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What Nokia Must Do To Stay Relevant In Mobile
snydeq writes "Mikael Ricknäs reports how Nokia can turn around its three-year slide in the mobile market — one that has transformed the company's iconic N95 into a distant memory given the pace of innovation at Apple and around Android. Completely underestimating the impact of the iPhone, Nokia took too long to realize that Symbian's lack of touch capabilities would hinder its ability to compete in the smartphone market. Moreover, the company's move to open source the OS has significantly slowed down Symbian's development, according to analysts, leaving Nokia with both a lack of support from other vendors and a platform on which competitors can keep a close eye. Meanwhile, developer interest in Nokia's Ovi app store is nearly nonexistent. 'Nokia's problems are still fixable but the window is closing. I am not optimistic that they will be fixed in 2010 because there isn't much time left; if they aren't fixed in 2011, Nokia will be in big trouble.'"
... the N900?
As far as I'm concerned the only thing Nokia is missing is a better marketing campaign for their product that compares very favorably with the Apple and Android offerings.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
I wish somebody would manufacture a cell phone/dildo. So I could anal-masturbate with it.
Probably the best thing they could do is license iOS from Apple. What are the other options? Put out the same exact Android phone that everybody else is?
If they paid Apple enough money it could happen.
For me all they have to do to stay relevant is release an up to date E90 running Maemo/MeeGo. Apparently that physical phone layout isn't going to ever come back.
Maybe they can license good signal strength to Apple? I still keep an old Nokia "dumbphone" around just in case I have a low signal need...
You Sir are BATSHIT INSANE.
I've heard that Nokia is big in Europe, but at least here in the USA its hard to get a Symbian phone or any Nokia phone save for dumb-phones. What Nokia really needs to do is create a really high-end phone, make it be multi-carrier and release it for all carriers subsidized in the US. Phones like the N900 are nice, but since you can't get them subsidized, it really harms adoption rates. In the US people expect their cell phones to appear to only cost nothing to $50 for a dumb-phone and $100-200 for a smartphone. Paying $650 for a phone is something that few people will do, if it was $200 subsidized, people would pick it up because at the time, the N900 was a really nice phone, but no one wants to pay $650 for it.
Nokia needs to get their act together by flooding the market with their phones. Heck, even abandon Symbian for a while and create Android phones, really, despite how much Nokia seems to love Symbian, it kinda fails when compared to Android, iOS and even WebOS.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Not everyone wants a smartphone. If I didn't work in the IT field I wouldn't want one. I would like a phone that makes phone calls, takes pictures, supports texting and I don't have to have an "accessory" in order to carry/protect/advertise it.
I went around the office today and if my little marketing research check counts then Nokia is doing just fine.
Just because InfoWorld or Slashdot or ComputerWorld or SmartphonesDaily says something you all need to realize that they're actually talking about a very small segment of the population.
I mean, I *could* buy another phone like symbian, windows mobile and then be in the wilderness of a dull grey existence, no eco system, no sense of progress from release to release, with a boring phone that just does boring phone-like things, and which is locked down*.
Or I could get an Android phone.
*Yeah, I understand some of these shitty phones are no longer quite as locked down as the manufacturers scramble to come to terms with the threat posed by Android (and iPhone, while it has the advantage of marketshare over Android, which I figure will be the case for about another year, until the various phones, laptops and tablets released by multiple manufacturers catch up with Apples one effort per year or so), but I don't think they're doing enough.
Unless Apple changes, that will never happen. Apple's business is about the experience of using Apple products. They keep control of the hardware as well as the OS to provide the correct experience.
In the new world of Mobile Applications the N900 is nothing but a nice browser, while the other platforms do so much more...
Like the summary said, developer interest in the Ovi app store is zilch, and any potential interest will be sucked away by Microsoft desperate to support WIndows Mobile 7.
The only fix for Nokia now is to go Android, then the fact they make nice hardware means something again.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why bother? iOS is still a DOS task-switcher, nothing remotely close to OS X, and way behind the opposition. Plus Apple have stolen massive amounts on IP from Nokia. Expect a huge payout for Nokia and ongoing license fees per Apple unit sold, once they lawyers have made their fortune first.
What they need to do is switch to a more relevant OS, like VMS or MP/M, written in a decent high level language, like RPG or watfiv. Only then can they expect to be truly successful.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
If well is not fully open (the actual cellphone part is somewhat closed source) the N900 could had started a trend of open, very flexible phones, you can even find alternative kernels where you can over/underclock them for special uses. It is still an impressive phone, but is lacking mindshare. It could have got more developers attention, but they didnt put their weight supporting that phone.
