You can go ahead and pity / envy UK mobile subscribers. If it wasn’t hard enough already, Vodafone has just thrown two more premium handsets into the fray to choose from. If you hit up Vodafone’s official UK website, you can now start placing orders for the gargantuan HTC Desire HD or the solidly-built Nokia N8. The HTC Desire HD is the European equivalent of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G (minus the 4G) found state-side. The phone sports a 4.3-inch WVGA display, runs Froyo out of the box and is powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. If this handset tickles your fancy, you can pick it up at most Vodafone retail outlets, or optionally online. According to Tech Radar, Vodafone have confirmed the following pricing and plan details:

The HTC Desire HD is available free on £35, 24 month price plans and customers buying the device online will get 900 minutes (compared to 600 offline) unlimited texts and 750MB (500MB offline) of mobile data,” the company added. Buying online will also give you 5MB of European roaming data in your bundle

If HTC is not your cup of tea, the Nokia N8, might be of interest. The N8 is the first Symbian^3 handset to hit the market. The phone has garnered mixed reviews (ours is coming soon), but has gone down well with the Nokia purists. The phone is free when signing up for a £30-a-month two year service agreement. The Nokia N8 is available in lime green exclusively to Vodafone subscribers; we’re still not sure if that’s a good thing.

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This morning, mobile giant Nokia announced earnings results for their Q3 of 2010 to mixed reviews. While the company did beat analysts Q3 estimates — with €529 million in net income and 110.4 million devices sold — the Finnish company did note that it would cut more than 1,800 jobs in an attempt to “streamline operations.” Other notable facts from Nokia’s Q3 sheet: the handset maker sold just 3.2 million devices in North America, the average selling price of all 110.4 million handsets was €65, and 11.6 million devices were sold in Latin America (a 20% increase year-over-year).

In a separate statement, the company also announced that it would no longer “refer to Symbian^3 or Symbian^4,” rather all “future improvements in Symbian will be developed in Qt and will be compatible with the existing Symbian^3 platform release.” The new, ubiquitous Symbian model will focus on Qt as the development framework and include support for HTML5. The company wrote, “The decision to focus on Qt as the sole application development framework will ensure that applications will continue to be compatible with future evolutions of Symbian as well as upcoming MeeGo products.” Hit the jump for links to both press releases.

Read [Q3 2010] Read [Symbian]

According to market intelligence firm iSuppli, Nokia’s N8 handset is stuffed with exactly $187.47 worth of components. The Finnish handset manufacture’s Symbian^3 device sells for €529 and $549 in Finland and in the U.S. respectively. iSuppli notes that the most expensive component is the device’s 3.5-inch Samsung AMOLED display and touchscreen panel, which carry a price tag of $39.25. Other high end components in the device include 16 GB of mass storage ($37.12), a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens ($31.08), and a $22 chipset the houses components from both Texas Instrument and Broadcom. Nokia is aiming to sell 50 million Symbian^3 devices; Nokia’s second Symbian^3 device, the C7, was just recently released.

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The gang over at iFixit have done the honors of tearing the Nokia N8 to pieces… right down to the screws. There aren’t too many surprises found inside the device, and iFixit gave the handset an 8 out of 10 on their fixability scale (10 being the easiest); they also note the “creative” placement of the antennas and beefy Xenon flash. The only thing that stuck out to us was the fact that the battery — which is not user accessible — appears to be Nokia’s standard smartphone battery trapped slid inside the device’s housing (iFixit notes how easy it would be for a consumer to replace their own battery). Hit the read link to have a peek for yourself.

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The exodus over at Nokia continues… Ari Jaaksi, Nokia’s VP in charge of MeeGo devices, told Finnish newspaper Talous Sanomat that he resigned from the company last week. Jaaksi’s resignation comes weeks after that of former CEO Pekka Kallasvuo and Nokia’s head of mobile solutions Anssi Vanjoki. The news isn’t all bad for Nokia’s MeeGo team; they did recently hire Peter Skillman – Palm’s former VP of design — to work on Nokia’s next-generation mobile operating system. Nokia has yet to publicly announce Mr. Jaaksi’s departure.

[Via Engadget]

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If you went ahead an pre-ordered yourself a Nokia N8, you might want to keep your eye on your mailbox. Nokia has announced that the company’s not-actually-a-flagship-but-sort-of-a-flagship Symbian^3 handset, complete with 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss lens, has begun shipping worldwide. Nokia’s blog writes:

Being a global device launch, the Nokia N8 is shipping in tens of different languages to dozens of operators around the world. That isn’t something that happens overnight and as factory production ramps up, so will the numbers of trucks leaving with freshly boxed N8s on board.

Whilst the first lucky users will be un-boxing their Nokia N8 before the weekend, others can expect to be receiving theirs over the coming days and weeks.

Anyone out there pre-order an N8?

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Reuters is reporting that Apple, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against mobile giant Nokia in the United Kingdom. Nokia released a statement saying, “We are investigating the claims, which appear to be based on nine implementation patents already in suit between the two companies in the United States.” Nokia and Apple have exchanged lawsuits throughout 2010, with both companies claiming patent infringement by the other on mobile technologies. More information on this as it develops.

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The New York Times has an interesting piece up about the hardships Nokia’s new CEO, Stephen Elop, is about to face. Insiders and former employees describe the inner-workings of Nokia as a “stifling bureaucratic culture.” Citing the 2002 cancellation of a 3D user interface for Symbian handsets and the 2004 scrapping of a full-touchscreen prototype device and online mobile applications store, the Times details just what kind of corporate environment Mr. Elop is stepping into. “Proposals were often rejected because their payoffs were seen as too small,” said Ari Hakkarainen, a Nokia manager from 1999 to 2007. Kai Nyman, Nokia’s former chief architect for enterprise domain strategy, described the scrapping of a 3D interface his team had created in 2002; management rejected the idea as it added $2.05 in production costs to each handset. Samsung release the first 3D interface 7-years later in 2009. Nokia is still set to sell a mind-boggling 70 million smartphones this year — not to mention account for 1.6% of Finland’s GDP — let’s hope Mr. Elop can turn the corporate culture around.

