1. Zhang Yimou is a sell-out. Early work was great. "Qiuju goes to Court", "Raise the Red Lantern", etc. I regularly have fantasies of rescuing Gongli and then bedding her in a grass field. Anything with Gongli is great. But then Zhang Yimou saw how Croaching Tiger made lots of money. So he made Hero. The moral of Hero is that facism is OK if it serves the greater good. Really. This comming from the man who made "Qiuju". In Hero, the main character (played by Jet Li) refuses to kill Emperor Chin (the first emperor of China, the man who unified the Great Wall at the cost of over a million lives, etc) because unifying China at any cost was a greater goal.

2.Chen Kaige is just a hack. He is Jerry Brukheimer with a Chinese cinimatographer. (sorry... my spelling is probably bad) I will not waste my words on him.

3. I'm in China. I did not go to see Red Cliff because there were about 3 or 4 other Three Kingdoms movies that came out around the same time. I saw one with Andy Law and Maggie Q that really sucked. Red Cliffs looks better than the others. But based on your description, it has little to do with either the Three Kingdoms historical battle nor the romantisizations that followed.

You posted this link:

http://gigaom.com/2009/09/24/iphone-nokias-troubles-by-the-numbers/

There you say that Nokia is suffering because it does not have a hit device for the smartphone market. You say here

". The reason why Nokia is suffering is because it doesn’t have a hit device to address the fast-growing smartphone market....Guess who’s winning sales in the smartphone category? Apple, which sold about 1.4 million iPhones, and RIM, which sold 1.2 million BlackBerrys during the quarter."

Uh... Nokia was disappointed with its sales of ONE of its smartphones - the N97 - which sold 500K units between June to August. (http://nokiaexperts.com/gartner-numbers-show-500000-nokia-n97-units-sold-june/) Thats just one of a large range of smartphones. What about sales of the 5800 (second hottest in July on Vodaphone), the E72, N85, N86, etc.

True, the iphone 3GS sold 1 million units into the Channel in one weekend. That's a heavily subsidized, locked phone, sold into a single-carrier channel. Does not mean its actually more popular with consumers.

By your own report (from IDC) about smartphone market:

Nokia 57.5%

Apple 15.5%

Research in Motion 13.2%

HTC 8.1%

Samsung 3.0%

By your chart, Nokia would seem to dominate this market. Yet you then go on to say:

"What we’re seeing is a complete upheaval in the handset market. We’re seeing two traditional powerhouses — Nokia and Sony Ericsson — be upended by North American and Asian competitors, some of them newcomers to the market. ...Nokia is particularly vulnerable because it doesn’t quite have a presence in the U.S. market. Let’s see how it does in Asia and rest of the world."

Do you see why your report seems...problematic? I'm maybe slightly a fanboy of Nokia (I use an iPhone, but I can't wait to get something that like an Android phone that actually has good features / battery power / defect free). But your sir seem to be anti-Nokia...but I don't understand why.

BTW,the US market is fragmented and far behind in mobile tech usage than Asian markets...and probably European markets as well.

Hi,

Your article title is misleading and also does not show mastery of facts. I think you are a smart guy and I would appreciate if you show more scientific thought in your articles.

Now, you talk about Nokia "going down"...at least in America. But of your article, 1/2 of the content is about loses due to Nokia-Siemens. I generally think that anyone partnering with Siemens is going to lose...that company has no innovation. You also noted loses due to lack of components...which means loses due to the reaction from the Economic Crisis which other companies probably face.

You note that sales in NA are down by 31% from last year...what about Motorola, Sony Ericson, LG, Samsung? I'm pretty sure everyone took a hit (yes...except maybe Apple which sells just one type of phone).

It is true that Nokia has done a poor job in NA Market. But you imply that it is only selling in the developing world. Actually, Nokia brand is probably the strongest in the biggest cell phone market...China.

It is probably true that Nokia will face increasing competition from iPhone and Android. But you suggest that this is because of iPhone, Pre, and Android..."there’s not much reason to expect that figure to turn around anytime soon in the face of increasing competition from the iPhone — which continues to eat Nokia’s lunch — as well Android and Palm’s webOS." You know that smartphones make up something like 4% of the market...how can you logically come to this conclusion?

Truth is, Nokia will face increasing competition from Korean companies. Eventually, they will face increasing competition from Chinese companies. This will be good for consumers.

BTW, I like the idea of Android, but as of today,...it's nothing. Two phones on US's smallest carrier...neither of which has gained traction outside of early-adopter market. The Android phone out now are crappy.

You will probably think I'm a Nokia fan-boy for jumping on this article. And there is a smidge of truth to that...I have visited Nokia factories and met Nokia managers and felt that they have a pretty good corporate culture. But I am not partial to Nokia's products. Or, I should say...I like their phones alot, but I also like other phones.