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Nokia Pokes Fun at Android Manufacturers: "Boys Who Pee in Their Pants For Warmth"
By Phil Barker on September 17,
 2010 at 00:00,

l_Vanjoki_Anssi_Nokia009Nokia World 2010 proved really interesting for us – not least because of the fascinating hardware and software on display. It was also good to hear from important Nokia folk such as Anssi Vanjoki – the Executive Vice President of Mobile Solutions – who came up with some truly excellent quotes. Join us after the break...

Nokia World 2010 kicked off in a feisty manner earlier this week, with the Executive Vice President at Nokia – Niklas Savander – pointing out that Nokia sells FAR more handsets than Apple and Android combined.

There were also some fantastic quotes over the two days, the best for us being one from Anssi Vanjoki – the Executive Vice President of Mobile Solutions at Nokia. In a completely off the cuff remark, Vanjoki likened rival Android manufacturers to Finnish boys who “pee in their pants for warmth during the cold winter”.

'Android manufacturers are like Finnish boys who "pee in their pants"

According to the Financial Times, Vanjoki pointed this out when discussing operating margins on rival products, agreeing that “handset makers using Android could have low operating margins”, and that “they were likely to enjoy only temporary relief with Google’s operating system”.

The FT goes on to point out that “Analysts say companies using Android risk permanently low profitability because they will struggle to differentiate their products from rivals using the same operating system” - an issue that's clearly not a problem for Nokia.

Via Financial Times

Tags: Android Anssi Vanjoki Nokia
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  • Very fed up

    As a long time Nokia phone user I am now extremely fed up with the problems on my Nokia 5800. I know others with HTC phones which work better and the customer service is miles ahead.
    Ovi Maps has never worked. I am told because I have chosen to install Google. Ihave reset the phone as instructed several times. No app store to re load from so a long time reloading all hte apps.
    I have friends who are so fed up that they have bought an HTC phone and are still paying hte contract on their Nokia phone just to escape the Nokia phones problems.
    The people who should be worried are those running Nokia. Their customer service is rubbish. There are problem with the phones and especially with Symbian. They just keep saying they are the biggest and so it is all right. I am the customer and no it is not all right. I will not be buying another Nokia phone unless they sort my existing phone out PDQ. HTC is taking over rapidly as the phone on choice in the Smartphone market. Where I work HTC and Iphone outnumber Nokia phones by 3 to 1. The only Nokia phones around these days are the old company phones. I am now a rarity with my 5800, most have given up some time ago.
    Nokia will find lost customers are hard to get back. To those running Nokia GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER or go buy some nappies.

  • Y

    I don’t buy this idea… Everybody uses Windows.. u need quality not different OS to lead the market

  • Tariq

    “The FT goes on to point out that “Analysts say companies using Android risk permanently low profitability because they will struggle to differentiate their products from rivals using the same operating system” – an issue that’s clearly not a problem for Nokia.”

    Similar OS? even the physical design is the same on most of them. All of them are iphone clones, unlike N8 and C7

  • Stoli89

    @Very fed up; Did you attempt to update your firmware? Assume you are a NAM customer as; Nokia service reputation in NA is below par vs networks. The latest FW will bring with the latest map application and also prove very stable. Make sure to install all of your additional apps to the MicroSD card and not C drive. Too many apps on the C drive will kill the 5800. Set your OVI store downloads default to SD card, as well. Sorry for your bad experience…I too had a similar experience with the 5800′s very early firmware…had to reset the phone more than a few times and reload quite a lot of apps. Drove me crazy. However, the last 7 firmware updates (over the past 15 months) proved very stable for me. I do use sites like Daily Mobile Forum for advice on how to solve issues with the phone. This is usually the best approach IMO.

  • Stoli89

    Actually, differentiation and associated fragmentation are a real challenge for Android OEM\’s and consumers, respectively. With HTC we have the Sense skin, with Motorola we \"see\" Blur. Both approaches take up additional system resources and reduce battery life. Motorola just bought Aloqa GmbH to further differentiate on location based services…an area where Nokia has considerable focus and resources (to include Navteq). It is a real problem…why is Samsung investing huge efforts in Bada? Because it sees the threat of commoditization of its product thru Android. It also dropped Symbian given given less influence on (contribution to) this open platform relative to Nokia, its bigger competitor. Going forward…those OEM\’s without competitive OS advantage will suffer at the hands of lowest cost producers. Nokia\’s approach to squeeze its competition between two OS\’s is interesting. Symbian allows for lower cost smartphone designs to deliver full services to the masses. Meego provides the freedom to compete in the premium mobile computer realm. With SYMBIAN, ANDROID, BADA…and IOS, WP7, RIM, MEEGO…the game should get more interesting. IMO…three or four of these OS\’s will either die or occupy small niches. Right now, BADA, WP7 and Meego are real wild cards.

  • Worried

    Until I saw this demo in defcon, I felt quite happy with my HTC. In this demo they remote installed rootkit to android phone, then that phone was fully hijacked by remote attacker, reqading messages, making calls etc. without any notification to the user. I haven’t seen that ever done for Symbian phones, not even the oldest models. Scary.

  • Phil B

    @Y: People use Windows because there’s no other mainstream choice.

    Linux in its multiple guises would flummux the average home user, with nowhere near the same compatibility for existing software and peripherals on offer. Mac OS X is hideously overpriced in comparison to a similarly specced budget PC.

    People buy Windows because 95 per cent of the laptops/PCs on sale in shops are sold with Windows. The vast majority of critics hated Vista with a passion, but it still sold by the bucketload on new PCs. Quality? You tell me.

    It’s also a lot easier to make completely different form factors when it comes to laptops, for instance. The price differential is staggering, the amount of different sizes on offer, a huge amount of different machines for different types of user.

    The same doesn’t apply for phones – the high-end smartphone market is all targeted around a similar type of user, so differentiation does become an issue.

  • WhySoSerious?

    Very mature Niklas, and I don’t think there’s anything “fantastic” about that quote, it simply highlights Nokia’s desperation, they’re selling more and more phones but making less and less money, mainly because most of the phones sold are not expensive high end devices but cheaper phones instead, it’s a very deceptive fanboyish article. I think this article shows Nokia’s utter failure in producing a top end device capable of matching the competition, yeah we had the N900 last year which was bought by 3 people (sarcasm), Maemo was too clumsy with almost zero 3rd party developer support, and not to mention the fact that it looks like a gigantic plastic brick which doesn’t exactly help

  • mattongkang

    l love my N900. It never give me any problem for the past 1 year.