Now they are going for Meego, still having closed components, and the question is for how much they will give to it attention or how soon they will forget about that platform too. They should be more open on them, letting developers fully take advantage of that hardware (i.e. there is an Android port for it, but the cellphone part don't work because being one of the closed components), and see how far it could get... if the phone gets wildly popular because its flexibility, maybe they won't sell so much associated services if what most run is not tied with them, but for sure they will sell a lot of hardware.
When the average person sees that they can get an iPhone for $200, a BlackBerry for $100, an Android device for $100, a palm device for $100, a Windows Mobile device for $50 or the N900 for $650
This is true only because the U.S. cell phone market doesn't itemize the phone subsidy on the monthly bill. T-Mobile is the first U.S. nationwide carrier to introduce SIM-only plans that cost less than plans that include a phone.
What Nokia must do to stay relevant in mobile?
TIME TRAVEL!
WANTED; Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box
322, Oakview, CA 93022. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your
own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Probably the best thing they could do is license iOS from Apple. What are the other options? Put out the same exact Android phone that everybody else is?
If they paid Apple enough money it could happen.
Yeah, and after that maybe Apple will license OS X to Dell and HP for use on their desktop computers.
They won't be able to compete with the large scale manufacturing competition which is just gearing up. The open source model for the handset and OS will allow both to evolve at their own pace driven by a variety of companies. It's a replay of the PC market all over again except this time the OS will be Open Source Android. Once Intel gets the kinks worked out of their Atom based phones those combined with Android are going to make it very difficult for everyone, because the same OEM's and ODM's that build PC's will be building phones on contract for anyone who wants a phone, once they customize the Android interface to their liking they'll be off and running. Some custom chips will remain, but eventually the economies of scale that Intel can bring to bear will be just to much. Companies like Samsung, LG, Sony, who have multiple major revenue streams and a variety of their own innovative technologies to integration will be fine. Nokia's only got hand-sets they not going to die because they are good or bad, they are going to die because they won't be able to maintain the margins necessary for success.
written in a decent high level language, like RPG
Is RPG any better than the scripting language in RPG Maker 2?
It may be behind the opposition in theory, and perhaps on paper as well. However nobody ever stood in line all day for any phone but an iPhone.
Exactly what they're doing now?
Protip: "Relevant in "mobile"" does not mean "Relevant with a bunch of nerds and iTards".
We had a ill-informed article by Galen Gruman just yesterday. And here's another.
Symbian OS has ALWAYS had touch capabilities. It was originally released on a PDA called the Psion Series 5 under the name Epoc 32. That was a device with both a touch screen and a full qwerty keyboard. Touch was absolutely central to it. In all the smartphones Symbian OS has been released for, the OS itself still has touch central to the UI code. In the case of Sony-Ericsson, they released phones that used those touch capabilities. Nokia always chose not to. To release phones without touch screens. It was always Nokia's decision, never anything to do with the OS not being able to do it.
How can you take a tech author seriously when he makes false accusations based on a complete lack of knowledge of the facts?
Software and some hardware considerations put on the side (cpu, ram, i suppose), the cameras they have in their phones are really good.
I'd like to find an android phone that can take pictures as good as the N8. Check this one out:
Colors, focus, sharpness are really good.
http://admin.conversations.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/04062010253.jpg
Nokia makes great hardware, but they obviously have problems putting together a good UI or development platform. They are unlikely to come up with something better than Android, Chrome, or iOS.
So what Nokia should do is ship Android and build whatever software and hardware innovations they want on top of that. I think Nokia Android phones would be spectacular. Symbian^4? Sorry, not interested.
All they need to do is release a phone with the capabilities of the Moto Droid, and the durability of their own Nokia 3390.
Those things last forever. I know people who still use them despite only being good for phone calls and texts. (gasp, i know, do they cook over open fires too?) Other people would use them too, if they could slice, dice, and run Google Maps.
The last Nokia phone worth a look was the NGage, though mostly just for the look.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Disclaimer: I hold Nokia stock
What Nokia needs to do is replace it's top management. Unless some drastical measures are announced within the next 2 weeks (Q2 report coming up), the stockholders are going to be demanding that too (just look at Nokia stock trend over the past 8 years, it's really not particularly pretty). The problem is the arrogance and incompetence of the long-time top company officials like Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (the CEO). Nokia's current situation is very similar to Ericsson a decade ago. They had a very strong market position, but grew arrogant and slow, while the market churn kept on speeding up.
