Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld UK. Visit Macworld UK’s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.
Niklas Savander, Nokia’s EVP of Markets has slammed rival smartphone companies in a keynote speech.
Appearing at Nokia World 2010, Savander said he wasn’t going to apologize for not being Apple, Google or Samsung, describing Nokia as unique.
Savander claimed that in the last quarter, customers had bought far more Nokia smartphones than those from Apple or Android-based offerings combined.
“On average, people buy 260,000 Nokia smartphones every day,” Savander said. “That’s 260,000 new smartphones—we didn’t add software updates, or sales of music players and computers to that number.”
The Nokia executive targeted Apple in his speech saying Nokia phones “perform day-in, day-out, no matter how you hold them.”
Savander added having one flagship model of phone, such as Apple’s iPhone 4, would likely end in tears. “Even at the high-end, offering people just one model will lead to compromises, whether it’s compromises with the camera, the browser, the keyboard, or the phone itself.”
Savander also played a brief clip of Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS software at Apple, talking about how the iPhone 4 was “all about connecting people,” a tagline famously used by Nokia.
“That still makes me chuckle. For Nokia, it’s more than just a feel-good tagline. It’s a passion. The world includes 1.3 billion ‘Nokia people.’ Our vision of connecting people becomes more relevant every day,” Savander added.
“Today is about three words. Nokia is back.”