With the news — well, the source is Digitimes so salt to taste — today that Apple is already working on the iPhone 5s and it will be ready by Q1 2013 it should highlight just how much trouble the purveyor of all gadgets cool and hip may be in.  The need to turn their product cycle over that quickly after creating the kind of hoopla and mania it did over the iPhone 5 itself speaks volumes to the kind of pressure they are feeling to keep their margins at their currently unsustainable levels.  This is an obvious response to the realization that Samsung is eating their lunch and that market share at some point will matter greatly in determining which direction the industry goes.

By contrast, there is news that not only has Nokia sold out the new Lumia 920 in a handful of countries around Europe as well as there being lines at AT&T and Microsoft stores around the U.S. all weekend, but that the Windows Phone 8 standard bearer sold out on Amazon in China in less than 30 minutes.  Now, whether or not that was because of small production runs or huge demand is anyone’s guess at this point, but with the extremely aggressive pricing by Nokia, AT&T and China Mobile it is obvious that they are going for market and mind share now and leaving the bottom line for future consideration.

In the past those that were playing catch up to Apple, a position Nokia is certainly in, would have to go through quick turn-around cycles to keep the product line constantly in the face of the consumer but now Apple is having to come down off the mountain and risk ticking off those loyal users who just bought their incredibly over-hyped top phone for the latest version.