Who's Nokia?
Just give me better battery life. My four year old Nokia that just croaked had great battery life. The Nokia that replaced it (less than a week ago) has horrible battery life. I have to recharge the thing every day!
Both phones are the same basic flip-phone design, not much difference at all. Guess I'll have to keep the charger with me all the time.
So? People stood in even longer lines for The Phantom Menace. Standing in lines is a display of brand loyalty, nothing more.
Bullshit, people stood in lines for incredibles too and EVO 4Gs too.
Nowhere did anybody do such a thing.
That's the equivalent of saying a fully-fledged mobile Linux computer (with a really nice front-end) is nothing but a nice browser,
That depends on what you mean my mobile. A great strength of Linux is the ton of free software around - but much of it targeting X-Windows.
How much can run on that mobile platform? Software that is not meant for mobile devices doesn't really work for users.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The article mentions lack of developer interest in Nokia's Ovi store, which is failing because there aren't very many users on it. This is because using the Ovi store requires surfing the web, cumbersome authentication, no downloading of free apps without a login, bad search, and other user interface fuckups. It's slow, it's cumbersome, it's confusing and it's not even used by Nokia. Handset integration is nonexistent.
Until the Ovi store works as simply as the Android store (ie. gets integrated with their handsets), most users won't bother with it.
And since no users bother with it, no developers will, either.
There are big bucks to be made elsewhere, and they don't require deep knowledge of Symbian landmines to develop for.
What is this "exact same Android phone" you speak of? I spent the last few weeks investigating upgrades to our phones in this household, and the one thing I can safely say is that the Android phones were a pretty diverse lot, size, camera, keyboard or lack of it, processing power, screen quality, camera quality, camera capabilities, styles, and, oh, prices too. The MyTouch Slide we eventually went for even has significant changes to the look and feel of the operating system, not just in terms of (somewhat unnecessary) T-Mobile crap, but also in terms of a revamped voice control interface (which is crap, but that's another story.)
If Nokia wants to make an Android phone and wants to distinguish it from other Android phones, they'd certainly not have a problem in doing so. There's also no reason whatsoever for them to build an iOS phone: all they'd be doing is creating a closed, proprietary, system when they could produce something just as capable and user friendly with an open architecture. Why waste money licensing iOS because of minor UI differences, when it's perfectly within your abilities to make changes to, say, Android or Maemo, that'll change the UI to whatever you want it to be?
I don't necessarily propose Nokia do Android, not because it's a bad choice, but because choice is good, and it'd be nice to see a mobile operator that once-upon-a-time was renowned for its style, come up with an alternative to webOS and Android, but suggesting iOS? Really? We don't need more iPhones. Nokia's problem is that both of its operating systems, Symbian and Maemo, have the same issues as iOS, not that they're not like iOS enough.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I used to have a Nokia 6 years ago or so. Was a really nice phone. Did the actual phone thing way better than any phone I've had since. Just about everyone who had a cell phone back then had a Nokia, mainly because that was the cheapest one you could get when you went to a cell phone store. These days, it's some other brand. You can still get a Nokia, but it's some expensive smartphone Nokia that no one wants. If someone wants a smartphone they'll buy a Blackberry or an iPhone. If they actually want a phone, they would buy a Nokia, but they don't seem to offer cheap Nokia's anymore...that was their market, they should have embraced it, rather than go after Blackberry and iPhone's....
Yes. Nokia has some problem competing with the iphone. Is this bad? maybe. But what Nokia need to focus on is the markets where they are strong and where Apple cant compete. Look at Indonesia, China or other places where you can not sell iphones costing $500-$1000. What Nokia need to do is keep their dominance in these markets stable, and when processing power become cheap enough (you just have to wait) to push a major revision into new models sold in 100s of millions per year, then they can make the change. Anything up to then serve either a very specific market (people who used Nokia for the last 10 Years) or are plainly test devices for Nokia.
What pace of innovation? There is no innovation in releasing a product that lacks features that have been standard for years, calling them "unnecessary" or some bullshit like that, then releasing a new version of the product every year with some of the previously missing features added in and saying they're the first to do it. The only thing crapple is good at is selling subpar shit in a shiny package to hipsters.
Release Meego phones. Now.
As they announced that new N* phones will use only Meego, they essentialy killed Symbian.
Symbian was already seen as "OS for almost smart phones", now they made clear that it's not (and never will) targeted for smart phones.
