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Christopher Lawton's interview with Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia Corporation, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Nokia will introduce a high end smart phone, the Lumia 900, at the C.E.S. gathering. Nokia has very little presence in the smartphone part of the business. In the third quarter of 2011, Nokia lost 39% of its global smartphone sales to the Apple iPhone and other competitors using the Android software. Elop says the Lumia offers a smoother experience and has social media integrated better in this product than rival smartphones. Asked about potential failure, Elop says Nokia will continue to learn from its experience and improve the product. He says Nokia is a 147 year old company and has reinvented itself in the past. He sees the competitive struggle in this business as similiar to a long marathon rather than a sprint.

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Joanna Stern of the WSJ uses the original iPhone that came out in 2007 for one day in June 2017 and sees how it felt to use the introductory version. The original one worked on a 2G cellular network. It took about a minute for the president's Twitter feed to fully load in the old phone's Safari browser, it now takes 5 seconds. A lot has changed with the smartphone revolution in ten years. Lunch spot search results, Stern points out, might take longer than the time to eat lunch in the Maps App with that old phone. No emojis, predictive text, no Siri, and no third party apps, no Apple Music or Spotify, all that came later. The 2 megapixel camera took decent shots but not without good light. What is useful in Joanna Stern's little experiment is that it makes one reflect on how quickly people forget, how so much is now taken for granted as smartphones change the way people live their lives and interact with technology on a daily basis. Not mentioned here is how common smartphones have become with the Android versions made in China offering so much more for the budgets of ordinary people. And how it has changed the lives of billions of people in China, India, other parts of Asia and Latin America, bringing them into contact with the outside world. What is also interesting in this sense is that what took a huge effort over many years and many disappointments- the idea of a touchscreen that works- shows what an idea and the courage to persist in the face of innumerable hurdles can accomplish. See the link to how  Steve Jobs accomplished this. Daisuke Wakabayashi talked with Apple engineer Greg Christie in his article-"Apple Engineer on iPhone's Birth," Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2014. Christie had worked on a digital personal assistant at Apple in 1996, one that had tried the first touch screen Apple made. The device failed in the market. In 2004, eight years later the touch screen is the idea Jobs had Christie work on again. Many frustrations and obstacles later the first smartphone was developed by 2007. It took 10 years and undaunted effort which is the Apple story under Jobs. ...

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Sony is trailing badly in the smartphone business in 2014-2015. Global market share is at about 3.1%. Sales in China have failed to gain with only 0.4% market share, as Xiaomi has made large gains in China in 2014, and with other low cost competitors such as Lenovo. Even in India once considered a promising market Sony smartphone sales market share is at about 3.2%. Market share is about 6.9% in Europe and 14.4% in Japan, according to Counterpoint Research. The mobile division is cutting staff by 2100 from current level of 7000, as mobile becomes Sony's only money losing unit. The head of the mobile division and CEO Hirai are now considering options including selling the unit or joining with third parties. Mr. Totoki, head of the mobile division, says Sony has learned through this experience that creating customer enthusiasm for products involves much more than simply putting together powerful parts.

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Blackberry maker Research In Motion's will introduce new products to prevent further erosion of market share. Five new smartphones will be introduced, including an all touch screen phone to compete with the iPhone. Smartphones using its new QNX software will not be available till 2012. Meanwhile Apple is bringing out a new version of the iPhone and new smartphone are being released by competitors. RIM's share of global smartphones is down to 12.9% for the 1st quarter of 2011, compared to 19.7% the prior year. In the N. American market RIM's market share for smartphones is down to 16.5%, a big decline from 41.3% in the first quarter of 2010. Missed deadlines for new products are a major problem for RIM in the fast paced environment for new technologies and software with new competitors from related fields.

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DJT says about the loss of American manufacturing of key technologies-

"We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations."

A separate bucket is planned for this category customized to what is needed and appropriate, returning manufacturing to US and Allies India, working with Japan and South Korean allies, and at the same time providing a smooth transition away from China. Overconcentration in China is not going to work, has not worked, action is needed now.

