That's not a good example, but for a different reason: the N95 outsold the original iPhone.

The original iPhone was a promising proof of concept. It got the form factor and the interface right, but the actual device was underwhelming. It had no 3G, no GPS, no third-party apps, and a weak camera. iPhone 3G added all the features competitors already had (apart from a good camera) and became a much bigger commercial success.

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elzbardico 13 hours ago | parent [-]

The N95 outsold the IPhone because it had a good camera and was cheaper, and got even cheaper with the phone companies subsidy.

But I'd be surprised if Apple didn't have a beefier profit with the IPhone compared to Nokia with the N95.

	▲	Tuna-Fish 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They definitely didn't. Apple was starting from scratch in the market, and the original iPhone did a whole bunch of things it shouldn't have, making it needlessly expensive to build for the hardware it included. This is partly why Nokia initially dismissed it, as soon as it was on the market, teardowns showed that it was basically an amateurish prototype that was pushed to production, internally much worse than you'd expect from a mature company that was used to building consumer electronics. The N95 could be sold for less because it was legitimately a lot cheaper phone to build. Then only a year later the iPhone 3G came out, and it was a rough wake-up for Nokia. Because that one was actually a well-built sane design.