Samsung’s fourth-quarter earnings report showed a 9% decline in mobile device sales from Q3, mirroring eerily the Nokia smartphone volume decline from autumn to holiday quarters. Of course, the two companies could not be more different… but that’s the point. Both the vibrantly strong, massive Samsung and the tiny, struggling Nokia delivered Christmas quarters that were far weaker than industry expected two months ago. Neither is likely to give up dreams of volume growth, of course, and now that Microsoft owns Nokia’s phone business, both of these behemoths have money to burn in their bids to elbow out-HTC, LG, Sony and their ilk. Here’s the good news for all of us: There is likely-some sort of a-glut of smartphones that



More...