Russell Beattie on Nokia

Long time mobile watcher Russell Beattie has a great post on what is wrong over at Nokia. If you follow mobile devices and Nokia in particular, this is a must read. I have only one disagreement with him -- he suggests that Nokia exit the S40 business. Its sometimes easy for gadget wonks like us to forget that most of the world still wants *free* phones -- well, subsidized by operators. Nokia has to have the world's cheapest phones in addition to the world's best phones. It is a delicate balancing act -- maintain the volume with operators and the public so you remain the most important guy on the block, but produce the best mid-range and high-end phones to earn real profits. But without the volume business, Nokia would have less distribution power for the high-profit phones. I mean, would anyone have agreed to carry N-Gage at all, if it wasn't for Nokia's overall market presence?