Parchayi.com – Personal Finance Simplified

Samsung claims that it is not worried about Apple TV because they have the best display quality and that is what TV buyers want in their TV. I say bah humbug. Display quality was good enough 5 years ago. All that has been happening on the TV front is slimmer TVs and lower power consumption (and 3D gimmickry). The place where TVs are lacking are in User Experience. I don’t have a newer Samsung “SMART TV” but my Samsung Home Theater has the most piss poor user interface possible. I tried one time to play music off the network and I will never repeat that torture again. So to sell well all an Apple TV needs to have is a great User Experience. I’m sure any display they find (from LG or Sharp or whoever) will be good enough.

TV manufacturers really need to up their game. Maybe Google TV is a solution? Maybe they need to license Boxee or Roku software? But they need to do something. Maybe this will turn out to be a rehash of the Android-iOS battle. Lawyers will be happy. Microsoft might rake in another billion for doing nothing. If Apple really comes up with a TV soon, trouble is brewing for almost everyone else who makes TVs (ala RIMM and Nokia).

Disclaimer: Long GOOG, AAPL. Considering opening positions in MSFT or NOK at the right price. Wishing I could buy Samsung stock directly as opposed to having it in fund holdings like EWY.

Nokia, a company that spends more on R&D than most of it’s peers has decided to abandon Meego, it’s next generation smartphone Operating System and semi-abandon Symbian, the heart and soul of most of it’s current phones.

Official Statement about Meego:

Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.

Official Statement about Symbian:

With Nokia’s planned move to Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform, Symbian becomes a franchise platform, leveraging previous investments to harvest additional value. This strategy recognizes the opportunity to retain and transition the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners. Nokia expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come.

Huh? What does that even mean? How does Nokia expect somebody to buy a Symbian device with that nonsense about “leveraging previous investments to harvest additional value“.

And for Meego, that sounds like the death knell. I wonder why they are even bothering to produce that oft delayed Meego phone anymore. Are they taking insiration from the Kin?

This is fantastic news for Microsoft though. With Apple and Android quickly taking over the smartphone market, Windows Phone 7′s future was sort of uncertain even though the product itself showed promise. With Nokia’s might behind it, WP7 is here to stay.