Nokia crushes the iPhone

At least, this guy with Fast Company -- which, miraculously, still exists -- claims:

The iPhone had finally met its rivals in the form of Nokia’s Lumia 800 and 900, equipped with Windows 7’s Metro UI.

Let me be clear, Nokia’s phones are better than Apple’s, both in terms of physical and digital design. Supple, amiable, vibrant, and durable, the Lumia 800 and the slightly larger 900 are the new kings of smartphone design. The body has an original signature corner that combines two forms: the vertical tubular main form meets a rounded window for the screen. It’s a fresh look at a detail many mobile phone designers tackled before. The Apple halo effect forced many design teams toward the familiar solution: a two-dimensional rounded form surrounding a screen. Nokia was brave enough to forge its own path to arriving at highly effective way of differentiating the Lumia from the rest of the pack.

Agree?

Me? A little.

I think the Lumia 800 is a thing of beauty. I prefer Windows 7 to Android.

But, better than iPhone? Beat the iPhone?

The market will decide.

However, I think this merely illuminates a larger issue. "Beating" the iPhone probably is the wrong strategy.

Apple makes so much off iPhone so obviously everyone is gunning for those revenues/profits. But, Apple controls both hardware and software. What are Nokia and Microsoft going to do? Split the revenues?

How will they do that, exctly? What happens when Microsoft makes, say, 90% of the profits from their platform -- Windows Phone -- while Nokia ekes out 10% or less?

Will that last?

More importantly, of course, is that attacking the iPhone, which may not be at all successful, may not be the right strategy. Both Nokia and Microsoft have one thing in common: deep within their DNA is the value of scale. They are built for owning the global market: in feature phones and in PC software.

Can they survive and support their business if they 'only' capture 10-20% of the market?