
13.3in model dimensions are 0.11in-0.68in height x 12.8in wide x 8.94in depth weighing 2.96lbs.
Storage: The 11.6in model is available in either 64GB or 128GB of flash storage while the 13.3in model is available in 128GB or 256GB flash storage.
Models: MacBookAir4.1 (11″), MacBookAir4.2 (13″)
Battery life: 50-watt-hour
Additional features: backlit keyboard – Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor using 256 MB (11″ base model) or 384 MB (all other models) of DDR3 SDRAM, FaceTime camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.
Price: 11.6in model at 64GB of storage is $999, at 128GB of storage it is at $1,199. The 13.3in model at 128GB of storage is $1,299 and at 256GB of storage it costs $1,599
Overall Opinion: MacBook’s have always been over priced and over rated. All of the features seen on these two models can be found on other laptops for a fraction of the price. Take away the Apple brand and the computers wouldn’t sell for more than a couple hundred at best.

PlayStation Vita

Size: 182mm wide x 18.6mm height x 83.5mm depth.
Storage: 512MB
Models: PS Vita 3G + Wi-Fi, PS Vita First Edition Bundle, PS Vita Wi-Fi.
Battery life: only 3-5 hrs of gameplay, 5hrs of video, and about 9hrs of music.
Additional features: front and rear cameras, motion sensor for enhanced gaming, touchscreen, GPS, Cross play, and dual analog sticks.
Price: PS Vita 3G + Wi-Fi $299.99 , PS Vita First Edition Bundle $349.99 , PS Vita Wi-Fi $249.99
Overall Opinion: Pre-ordering one of these bad boys is essential for next year. Not only do these handheld consoles have incredible gaming features, but Sony also amped up the functionality by adding tons of web features as well. At a decent price for handheld consoles, the PS Vita is definitely a must have for many gamers.

Xbox 360 with Kinect

Size: 12in wide x 11.5in depth x 7.2 in tall weighing 10.9lbs.
Storage: 4GB
Models: Included in the bundle is the Xbox 360 Slim and the Kinect sensor.
Battery life: No battery, console is plugged in.
Additional features: The bundle includes the gaming console, the Kinect sensor, and the game Kinect Adventures (which is a great starter game) and it also includes one Xbox 360 controller. The Xbox 360 console has HDMI capabilities but an additional cord will have to be purchased.
Price: Amazon is selling the bundle for $299.99 and local Walmart’s are selling them at $329.00
Overall Opinion: The Xbox 360 has tons of amazing games and the sleek looking Slim Xbox console just amps up its awesomeness. On top of that there are tons of new games coming out for the Kinect as well as numerous games that are already in stores. The Kinect is the future of Xbox gaming and is a great way to have plenty of fun with the family or by yourself. Overall this is an excellent deal and a great buy for anyone at any age.

As far as shares of the U.S. market are concerned, Android maintained 53% in 2011. Apple’s share ballooned to 29%. The BlackBerry OS share slipped to 11%, while Microsoft could not get its game on, remaining around 2% with the Windows Phone.

Google and Apple have taken control of the game, coercing other players to completely reinvent themselves in this area. Ross Rubin, executive director of Connected Intelligence for the NDP Group, believes that 2012 will be the year which reveals the fruit of these companies’ labors. Against the domination of the U.S. Market by both Apple and Google, many other manufacturers are strategizing to regain lost ground in market shares.

Apple’s shares grew to 29% between January and October 2011, while Google’s rose to 53%. RIM felt a drop to 11%. All except Apple and Google are developing business strategies to protect their share of the market. 2012 will be the proving grounds for their plans.

The big move was when Google bought Motorola Mobility, at $12.5 billion in August 2011. Motorola Mobility, up until January 2011, was the Mobile Devices division of Motorola.

One reason for the move was to protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies. It also strengthens the ties between Android and the hardware manufacturer, Motorola. Perhaps most importantly, though, Motorola Mobility holds over 14,500 granted patents and more than 6,500 pending patent applications throughout the world. Acquiring Motorola, Google opens the doors to these for Android.

Motorola threw its weight into the mobile devices niche in 2009, releasing the Droid, running Android. It was designed for the Verizon network. Last year, the public watched the release of the Droid X and the Droid 2. Now Motorola’s competitors are shaking in their boots. What can Samsung, HTC, Acer, Sony Ericsson, LG, or Lenvo do?

RIM is trying to play catch up. There are not many companies which have been hit as hard as RIM by the popularity of touch interfaces and bigger screens. In 2006, more than half of all smartphone sales were by RIM. In as few 5 years this percentage had dropped to 8%. They are struggling to improve the next generation of their OS, BlackBerry 7. The company falls into 5^th spot among the world’s top smartphone companies. Only Apple, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola surpass it.

Of course the shocker came when Nokia announced an agreement with Microsoft. Nokia phones now carry Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS. They have a steep hill to climb to catch up with everyone else. They are up against Apple’s consistency and Android’s flexibility. While Microsoft Windows Mobile topped out at 50% of market sales back in 2007, Windows Phone 7 cannot get its game on at all. It has not broken the 2% barrier.

Apple and Google have cornered the market between the two of them. The outlook for other companies is bleak at best. What happens in the next few years is anyone’s guess, but if neither Google nor Apple make any huge blunders, the landscape is unlikely to change.