Nokia's New World record

What's better than filming one of the worlds smallest stop motion animated videos on your Nokia N8 — and setting a Guinness World Record? Setting a news World Record for the BIGGEST stop animation film on your Nokia N8.

Posted yesterday, and already attracting more than 100,000 views in its first 24 hours, is the record breaking largest stop animation movie to date — all filmed with just a Nokia N8 smartphone.

The video, above, was shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales. Boasting a 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics, the N8 sets the record of "the largest stop-motion animation set" with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet. "Gulp," the film's title, was animated by Sumo Science at Aardman, the same animators who did the smaller animation, and sand artists from Sand in Your Eye.
The video features a fisherman on his journey at sea, as he catches fish, and gets eaten then spat out by a giant sea creature. Check out the "making of video" here.



Nokia isn't the only company using stop-motion animation, though the only to break a world record.  Stop-motion may be an old style of animating, but it sure isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Recent stop-motion successes? Ben and Jerry's new commercials, and KIA's first ever stop-motion animation all done on fingernails, put up in June.

S&P downgrades Nokia

Standard and Poor's on Tuesday became the latest ratings agency to downgrade mobile phone giant Nokia's rating, blaming the Finnish company's dismal sales and difficult strategic transition.

S&P cut Nokia's long-term corporate credit rating to BBB from BBB+.

"The rating actions reflect the continued erosion of Nokia's smartphone market shares," S&P credit analyst Matthias Raab said in a statement, adding that a revised assessment of the company's operating margins also pushed the rating down.

Raab said S&P might lower Nokia's rating even further this year if there is no improvement in the mobile phone unit's operating margins in the next six to nine months.

In March, S&P's rating for Nokia stood at A but like other ratings agencies, it reevaluated Nokia's fortunes following a radical strategic shift announced at the beginning of the year.

In February, chief executive Stephen Elop said the company would abandon its Symbian platform, once touted as the future of smartphones, and instead adopt the Microsoft Windows Phone platform in a risky partnership.

With the first Microsoft-Nokia phones not expected to ship until 2012, Nokia's shares have plummeted.

Raab said he expected the lower ratings to remain at least until "Nokia has completed the adoption of Microsoft's Windows Phone as its new primary software platform for smartphones."

S&P's action comes almost two weeks after Nokia reported a dismal 368-million-euro ($520.5-million) net loss for the second quarter, with sales down 7.3 percent.

Nokia refused to give any third-quarter guidance but analysts expect the slide to continue.

"We expect the revenues of Nokia's Devices and Services segment to decline by about 20 percent in 2011 but to recover by 2013 to the level reported in fiscal 2010," S&P said.

Since February's shake-up, ratings agency Fitch has downgraded Nokia's short and long-term ratings with a negative outlook and Moody's docked its rating by two notches, also with a negative outlook.

Samsung Ahead of Apple & Nokia in smartphones

Samsung Electronics, maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassedNokia and Apple in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 million and 21 millionsmartphones globally in the April-June quarter, compared with 16.7 million for Nokia and 20.3 million iPhones, Neil Mawston, a London-based analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research company based in Boston, said in an e-mailed response to questions on July 22. The data exclude tablet-computer sales.

The estimates show Google's Android is gaining ground on Apple in smartphones as Nokia, which is turning toMicrosoft for software support, struggles to keep up with the pace. Samsung, which also produces low-end phones that aren't capable of downloading applications, has said it aims to more than double sales of high-end devices this year.

"Samsung's Android portfolio is selling strongly in most regions," said Mawston. "Samsung stands a reasonable chance of capturing the top spot on a quarterly basis if it can continue expanding its Android portfolio across high-growth markets like China and Brazil.Samsung and Apple will be at similar levels in smartphones by the end of the year."

Catching Nokia 

Including basic phones, Samsung will probably have a 20% share this year, compared with Nokia's 26%, closing the gap between the world's two largest handset makers to the narrowest ever, he said. Samsung wasn't immediately able to verify the figures, said Nam Ki Yung, a Seoul-based spokesman for the Suwon, South Korea- based company. Steve Park, a Seoul-based spokesman for Apple, declined to comment.

Cherry Gong, a Nokia spokeswoman in China, didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Samsung fell 0.4% to 847,000 won at the 3:00 p.m. close in Seoul, while South Korea's benchmark Kospi index lost 1%. The shares have declined 11% this year.

Samsung's global smartphone sales had lagged behind Nokia, Apple andResearch in Motion in the first quarter, according to researcher International Data Corp. The South Korean company's sales are accelerating after it began selling the Galaxy S II, a successor to its best-selling Android device introduced last year to counter Apple.

New Galaxy 


Samsung planned to roll out the model in 120 countries through 140 operators from May, the company said in April. The latest Galaxy handset went on sale last week in five cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, as the company seeks to make a push into the world's largest market for mobile phones.

