It really was given last year when Nokia made decision to go WP that their sales would pretty much die for that while until they get proper WP phones out. Why would anyone buy their Symbian phones when they know that it has no future? Why would anyone buy their WP7.5 phones that they had to rush to the market when everyone knew that a much better WP8 would come year later and that would allow better specs. Lumia 920 and 820 are the first proper phones from Nokia in long time. I think it was pretty much given that they would sell a lot better than Lumias last year. I would have bought stock last summer if I had had money.
As for Sony I really don't think that their situation is neither that bad as some make it seem. Certainly the glory days are distant memory but they are not going down. Unlike Panasonic and Sharp they actually decided to start downzising the company in 2008 by slimming their Japanese operations by 30k and international operations by same figure. TV division still loses money but a lot less than before. Film division is having a recod year and gaming division should post sizable profit during christmas quarter. Not to mention that they have highly profitable finance and insurance division that has practically kept them alive during these bad years. Unlike Panasonic and Sharp that are losing billions it seems they could end their fiscal year with profits. Doesn't seem that doomed to me.
