Apple can and have had Samsung hauled over the coals for producing something that looks a bit like an iPhone or iPad. So why can't RIM have a go at Nokia, Samsung, Palm (HP) etc. for their shameless copy of the Blackberry "QWERTY keyboard beneath screen in a rounded cornered case" product design.

Who says they didn't? The vast majority of these patent wars are fought behind closed doors. Apple and Nokia have a license agreement for 100's of patents that Nokia owned and Apple "borrowed" and the terms were never revealed.

But it is clear that there is more respect between the old-timers themselves than there is between the old-timers and Apple. The established brands all understand that they own patents from decades of research in mobile communications. In my opinion, a battle over crappy patents like rounded corners or bouncing icons has no place in a court room - it is the foundational stuff that matters. Patents for inventions like GSM, encryption, CDMA, LTE, UMTS and others that took decades to develop. Companies like Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson and Alcatel all laid the groundwork for everything we use on our phones nowadays and Apple has done nothing here other than make it look pretty on the outside. It pains me to see RIM and Nokia suffer like this, considering a lot of what we take for granted today comes from them.

All very true, and made me think back. I had a Nokia as the first phone I ever used regularily on those days when I was the duty out of hours on call person from work. Sadly it was rock solid and I could hear the other end perfectly when they said could you please come in ASAP. I can then remember seeing Dad with his Blackberry (for the first time) whilst on holiday on ACK. He was getting email on it, which was something akin to magic given the land line was flakey at the best of times.

Someone recently described to me her opinion of the current batch of smartphones (from all manufacturers) as "handheld computers with a phone tacked on because they thought it might be nice to make calls occasionally." I actually laughed out loud when she said it.

All those networking technologies are meaningless without good software UX.

What does it matter how fast you can send bits over the mobile network if you don't gave a good browser or other software to use? I still have a Nokia E61i, bought right before the iPhone came out.

The browser is horrible and there were no memorable apps. to speak of. It was a pain to switch Wifi networks.

Specs wise Nokia and RIMM for years used substandard processors and overcharged. The N95 was like $950 and it came out not too long before the iPhone.

These companies had established brands and infrastructure and they pissed their advantages away. It was inevitable that once processors for mobile devices got powerful enough, it would take software chops to produce a smooth, slick product that would expand the smat phone market well beyond the Palm Treo/blackberry/Nokia markets where using email on phones and surfing WAP sites were considered leading edge.

They had the means to produce something like the iPhone before Apple did but they blew it, just as Sony failed to leverage Walkman into the digital age.

Nokia and RIMM mismanagement will serve as case studies for years at business schools.

Actually, I didn't call anyone, anything; just made an observation.

Strangely, I don't feel compelled to call people names or otherwise label folks based on the smart phone they choose to stick in their pocket.

Why does this always have to become so "religious?" Good grief, we're talking about phones here, not curing cancer or solving world hunger.

Come in off the ledge...

Regards

Can we stick to the topic and move the technology, etc arguments somewhere else?

-David

One of the reasons that I won't be getting the iPhone is that having email/calendar is leading edge for me I don't want to surf the internet on a mobile phone screen & I don't really use apps. What I want is the ability to communicate easily on the go, a calendar and the occasional use of the BA app for flights. My first Blackberry was just over �100 many years ago (Pearl 8120) with a �5 monthly charge which was the cheapest method of getting email on the go. Today although I've upgraded to a 9700 (sim free) it is still the cheapest way of getting mobile email and now I've switched to T-mobile the monthly charge is down to �3.33. Also both my berries have had a great battery life of several days.

Yes for most people this is totally crazy and they can't live without their millions of Apps, the ability to access youtube etc. wherever they are but for me RIM have a perfect (and cheap) package.

So buying an iPhone I will not be, 5 or any other number.

Unfortunately for RIMM, your case is becoming less and less typical.

So their next gen Blackberries, which they won't release until next year, will aim to run all the fancy apps. So it won't have the battery life of the old Blackberries.

But it may be too late for them to stop their customers from switching to rival products.

I remember reading one of the many ubiquitous surveys on the iPhone a few months ago and it seems the higher "echelon" of users on the socio-economic ladder mirror exactly pretty much what you're saying. Also that these users could care less about the social networking integration.

Pretty much fits me to a "T", too.

I've been upgrading on an "alternating model" basis (my last upgrade was from the 3 GS to the 4S) but since I want my next upgrade to be a full-price unlocked phone and we have 3-year contracts in Canada, I expect I'll be waiting for the 3rd or 4th version after the 4S, whatever that may be (iPhone 6? 6S? 666?).

+1

I thought the topic was " iPhone 5-whose (sic) getting one?", not, who isn't getting one. Who isn't getting one should be in a different thread, as well as, the tech arguments.

Where's a moderator when you need one?

You would have saved a lot of words if you just said that you don't want a smartphone.

Not me. Im thinking of getting a Galaxy SIII as a second phone (for a new line Im getting) before considering a new iPhone to replace my main handset.

My One X (intl version) still runs everything like a champ, so no.
That and ever since Apple decided to go all lawsuit-happy on everyone I refuse to buy their products.

Me too...Apple is proving that they have lost the Mojo (aka Steve Jobs)