Nokia's Stephen Elop Claims Dual-Core and Quad-Core Phones Just a Waste of Battery

[dgstorm]

Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, had some choice words to say about all the new phone CPU tech that is growing by leaps and bounds over the past year and a half. He claims that "dual-core and quad-core processors are just a waste of battery, and that to the consumers they aren’t all that useful." Furthermore, he claims that the recent "Smoked by Window's Phone" and "Blown Away by Lumia" competitions prove it.

If you haven't heard of these "competitions", basically Microsoft has been taking some Windows phones to various tech conferences like WMA and pitting their devices against any competitor in some specific situations that they decide. Nokia recently did the same thing in China with their Lumia series of phones. Supposedly, the Windows phones and the Lumias emerged victorious almost every single time.

Basically, his claim is that the Windows Phones and the Lumias all do day-to-day activities faster than Android and iPhones, and that dual-core and quad-core devices are a waste of battery. Whether this is true or not depends on a great many factors, and could ultimately prove irrelevant to his argument anyway. Also, his opinion is rather inflammatory and simply not true. For example, besides the fact that these competitions were biased and unscientific, it has been shown in countless testing that multi-core chips, when optimized properly, will actually reduce battery consumption because they can calculate the same processes but operate at a lower frequency, thus using less energy.

While it is true that the number of processors doesn't always translate into faster or more efficient, because it depends on several other factors like the size of the chip and the frequency it is clocked at, the irony is that Microsoft has specifically developed Windows 8 Mobile to optimize for future dual and multi-core processors. This makes his statements completely contradictory and designed to simply validate a certain marketing perspective based upon what he wants people to believe when it suits him the most. In just a few months time we will likely hear him spouting just the opposite, and that kind of hypocrisy is certainly not going to win over critics or consumers. Share your thoughts.

Source: UnwiredView

 

[Chizzele]

Desperate times call for desperate measures... Nokia is fighting to stay above water in the cellular world so making statements that may sell an extra device or two is what they are shooting for..

 

[johnomaz]

I think it all depends on optimization of the code for what they are doing. Honestly, I don't see Windows phones to be as feature rich as Android and dare I say iOS. Lets see WM7 phones get to the level of Android and where they stand then. Normal day to day stuff like using the phone, calendar, web, pictures do not need more than 1 core, but when you start to talk about gaming on the phones that do take advantage of multi cores, it does make a difference. They are comparing apples to oranges and implying that the multi core chip is being used to its max by normal use instead of the games and other stuff. The Tegra3 chip itself is actually a 5 core chip. The 5th core does the simple and mundane things when the power of the quad core isn't needed.

 

[JohnDroid]

I guess saving your precious time is also just a "waste of effort" on their part... or perhaps a "waste of time"

Nokia is flailing. They will continue to die a slow, painful death.

 

[sb1831]

I know this will come off as heresy here, but I am prone to agree. Windows phones are optimized to do what they do at exceptional speeds. Sure as multimedia/gaming devices they don't necessarily compete, but when it comes to being a smartphone with a social media tie-ins, it's really a damn good product. No questions about it. It's actually kinda scary to think of the functionality they could add while being optimized for multi-cores

 

[tgyberg]

I will say that the fastest phone I've seen is the Intel Atom single core phone that was at CES. That thing was insane!

 

[NoBloatware]

That sure is an ugly tie.

Most people would probably be happy with a single core *desktop* machine. On a phone, it does seem like overkill/a marketing ploy. On the other hand, if multicores are able to save power in real world use cases then it isn't a marketing ploy and it isn't overkill. Whether the processor and software really performs according to theory is the question. I tend to believe this Nokia guy for now, but things change.

I don't think Nokia will die. People wil buy 'em. Some people think Android is "too techy" or the iPhone is only for people with Macs. People running Windows on their desktop may gravitate toward a Nokia. We'll see.

 

[cereal killer]

I will say that the fastest phone I've seen is the Intel Atom single core phone that was at CES. That thing was insane!

It is an awesome processor. I doubt there will be a discernible difference between the Atom Windows Phones and the Quad-Core Android phones in regards to speed/snappiness. If there is I'm going to have to go with Windows Phone beating the Android phones on speed and smoothness.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

 

[akhenax]

Dem's sound like fightin' wirdz.
:work1:

 

[OneTenderRebel]

I agree with the quad core aspect of his statement, the OS is just now being optimized for dual core, what good are quad core phones going to be for the time being? Sure over time, tasks become more memory extensive and you need more power but I think we are a long ways off from truly needing quad core processors in our phones.

 

[tjk629]

I wouldn't say he's wrong completely.

But I'm sure these dual core android phones that ran on Froyo and Gingerbread will see improvements if they ran on say ICS.

 

[NoBloatware]

More and more, phones look to be at the heart of "convergence", meaning that if I add a monitor and keyboard all of a sudden I have a desktop PC or if I add a large screen I have a DVR/DVD player. Eventually I can see multiple cores being a necessity but right now I'm not sure if the general public needs it. This is all moot if multiple cores do really save power in real world use.

 

[altspeed]

But what about an insanely overclocked (top of the butterzone, say 1.45 ghz) with a gig of the internal storage configuredd to behave as ram? I think that might be a competitor. Linux on lower grade hardware stomps microshaft same as it ever was.

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[altspeed]

Above post refers to D1

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[jroc]

Is it me or am I the only one who sees the benefits of multi cores and multi tasking?

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