The latest 4.27-inch Galaxy phone, unveiled in February, helped Samsung more than double operating profit at its mobile phone business in the second quarter, say five analysts polled by Bloomberg News. Apple reported net income that beat estimates on July 19, lifted by record sales of iPhones andiPads. Nokia reported its first quarterly loss since 2009 as the Finnish company struggles to sell handsets based on its Symbian software.

Nokia lost its throne to Apple

Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp on Thursday posted a loss of 368 million ($523 million) in the second quarter and for the first time was overtaken by Apple's iPhone in smartphone shipments.

Nokia, which posted a profit of 227 million in the same period in 2010, said revenue fell 7% to 9.3 billion from 10 billion last year.

It shipped 88.5 million mobile devices in April through June, down from 111 million a year ago and 108.5 million in the previous quarter.

Its smartphone volumes fell to 16.7 million units, which means Nokia is no longer No. 1 in the smartphone sector. Apple Inc sold more than 20 million iPhones in the same quarter, lifting its net income to a stronger-than-expected $7.31 billion.

"The challenges we are facing during our strategic transformation manifested in a greater than expected way" during the quarter, CEO Stephen Elop said. "However, even within the quarter, I believe our actions to mitigate the impact of these challenges have started to have a positive impact on the underlying health of our business."

Nokia's share was up 3% at 4.21 on the Helsinki Stock Exchange immediately after the report.

Nokia said it was accelerating its cost-cutting plan to exceed the previously targeted savings of 1 billion in 2013. The reductions would be achieved through cuts in staff and outsourced professionals, facility costs "and various improvements in efficiencies", the company said.

While that could improve the company's finances, Nokia needs to take quick action to develop new products or it will continue to lose ground to its rivals, said Neil Mawston of London-based Strategy Analytics . He expects Samsung to also surpass Nokia in smartphones when it releases its second-quarter earnings next week.

Nokia's global market share dropped below 30% earlier this year for the first time in over a decade.

Nokia rebrands its map service

Back in May, Nokia announced that it will start in July/August to rebrand its first Ovi services as Nokia services which basically means that each of the services under the Ovi umbrella will simply be rebranded as Nokia - with no planned disruption to the service roadmaps. Today, Nokia Germany announced that its Ovi Maps is now known as Nokia Maps. The transition from Ovi to Nokia began in July this year, with the intention of it being completed across all countries and all services by the end of 2012. It's likely that anybody buying a new Nokia smartphone or mobile phone later this year will start to see the new branding on services included within.

It's expected that Nokia made this decision after it joined Microsoft to focus on Windows Phone 7 smartphones. Ovi was very much aligned to Nokia's Symbian devices while Nokia's Windows Phone devices will use Bing services like Bing Maps. However, it's also expected that Nokia will contribute to Bing, for instance its maps coverage is far better than Bing Maps (especially here in Europe) and therefore it makes much sense to continue with a single-brand strategy under the Nokia umbrella; especially since the Nokia brand by itself is so strong and trusted while Ovi is widely unknown.

Nokia - Microsoft collaboration

The worldwide leader in software and the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer have entered into an alliance that is set to deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity. Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö announced the agreement, outlining a shared vision for the future of mobile productivity. This is the first time that either company has embarked on an alliance of this scope and nature.


Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business-optimized range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.

Windows enabled Nokia E-series

Both Microsoft Corp. and Nokia possess a rare combination of enterprise experience and consumer understanding and, in addition to the collaboration on existing software and services, will use these assets to jointly design a range of new user experiences for future Nokia devices. These experiences will be identified together, and will be created by dedicated teams inside both companies to better meet the growing needs of the mobile professional.

“With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us,” said Elop. “Today’s announcement will enable us to expand Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia smartphone owners worldwide and allow them to collaborate on Office documents from anywhere, as part of our strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser.”

“If you are going to provide a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device, Microsoft is an ideal partner,” said Öistämö. “Together with Microsoft, we will develop new and innovative user experiences for employees of small and large businesses alike, ensuring Nokia’s smartphones are an integral part of the office and home-office environment, and addressing the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity.”

This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimizing access to e-mail and other personal information with Exchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:

Microsoft Business Division President
Stephen Elop and
Nokia Executive Vice President Kai Öistämö

The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote

Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile

Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server

Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center
“Having these two major players cooperating at this level will help us continue to meet our customers’ needs and reinforces our future business mobility strategy,” said Diane Sanchez, head of Telefonica USA.

“The scope of the alliance between Microsoft and Nokia, and potential value for the enterprise and individual is significant,” said Stephen Drake, VP of Mobility & Telecom at IDC. “By bringing Microsoft’s productivity solutions to Nokia’s large customer base, the two companies should be better able to serve the needs of the growing mobile worker population, which IDC estimates to reach 1 billion worldwide in 2011.”