We’ve been bringing readers plenty of news about the Nokia 808 PureView, the smartphone offering a significant 41-megapixel rear camera. Although release dates for some regions have slipped a couple of times we have news today that press invites report that it will launch in India on June 13.
Plenty of people have been waiting for the Nokia 808 PureView although apart from its impressive camera set up the rest of the specs and features are not exactly anything to write home about. It was first shown at MWC earlier in the year and the camera capabilities along with PureView Pro imaging technology got a lot of people pretty excited. Previously we told of a rumored price for the Nokia 808 PureView in India and that price is still thought to be around Rs. 30,000 although that has yet to be confirmed.
News of the June 13 Nokia 808 PureView debut comes to us from NDTV and we’ll give you a brief recap of features and specs of this smartphone. The 808 PureView has a 1.3GHz single-core processor, 4-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display with resolution of 360 x 640, 512MB or RAM and 16GB internal storage (expandable with microSD). The 41-megapixel rear camera has Xenon flash and 1080p video recording at 30fps and there’s also a VGA front-facer. It has a 1400mAh Li-ion battery and runs on the Nokia Belle OS.
Despite the fact that many of the specs are pretty average we can’t deny the lure of the 808 PureView’s camera and it seems likely that this smartphone will see decent sales when it finally launches after the long, long wait. Are you in India waiting for the 808 PureView to hit the shelves? Does the price of around Rs. 30,000 sound reasonable to you? Let us know by sending in your comments.
Microsoft 'mulled Nokia buyout, ran away screaming' - The Register
Analysis Rumours of a Microsoft buyout of fallen phone champ Nokia have re-emerged, prompted by nothing more, it seems, than Nokia's sickly share price.
Nokia shares recently hit a 15-year low, dropping 40 per cent in the past three months alone*. But well-placed sources tell us that Microsoft was given access to Nokia's books late last year in an attempt to evaluate which parts, if any, were worth acquiring.
Not many people know this. The story is that having had a gander, Microsoft walked away.
Then in January came the rumour, sparked by blogger Eldar Murtazin, that Microsoft would snap up Nokia's smartphone division and brand while the low-margin volume feature phones would be flogged off to private equity or a Chinese buyer. This wasn't just premature, it was fictional - but the rumour gained legs because, it sounded probable: should there be a sale, Microsoft would be a likely buyer, and a buyer for the smartphone wouldn't want the volume feature phone business.
The reason for Microsoft not already owning Nokia is twofold: Nokia didn't want to sell, and Microsoft didn't want to buy. Both are entirely rational positions to hold. Nokia still has time and cash with which to mount a fightback. Microsoft has time to generate an "ecosystem", the clunky technology buzzword for what the rest of the world calls "markets".
Let's wind forward 18 months and imagine that Nokia has made some impact, but is still bobbing along with RIM as an also-ran. The shareholders thank Elop for his important work for stablising Nokia (the demand for Symbian in the past 12 months speaks for itself) and look to maximise return for shareholders from the remaining assets.
Microsoft would almost certainly appear at that point: the IP portfolio is the obvious asset, and the brand and engineering know-how, given almost three years working closely as Microsoft's flagship OEM, is also incredibly valuable. Should Microsoft wish to acquire a crack Windows Phone engineering team, it'll be cheaper in 18 months time when Nokia runs out of cash, than it is today. It suited both parties to remain independent partners.
The only reason Microsoft would have paid a premium for Nokia last year was to keep it out of the hands of a rival. But it's hard to see which buyer would have valued Nokia as highly as Microsoft does, and would have paid a premium.
How far will Redmond go to win the tablet war?
Microsoft's determination to create a popular mobile platform for phones and tablets is in no doubt, we can see it in the Charge of the Metro Brigade (as we call it). This is the apparently suicidal insistence on melding Metro into Windows 8, even at the cost of skipping an enterprise Windows upgrade cycle: Redmond is prepared to forego billions in revenue to establish Metro as a platform.
For years, Microsoft sustained huge losses on its Xbox adventure, before finally turning a profit. But it regarded Xbox as a generous financier - leaving the division to make its own way. Xbox decisions didn't have to enmesh with some grand Windows strategy, the usual Redmond way, crippling both. Establishing Metro in the marketplace might be much more costly and take as long. At least it knows where it's going: the roadmap to WP8 and Apollo is very clear.
Yet the logic remains: it's cheaper for Microsoft to wait until this valuable asset becomes cheaper.
Such acquisition rumours must be infuriating for Nokia, which is still in its first cycle of products based on Windows. The Lumias are all essentially the same in different packaging.
Nokia's comeback can't be fairly judged until we're into the second cycle of products later this year based on Tango - and perhaps even the third, based on Apollo. Elop has already halved the time it takes for Nokia to make a smartphone, simply by shifting to Windows.
The nightmare scenario for Nokia is that the one I described here back in January: that there really isn't room, in reality, for a "third ecosystem". In this scenario there's Apple and Android, leaving RIM and Nokia fighting for crumbs. Today, the health of WP as an "ecosystem" isn't obvious: Samsung, Dell, LG and HTC all seem to have given up. Only Nokia makes a noise.
If this carries on, it makes sense for Nokia to be an independent division of Microsoft - like Xbox is today. What do you think? ®
Bootnote
* On Friday, Nokia shares jumped 6 per cent as rumours of a Samsung buyout did the rounds, which analysts described to Reuters as an attack of "Friday madness".
Nokia 808 PureView vs Apple iPhone 4S camera comparison - Crave
Want to know how a 41-megapixel camera phone shapes up against its smart phone rivals? You're in luck, because our friends at CNET Asia have got their hands on the Nokia 808 PureView and pitted it against the iPhone 4S.
Click here for a camera shootout between the Nokia 808 and iPhone 4S, including the original shots with no compression and no editing, for your perusing pleasure.
The 808 PureView is set to 8-megapixel resolution to match the iPhone, so this is a test of Nokia's claims that the PureView technology is more than sheer brute megapixelage. Nokia reckons that each pixel in an 8-megapixel photo is made up of information from seven pixels on the sensor, filtering out image noise.
The snaps certainly show more detail in the PureView's photos, which also has a wider field of view -- as seen in the photo above. But the iPhone has more sophisticated high dynamic range built-in, and more vibrant colours -- as seen in the photo below. Check out our photo gallery to see which you prefer.
I got to use the 808 PureView when it was unveiled at the start of the year, and I was impressed with the powerful features and intuitive interface, even though I wasn't able to see the results of any actual photos. For a closer look at the phone itself, and its many cool camera features, check out my in-depth photo gallery.
The Nokia 808 PureView is set to go on sale at the end of the month for around £540 -- could it be the most expensive Symbian phone ever?
What do you think of the 808's snaps? Are you planning to invest in an 808, or are you waiting until the technology filters down into other phones? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
For more camera comparisons, check out our Samsung Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 4S vs HTC One X vs Sony Xperia S smart phone shootout.
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