Moving developers to Qt is a nice temporary idea, but does not give binary compatibility from Symbian to Meego, and history has shown that binary compatibility is almost everything.
The "open source Symbian" failed because the phones (not the software) they sell are not open enough, and open source developers can't (and have no interest to) turn crap to gold anyway.
IMHO they should have only one OS, skinned differently, except for feature phones where they should focus on web technologies.
Their biggest competitor is google, not apple, as apple can't sell things cheap, they would loose the cool factor.
Moreover, Nokia can't imitate Apple and have so much diversity in their products, and diversity has always been their strength.
There is an openness war with google out there, and they are not competitive enough.
They should release somewhat cheaper phones with Meego, so to attract hackers and developers. They don't need to be much powerful, the cost factor and openness is way more important.
Moderation is overrated.
The N900 doesn't even try to compete with Apple and Android offerings, it's essentially a desktop computer in a small case. It essentially runs a flavour of Debian. (yes, you do have apt-get on those devices)
Now the next step would be to encourage more mobile phone vendors to do the same.
A combination of foolish trolls, apple haters, and Nokia cluelessness have combined to bring Nokia to this stage, from a company whose every new phone would gather press attention and mind share to a has been who few take seriously any more. The market moved very rapidly away from them since Apple launched iPhone, yes Apple, a reluctance to concede apple had come up with a winner sees Nokia unable to make the necessary correction 4 years later, 4 years a is a long time, and for a company with Nokia resources it should have been cakewalk but 4 years later Nokia is sinking into irrelevance, a very good case study for a b school.
Even today we have these comments about market share reflecting cluelessness of the highest order, on the lower end Nokia is challenged by cheap chinese phones and on the higher end by Apple, Android. In between there is very little space to play for a company of Nokia's size, they need leadership and market leading products at least mind share, they have none, and its not because of Apple, or Android or marketing, everyone can do marketing and does, its because of their incompetence and the innumerable troll boys parroting fast depleting market share and no future to make silly points about Apple.
To remind folks you cannot browse the internet on 2.8 inch screens and keypads, and phones will low ram and laggy interfaces, there is no point in having 3g on a keypad, nokia pushing 2x cam is not innovation, Apple changing the dynamics with a beautifully executed touch screen ui which address the problem of screen size and portability is, and 4 years later the entire market is following apple. If you are interested in technology you will give credit where its due, if you are into politics and fanboyism and only a fanboy or paid shills can support Nokia now, thats a different and pointless indulgence. Angst ridden fanboys are not a recipe for business success.
At the high end they are being beaten by the iPhone & Android. In the middle companies like Sony Erricson, Samsung and LG are more popular with carriers looking for phones to subsidize. And at the low end, no-name companies like ZTE and others are producing product to be re-badged with carrier branding.
No matter what they do, Nokia will not out-iPhone the iPhone. They aren't Apple and they shouldn't try to be. What they are is *European* and they should use that to their advantage. They should become the Swatch of cell phones and start selling phones based on a combination of simplicity, price, and wild looks. Fashion trends change rapidly, and nothing is stopping the large (for a phone) iPhone from being supplanted as a fashion accessory.
(nokia stock holder) ;) )
I mean sure, Nokia's current OS situation is total chaos and sure, Nokia's OVI store is 100% shit and sure, the N900 is stupidly expensive, but that's not the real reason why people are jumping ship in terms of smartphone adoption.
Quite simply, it's support. (Lack of)
Nokia builds their phones to be just barely powerful enough to run the OS and just barely enough ROM to hold the OS.
What does this mean?
It means that you need to toss that POS 1 year later when Nokia released the next symbian OS just there is no freaking way it would fit on your phone or that you processor could make it usable if it could fit.
Nokia's smartphones have always been expensive. Hell, I have gotten a lot of them, but the last Nokia I bought, and ever will buy was the N95 which is in a box in the basement someplace in the case visitors come and want a phone with Navi.
(As a side note, I took the phone out last month and I could not believe how user unfriendly that phone was compared to my HTC Desire. How did we manage?
The thing is, as expensive as that N95 was, there will never be an OS update. Sure, there were bug fixes and a couple added features when they sent out firmware updates, but never will I be able to use a newer OS. So, once Nokia stops selling that particular cell, the support is over. No more updates.
Now look at the iPhone. The 2G iPhone, was and still is IMO a crap phone. Yet the suckers that got that crap phone run the same OS version as my wifes 3GS and the same OS as the newest iPhone 4G. Sure, it does not have all the features since it's not physically able to run them, but it always has the latest and greatest.
