Communications Technology

Many people I know are frightfully attached to their iPhones. They treat them as if they were a peculiar and exotic lover, one they can hardly believe they have managed to seduce.

The finely calibrated minds at Strand Consult have taken this analysis to a particularly simple conclusion: iPhone users are, the consultants say, really quite nuts.

The Strand thinkers released an opinion entitled “How will psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future?.” It focuses on the sorts of people who buy into Apple’s great success.

Here’s a flavor of the somewhat-skeptical nature of Strand’s feelings: “Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a fantastic user interface that has had a number of technological shortcomings that many iPhone users have accepted and defended, despite those shortcomings resulting in limitations in iPhone users’ daily lives.”

The consultants’ likening of iPhone buyers to kidnapped hostages may raise more than the eyebrows of many an Apple fanboy (fanperson?). Indeed, it already has the Mac world aflutter.

“When we examine the iPhone users’ arguments defending the iPhone, it reminds us of the famous Stockholm Syndrome–a term invented by psychologists after a hostage drama in Stockholm. Here, hostages reacted to the psychological pressure they were experiencing by defending the people that had held them hostage for six days,” Strand declared.

The implication is surely that Apple has mugged millions of people with its beauty, dragged them off to a very dark cellar in some barren land, turned them into slightly bonkers Barbarellas, and then recruited them as soldiers for the cause.

This is the sort of thing of which the Church of Scientology is normally accused. But for some strange reason, it’s a rather chilling but pleasant shower to read something that isn’t mere worship.

Strand claims that it closely analyzes the financials of mobile operators. And if you also happen to order its wonderfully free report “The Moment of Truth, a portrait of the iPhone,” you will discover the 10 great myths about the iPhone. Here are just two: it doesn’t attract new business for operators, and it is not a technologically advanced mobile phone.

I know you’ll be rushing to read these fine tracts, and I feel sure that a couple of you might wish to drop Strand Consult a note. To encourage you a little, I’ll warn you that Strand also seems to believe that some of you Apple customers are, well, liars.

The consultants put it quite sweetly: “In reality, the iPhone is surrounded by a multitude of people, media, and companies that are happy to bend the truth to defend the product they have purchased from Apple.”

Apple customers are liars? The media too? Surely not.

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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia will close its only two flagship stores in the United States, in a sign its retail strategy of flashy brand-booster outlets is needing a refresh.

The world’s biggest handset maker has suffered sharply in the economic downturn and is losing out in the battle for cool smartphone customers to Apple’s iPhone, prompting it cut costs.
Nokia opened 12 stores in major cities around the world, hoping to replicate the success of Apple’s retail stores, which have helped the U.S. gadget maker to boost its premium brand image.

“This confirms a turn in Nokia’s retail strategy. It has failed to replicate Apple’s success with this format of store,” said Ben Wood, director of research at British consultancy CCS.
Nokia’s brand is one of the most highly valued globally due to its strong position in emerging markets, but it is much lesser known in the United States.

“There is no reason for Nokia to have the flagship stores — they cost too much compared to the value they create,” said John Strand, chief executive of Danish consultancy Strand Consult.
“Flagship stores are important in fashion industry: Apple is fashion. Nokia is consumer electronics,” Strand said.

Apple launched its store chain in 2001 and now runs more than 270 shops around the world. Microsoft recently followed suit and opened its first retail outlet in Arizona.
The rivalry between Nokia and Apple, which only entered the cellphone market in mid-2007 with its iconic iPhone, is increasingly fierce.

In October Nokia charged Apple for infringing ten of its patents in a case filed in a U.S. court.
Last quarter Apple generated more operating profit from its phone business than Nokia, despite selling 15 times less phones. Nokia has also tried to copy Apple’s success with its online App Store, but has failed to gain traction.

Apple’s success comes as Nokia battles a falling handset market this year. Nokia reported its worst ever quarterly result in July-September when it booked a 908 million euros ($1.34 billion) hit from its ailing network gear arm.
In the midst of recession Nokia has slashed annual costs by around 1 billion euros at its phone operations.

Nokia is now tightening its focus on the smartphone market — where it has sold outdated models which mostly look the same and lack the touch screen of Apple’s iPhone — with a targeted push for fewer, more iconic models.
NOKIA STRUGGLING IN U.S.

Nokia said on Thursday it would close the stores in New York and Chicago as part of a retail strategy revamp to better focus on cooperation with telecom operators and retailers.
Improving the company’s position in the U.S. market has been a top priority for Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo since he started to run Nokia in 2006.

Since then, however, the company’s U.S. market share has fallen to well below 10 percent. Globally, Nokia controls nearly 40 percent of the phone market.
Nokia is also closing one of its two stores in London and one in Sao Paolo, but said it has no plans to close down all the outlets. It opened its first flagship store in Moscow in December 2005.

Shares in Nokia were 1.2 percent higher at 8.65 euros by 1225 GMT, while the DJ Stoxx European Technology Index rose 1.7 percent.
Nokia shares have dropped 23 percent since the start of the year, hurt partly by its ailing smartphone offering, while the DJ Stoxx European technology index, in which it is the biggest constituent, has risen 15 percent.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc is preparing to launch a tablet personal computer in late March or April, with manufacturer partners poised to roll out as many as 1 million units per month, according to an Oppenheimer research note.

The highly anticipated tablet is expected to pitch Apple into the digital book market popularized by Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader. Apple declined to comment.
Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner said the new tablet could boost Apple’s earnings per share by 25 cents to 38 cents per quarter, assuming that it sells 1 million to 1.5 million units each quarter at an average price of $1,000 and a corporate average net income margin of 22 percent.

“Our checks into Apple’s supply chain indicate that the manufacturing cogs for the tablet are creaking into action and should begin to hit a mass market stride in February,” Reiner wrote.
“The February ramp schedule suggests a late March or April commercial release, since Apple will need to build at least 5-6 weeks of inventory before going live.”

He said the tablet will have a 10.1-inch multitouch LCD screen similar to that of Apple’s iPhone.
Apple has also approached book publishers to distribute their content electronically, and has offered them a revenue cut of 70 percent without requiring exclusivity, Reiner said.

He said that compares favorably to the Kindle’s 50 percent deal, and that Kindle only offers a 70 percent cut to publishers that give Amazon exclusive rights.
“As innovative as it is, we believe the Kindle has disgruntled the publishing industry (book, newspaper, and magazine) by demanding exclusivity, disallowing advertising, and demanding a wolfish cut of revenue,” Reiner wrote. “The tablet is set to change that.”

Reiner forecast Apple’s fiscal 2010 profit at $8.39 per share, compared with $6.29 in fiscal 2009, saying his estimate has not yet factored in the new device.
Shares of Apple were up 1.6 percent at $192.89 on Nasdaq.

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