Link: How the mobile phone biz lost the plot | The Register
The author of this article seems to think so..
Nokia’s recent announcement heralding the arrival of “widgets” is further proof that the entire mobile industry is a rudderless ship furiously innovating in circles.
Having lost sight of consumer sentiment years ago, all sectors of the industry seem to be clamouring to give every crackpot idea a chance in a desperate attempt to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Will the iPhone be the saviour of the industry, or another missed opportunity? Only time will tell..
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Nacho on 
Comment by Barry O'Connell on 22 May 2007:
I think the article makes some great points. I remember my earlier Nokia’s with fondness but gave up on them long ago. Why? Well simply they became too slow and Nokia’s quality assurance seemed non-existent (I had a phone replaced 7 times in a twelve month period, each time for the same stupid screen fault that had been slightly less noticeable in the previous model).
As for mobile TV? Let me think… Isn’t live TV is all but dead. Why would I choose to pay a premium to my robbing network to watch some drivel when I can transfer PVR’d (or downloaded) tv shows to my mobile phone? Media capacities allow me to store quite a few on a single card. Is anyone SO SAD that they couldn’t miss even one of the far too many broadcasts/shows that go out with the like of Big Brother?
GPS, now there’s something that adds value on a converged device. We don’t see the operators making a big deal of it because they haven’t figured out how to make money out of it.
Personally speaking, the iPhone doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest and I don’t see it taking off in the UK or European markets.
I want phone calls, text messages, high-speed data, QWERTY keyboard and GPS; all on an open platform of some kind (allowing me to add my choice of web client/email/rss client and media player). Truth be told I wouldn’t mind the old monochrome snake game either but hey that’s me
Comment by Joe on 22 May 2007:
I was wondering, in the US, why GSM carriers never market the SIM card for ease of use?
Imagine a simple commercial where two customer’s phones stop working. One customer is a GSM subscriber and the other uses a CDMA network. The GSM customer simply removes the SIM card, with all his/her phone numbers, and inserts it into a new GSM phone; he/she is now up and running with the same phone number, address book, voicemail box, etc. (Obviously, the new GSM phone would be from the same carrier or unlocked.)