Eric Ogren for Information Week, in April 2008:

I am beginning to despair that Nokia will ever understand the U.S. market. As its recently revealed quarterly earnings tell us, its share of the market here dropped yet again. Despite the fact that Nokia is building a touch-enabled device that looks eerily similar to you-know-what, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo called the iPhone a “niche” product.

Matt Hamblen for Computerworld/Macworld, yesterday:

Nokia sold 24.2 million smartphones in the first quarter, maintaining its global smartphone lead despite announcing it will move in coming years from Symbian to Windows Phone as its main smartphone operating system, IDC said. Nokia “may find itself in danger of ceding market share as the competition ramps up,” IDC said.

Apple shipped 18.7 million iPhones in the first quarter, IDC said, a new record for a single quarter “and inched closer to market leader Nokia with fewer than six million units separating the two companies,” IDC noted.

Apple’s not there yet, and Nokia may well manage to battle alongside Microsoft, but 18.7 million is a pretty big niche.

The Macworld article adds:

Overall, 99.6 million smartphones shipped in the first quarter, out of 372 million overall mobile phones.

How long will it be before we can just call ‘smartphones’ mobile phones (or just phones) and relegate mobile phones to something else? Dumbphones, anyone?