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Blackberry employees reached a peak of over 17,000 in 2011 as the company continued to hire through 2009-2011. It was about 8000 in 2008 the first year of the financial crisis and recession and doubled in 3 years. The employee count is at 12,700 in 2013. The company was hit hard by the introduction of smartphones by Samsung and Apple. Blackberry now plans huge cuts of about 40% by the end of 2013. This shows how quickly the winds can change in the tech business field where disruptions for existing technology are the norm. A niche in the corporate business field was not sufficient to keep Blackberry from shrinking rapidly as businesses shifted to the new smartphone technology from rivals. Failure to anticipate new technologies can lead to irreversible losses. Blackberry shows the way down can be just as fast as the way up and a lost year or a wrong decision can be the difference between success and irreversible failure.

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Analyst estimates show Samsung taking 43% of smartphone profits to Apple's 57%. This is up from 26% for Samsung and 74% for Apple in the 1st quarter of 2012. Samsung could soon surpass Apple because of the wide range of models and its manufacturing capabilities. Apple sees a shrinking of margins in coming years.

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The rapid spread of emoji chracters originating from Japan in our daily text conversations. This is bringing emotional state into daily conversations with a simple click on a smartphone. Shigetaka Kurita a designer for Docomo in Japan noticed the use of a picture of the sun in Japan for sunny weather not the use of words as in the U.S., and the use of a bulb over a head for someone with a smart idea, hearts common in Japan for affection, and this led him to the idea of creating a whole set of characters for different moods and emotional states to use in mobile conversation. Apple was the first to adopt them on its smartphones after the emoji were already popular in Japan for about 10 years.

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IHS Inc. estimates show the cost of components to manufacture the U.S. version of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 is about $237 compared to $217 for a 32 gigabyte iPhone 5 with a smaller and less costly display screen. Samsung's manufacturing capabilities give it an advantage against competitors in the smartphone market.

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Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International talks about Windows based smart phones and Nokia's smartphone based on Windows 8.

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The SCHOOL survey by eminent researchers shows that that 37% of rural school children in India are dropping out- an alarming piece of information. Only 8% of rural school children have access to online classes regularly. The figure for urban areas in India is 24% of school children having access to online learning regularly. This could have serious consequences. Getting primary and secondary schoolchildren back into classes is an important goal during the pandemic. Online learning has only a limited reach at this time. Many households have no smartphone or only one smartphone that is used by adults. The SCHOOL survey covered 15 states and 1362 sample households. Between 51 and 58% of students had not met their teachers in the preceding month according to the survey.  This also affects nutrition as schoolchildren are missing the midday meals given at school. Midday meals were discontinued with the closure of schools. Overall this report says 97% of parents support reopening of schools. ...

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HTC was the first company to come out with a smartphone using Google's Android software in 2010. By the second quarter of 2011 HTC's share of the global smartphone market climbed to 10.7%, only to see a sharp decline in 2012 dropping to 2.2% according to IDC, as it faced stronger competitors Samsung and Apple. Second quarter 2012 revenues were down 27%, and an expected drop of about 50% in the third quarter. Samsung and Apple invest significantly more in distribution and marketing, and discount prices on older high end models making it difficult for HTC to compete. In 2012 the company's value declined by 50%.

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Language translation of smartphone text is one of the features in the new Jiophone Next to be released in India.

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Nokia shifts its headquaters from White Plains, New York., to Sunnyvale, California, to be close to developers and competitors. From U.S. sales at 20% of global sales in 2003, U.S. sales have dropped to 2% of global sales even after the introduction of the Lumia smartphone. The efforts to change the mindset of the company in its new location.

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Wadhwa describes the impact of patent trolls on the U.S. patent system. He says the patent system in its current form, with extensive patent defenses by technology firms costing billions of dollars, litigation by companies that are not representing inventors, and the overall negative effects on new companies, actually reduces innovation. There has been a surge in lawsuits regarding smartphone and software patents as a result of businesses that collect patents and sue to earn money through legal settlements.

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The smartphone market in Brazil is shifting to the $100-$300 range. Because of higher import taxes and other costs, including paying for the full price upfront, buyers pay about $260 for a Moto G whereas a iPhone 6 would cost $1060. The focus is on the better value for the Moto G compared to the Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone in developing countries, where new middle class consumers such as in Brazil may make between $5400 to $27,000 a year. This creates opportunities for such phones with superior value- the Moto G has a 5 inch HD display, a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm pocessor, and an 8 megapixel camera. This has helped Lenovo Motorola Mobility take 18% of the Brazil smartphone market, according to IDC, making the Moto G the best selling smartphone in Brazil.