[General Topics] Madmick:
Nokia or Blackberry? Nokia doesn't make the Z10. From everything I've read the Z10 is actually an amazing phone, but unfortunately, in spite of that, Blackberry has misfired too many times, and the OS has lost so much support that the public doesn't care. It hasn't sold. Simply put, Blackberry is dying. They're down to 2.9% of the market:

IDC Q2 2013 Global Smartphone Market Report

Nokia will be fine because their build quality is exceptional, and they're in bed with Microsoft. Don't misinterpret me. Even though Microsoft posted the largest growth in terms of their market share one must note that they grew from 3.1% of market control a year ago to 3.7% today. They might have sold 77.6% more phones, and that might signify a 19.4% growth in market share for them, but it's still a measly 0.6% growth in terms of actual market control. Compare that to Android who went from controlling 69.1% of the market to 79.3% of the market. So Android only expanded its market share by 14.8%, but even though that growth is ~5% less, their actual market control grew 10.2%, not the paltry 0.6% corresponding to Microsoft's "boom". Another way to look at it is sales. Android might have only shipped 73.5% more phones than last year (compared to the 77.6% more Microsoft shipped), but that growth in shipments indicates an increase of 79.4 million sales while Microsoft's growth in shipments indicates an increase of 3.8 million sales. Android sold 187.4 million phones in Q2 of 2013 compared to 8.4 million for Microsoft.

Regardless, Microsoft continues to make record profits, and as a company they aren't going anywhere, and they've made it very clear that Nokia is their guy. Like BB10 for Blackberry Windows 8 is finally a viable OS platform. Most W8 users I've talked to in forums absolutely adore their phones, and that's in stark contrast to W7 consumer feedback. For the first time since they entered the smartphone game these two companies are offering a legitimate product; it simply appears that they have different fates, and I think the fact that Blackberry stands by itself in terms of manufacturing both the hardware and software is a big reason for that. Microsoft is already one of the largest companies in the world, and teaming with Nokai/HTC who have their own contracts with carriers only strengthens the product's marketing and availability.

With the Lumia phones, and the latest 1020 in particular, Nokia appears to be buttressing its focus on something that it has historically always done arguably the best of all manufacturers: camera technology. The 41MP count in the 1020 sounds gimmicky to me, but less so since it comes from the company that has always offered top-of-the-heap lens and image stabilization technology, and lately low light performance. As any digital camera enthusiast knows the lens quality matters as much (and probably more) to image quality than mere digital resolution. Unfortunately, this reality has never really been conveyed to smartphone consumers. The Lumia 1020 even offers modest optical zooming (although meager compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom).

In the Android world, GSM Arena reported that the upcoming Sony flagship Xperia Z1 will have a 20MP camera that will support 4K video resolution recording, and other luxury camera features.