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Today, AT&T and Nokia announced the “Calling All Innovators” contest for developers. The contests goal is to get more North American-centric applications into the Nokia ecosystem. Oh, and if your application happens to be picked by AT&T and Nokia as a winner… there is a cool $10 million in cash and prizes waiting to be given out. “Developers have until January 28th, 2011, to submit their applications in more than 17 categories. [...] Category prize winners receive USD 150K each for a total of USD 4 million and grand prize winners receive an additional USD 100K each. Although submissions must be relevant for the North American consumer, developers from around the world can participate.” So, if you’ve got some ill development skills, and want to take a swing at Qt, here is your chance to be paid for your efforts. Good luck.

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Nokia’s executive vice president of mobile solutions, Anssi Vanjoki, let an interesting analogy go when speaking with the Financial Times today. When asked about the possibility of his company switching mobile operating systems from Symbian to Android, Mr. Vanjoki compared the prospective move to Finnish boys who “pee in their pants” during the winter months for warmth; the temporary relief acquired is soon followed by a larger issue. Nokia obviously feels it can differentiate and add value to the mobile experience with Symbian and Meego; a task it presumably would find difficult with Android. Regardless, we salute you Mr. Vanjoki for one of the most epic analogies we’ve heard from an EVP. Also… do Finnish boys really pee their pants in the winter?

[Via Engadget]

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Yesterday, we published a post to let you know that the ship date for the Nokia N8 was being pushed back to October. This information was not speculative nor the sourced from a rumor, it, in fact, came directly from Nokia. Today, it appears that Nokia is doing an about face, saying that some N8 units — not all – will be delayed. The official statement looks like this:

There have been a few stories this morning about the N8 availability which we feel need clarification. As we have previously said, we still expect to start the shipments by the end of the third quarter. As with every global launch, when the device reaches the hand of the customer will vary by market and operator.

We have received a record number of online pre-orders for the Nokia N8. We had targeted our online pre-order customers to receive their N8s by the end of September. As it can take time from the beginning of shipment to arriving at their doorstep, in full transparency, we have advised our pre-order customers that they should expect their new Nokia N8 in October.

If you have been waiting patiently for your N8, we’re pulling for you. Hopefully, your region and carrier will be on the short-list and you won’t have to wait much longer.

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Today, Nokia released a statement announcing that the much-hyped N8 smartphone would be delayed for “a few weeks” so that the Finnish company could make some “final amends” to the device. Here is what the release looks like:

The amount of preorders has exceeded our expectations and we are working hard to deliver the Nokia N8 to the market. In some markets, we had planned to start delivering the Nokia N8s to our pre-order customers by the end of September. To ensure a great user experience, we have decided to hold the shipments for a few weeks to do some final amends. We’re thrilled with the response that we’ve had to the Nokia N8 and assure everyone who’ve pre-ordered it already that it’ll be worth the wait! We expect consumers to get their Nokia N8s during October.

While the delay isn’t too severe — moving from one erroneous date in September to another erroneous date in October — it does harsh the nice mellow Nokia had going after last week’s Nokia World. The company continues to say that the N8 has had some of the strongest pre-sales numbers of any Nokia handset to date. We’ll have to wait until October to levy our judgement.

[Via Engadget]

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If you’re one of those people who look back nostalgically at the old T9 keypads, Nokia just may have the device for you. Today, Nokia introduced the C2 Touch & Type handset. As Nokia explains:

The Series 40 device promises best-in-class communications, with Quad band phone calling, and both 3G/HSPA and WiFi internet connectivity. It comes with Nokia messaging 3.0, the latest incarnation of Nokia’s email, instant messaging and the Communities client offering Facebook and Twitter access. The device also allows users access to games and other applications through the Ovi Store.

The new C3 offers a high-quality build for your money, with a 100% stainless steel case and a 5-megapixel camera with flash on board. It will come in Silver, Warm grey and Khaki Gold colour variations. It measures 111 x 47.5 x 11mm, with the screen measuring 2.4-inches, diagonally. The device supports MicroSD memory cards for storage up to 32GB.

The phone, which has that classic, retro, Nokia-candybar form, will cost a measly €145 (~ $190) and will be available in the fourth quarter of this year. Not a bad little device for those looking for some smartphone functionality.

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There has been quite a bit of press about high-level executives mobile maker Nokia has been shedding, but this fairly large addition managed to slip under the radar. Nokia has hired Peter Skillman — former Vice President of Design at Palm — to be their Vice President of MeeGo User Experience and Services. Skillman worked for Palm for over eleven years and headed the team that was in charge of designing the Palm Pre. Hopefully, Mr. Skillman’s addition will expedite Nokia’s development of the Linux based mobile OS.

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Aside from announcing the C6-01, C7, and E7, Nokia also announced some added features to their Ovi Maps application today at Nokia World. The new, improved Ovi Maps will offer, live traffic flow information, a new drive assist mode, public transportation maps, a redesigned places page, and social check-ins. The public transportation maps will be available via a map layer for over 80 cities around the world and check-ins will allow you to broadcast your location via SMS or to your social network of choice. We’ve got a video demoing the new check-in feature after the break, but we have to warn you… the lame-factor of the video is way up there.

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