Apparently the change in strategy is because a lot of the CDMA carriers in the developing world (Brazil, India, etc.) are migrating to GSM. Therefore it no longer makes economic sense for Nokia to develop and manufacture CDMA devices.
Yes, Qualcomm CDMA has 50% market share in the US, but it is a relatively small market and licensing fees/manufacturing costs are higher for CDMA. These factors can make margins very tight for CDMA cell phone manufacturers.
Whilst I agree that it would be fantastic to see more competition in the CDMA market, I can see the business reasons behind Nokia's decision. It does mean that we're unlikely to see a Symbian CDMA phone since Symbian's main supporters are either heavily GSM-focused (Nokia, Sony Ericsson) or only interested in smartphones for the Japanese market (Sharp, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi).
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I guess there are a lot more GSM users in the world
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2 billion vs. 200 million. The GSM market is roughly ten times bigger globally.
I know it's wishful thinking but wouldn't it be great if there was just a single cellular standard?