When I bought my HTC Desire two weeks ago (fucking love it!) the biggest thing in my mind was, will HTC's sense interface keep me from getting newer android OSs? Had I not seen how one could still load plain android on there to be sure to get the latest and greatest, I would not have gotten the phone.
Nokia still has not gotten the message that folks are not interested in buying a 600$ throw away phone. They will continue to not support their phones. Just watch, the N8 will not be upgradable.
Ok ,people, I work between London, Paris and Madrid, and by the most "common"smartphone seen in both 3 cities is the nokia 5800. I know n900 is the sweet candy, but there's no iphone or android phone making the numbers of 5800 around those places. I've been trying to find up numbers to back this, but wikipedia is outdated...
Also, remember that nokias now include a GPS for free (no connection neded), so for those of us that travel quite often, it's quite convinient to have a gps on your pocket no matter where you are.
I hear digital radio's really going places in the UK.
That's all I'm going to say. It's just decades of underinvestment in software by a company that expects to produce lots of phone models at a time.
Quality software has not been important until the iPhone arrived so it's a company whose organisation has absolutely optimised quality out.
Changing this kind of thing around is very hard - it's built in to the kind of people who were hired and how they are managed.
This story is misleading.
Nowhere in the story to you attempt to explain what Nokia needs to do, as the title suggested.
This is just a bit a NAF reporting which is merely stating the obvious.
Earn your money, put some original thought into your writing; create some IP; be original. Stop being boring
n95 is still hugely popular. Anyone thats owned one would prefer to keep using it. But its software is dated. even the latest 35 is ooold. a release of meego onto n95/96/97 devices will keep nokia users loyal. once they're gone - they're not going to come back to nokia.
I personally don't get all the fuss... I have a E72 Nokia phone, no touchscreen and it fullfils business taks at 500% the speed of any Iphone or Droid. -It get's me in places with offline navigation for free, in time. -It reads my mail when i want too. -I can get it offline whenever i want to. -It can multitask (navigate while calling, music while calling, blabla, while doing blabla) -It has a battery that survives a lot more then a day of meetings, moving to places i've never been. -Has a great calender. In short: when i compare the simple E72 to pretty much any droid or Iphone I get a phone that's -robust and reliable with great connectivity -great speed -great battery life That's about the point when i personally say: go fuck yourself with your niffy touchscreen crap. I at least get to call when i want to wherever i want to. It's sad but this, by far cannot be said for both Android nor IphoneOS. Businesses like robustness and Nokia still offers that a lot more then the others.
[An advertised discount for bringing your own handset] is really a totally different thing from actually itemizing the payment on the loan they granted you on your $500 widget.
T-Mobile offers that too, unless there's some obscure provision that doesn't allow combining it with Even More Plus plans.
Unlike Apple users we N900 users can get our software from a number of places.
That's like saying in Russia you had stores with 200 checkout lanes. While true it ignores the fact there was no actual food to buy...
Choice is great, but fundamentally the choice has to be able to lead to something to be of value.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The current state of phone or mobile OS is still very childish. You may think of that iOS and Android already share many common features and look very alike.
But the mobile OSs are far from userable, then we can say they are good.
There are still many chances for anyone to join the race, so do Nokia.
Take, for example, location is still in earlier state of development, the phone is not very aware of what the owner is doing, location, time, and scheduled events could be combined to help the phone os to predict what is necessary for the phone to perform. And in current mobile os, none of these information is combined. And there is no clear idea how to protect the privacy of these information.
There is still many many rooms for improvement.
I still want to believe that Nokia is the company to turn to for a reliable basic phone. One that lasts for a week on one charge, and can be dropped on the pavement without breaking. One that can be picked up by anyone to make calls on, without getting distracted by gimmicks.
But after seeing several Nokia phones either fail within two years of normal usage (yes, including some drops), or suffer from unnecessarily slow and counter-intuitive UI. So in future I'll be shopping elsewhere, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
There's a huge market for the sort of phone I want Nokia to focus on producing, and will be for a long time. There's no shortage of customers who either can't afford a high-end smartphone, or genuinely don't want one. Getting entrenched in a battle with Apple &co for the smartphone $$$ may well be a mistake unless Nokia already has something seriously awesome in the pipeline.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-28/nokia-technologist-and-symbian-veteran-davies-leaves-company-for-tomtom.html