Nokia’s new mobile chief, Rick Simonson, on his predictions for mobile growth (via mocoNews):

I can even make a prediction for 2010: In Latin America, we will grow faster than (RIM). By 2011, our efforts will start producing results, as we will be at par with Apple and RIM in smartphones. Not only we draw level with them, we will also win the war because, in addition to email, we will be adding content, chat, music, entertainment and several other features, which will soon become very critical for success of any company in this space.

There’s 2 reasons I think this quote is awesome.
One, the fact that one of the global leaders in mobile phones is predicting when it will be ‘on par’ with an entrant (Apple) who’s only been in the game a little over 2 years.
And two, they’re making predictions, which is always dangerous – especially in an area like consumer electronics and entertainment. All the points Simonson notes – content, chat, music and entertainment – Apple is leading the way with thanks to iTunes, the iPod Touch and the iPhone. As Om Malik has pointed out, it’s the iPod Touch, running the iPhone OS, that is Apple’s “ace up it’s sleeve“. Nokia has no such ace. Maybe they’ll get one?
It took them 2 years to launch the Ovi Store and that didn’t fair too well.
It’s certainly possible for Nokia to take over Apple’s incumbency in mobile music and entertainment, I just don’t think they can do it.

I was catching up on a few of the TED Conference podcast videos this weekend, one of which was, Steven Cowley: Fusion is energy’s future. It’s a great (and scary) presentation on why nuclear fusion will be one of our only solutions to the fossil fuel crisis. One part that grabbed my attention was where he he explained one of the easiest methods of creating a fusion reaction:

There is one reaction, that’s probably one of the easiest fusion reactions to do. It’s between two isotopes of hydrogen – deuterium …and tritium. These two nucleii, when they’re far apart, are charged. And you push them together and they repel …but when you get them close enough together, something called the Strong Force starts to act and pulls them together. So most the time they repel, but you get them closer and closer and closer and at some point the Strong Force grips them together.

That sounded like a great metaphor for some relationships I know, but prior to the fusion clip, I watched James Geary, metaphorically speaking, so maybe that had something to do with it.