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Nokia Exec: Young People Fed Up With iPhone and Android
jfruhlinger writes "Nokia's Windows Phones haven't hit the U.S., but at least one company executive thinks they'll be a slam dunk, since young people have soured on the iPhone and find Android baffling. Of course, much of the Internet commentariat found his remarks even more baffling. Is he right, is he delusional, or is he just trying to build buzz for his company's products the best he can?"
It's Nokia, so I'll take delusional for $2000, Alex.
The kids these days, they don't like the broadband. They are fed up with the cable and the fibre. Everyone has the fibre. Also, many are not happy with the complexity of broadband and the increased risk of viruses over broadband. So we do increasingly see that the youth that wants to be on the cutting edge and try something new are turning to dial up.
Right now, it is so confusing to the customer. Where is the softly assuring BEEEEEEP WAHUNG WAHUNG SCSSHHHHHHHHH white noise after connecting that lets you know that you are receiving 56k service?
My work here is dung.
I don't think I've ever met someone who wasn't a hacker/tweaker sort who didn't like their iPhones. Regardless of your beliefs about their business practices, Walled Garden, etc, by and large the iPhone works and works well. I'm not sure exactly who he talked to about being fed up.
I've also not met a lot of people unhappy with their Android phones, though they may not be using them to their full customization potential.
...I've soured on the Android (performance and privacy issues) and the iPhone looks expensive (based on the iPhone tax it looks like service providers charge). But, I also had about 2 years of development experience on the inferior Windows Mobile platform when Microsoft pissed on the developer base, then shoved us out the door.
I'd say he's right there's room for another competitor, but his ain't it.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
He employs some great logic. Here is a direct quote:
"What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone," he said.
If everyone wants something, then nobody could possibly want it... right?
want your kid to be beaten up by the school bully, then give him a nokia windows mobile 7 phone.
As a "young person", I do not see how anyone can claim Android is "baffling"... to begin with it was more of an engineer/dev/nerd phone but it quickly changed and now IIRC is the most popular phone OS. My facebook news feed often contains complaints or questions about "why is my iphone xxx" but not once have I seen any of them asking for help with a droid.
I can't speak for really young people, but the 20-35 crowd with whom I work love their Androids.
They tend to see the iPhone as a bit more "stuffy", but that distinction may have more to do with company policies regarding who gets what, than with any actual differences between the devices themselves. But "Baffling"? C'mon, you just slide through the screens to the one you want, and tap when you get there.
Now, if you want to ask if the business world will get all hot over a device they can lock down via domain policies - I'd at least give that one a 50/50 (with the "not" 50% swearing like a sailor at the horror of having any mobile device trusted on their domain). But the actual users? Yeah, I'll have to go with the Nokia execs as "delusional" on this one.
I showed my Android phone to my 2 year old and within minutes she was fed up. To her, all those icons and such were baffling. But then I showed her a windows 7 phone and she ate it up! It spent far more time in her mouth than any other phone in the house!
Every other day I'm hearing about smartphone makers suing each other, that's what I'm fed up with.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
What's really missing the marketplace is a Linux console phone. All this graphics nonsense is just slowing people down. And what could be better than the feeling of compiling a kernel in your pocket?
And I liked my Palm Pilot so much, I bought a Treo. However, the Treo was a terrible phone, I had to spend extra and buy it on eBay because the 680 wasn't supported by t-Mobile and for years I lived with it. Then, finally I started phone shopping.
A friend lent me his Nokia 900 and I found it to be un-useable. It interpreted *everything* as me wanting to use the device, including putting it back into a belt-holster... So it would start playing videos in my pocket, and when I wanted to really use it to make a phone call, the battery was dead.
I didn't like the iPhone's on-screen keyboard, but, when the iPhone4 came out, it finally supported a bluetooth keyboard. So, I bought the iPhone & keyboard. When I'm away from the keyboard, I've learned to live with the onscreen keyboard.
For the last year and 2 months now, it's been OK. I haven't wanted to run my phone over with my car, something I've wanted to do to both the Treo and the Nokia. Sure, it doesn't do everything, but, I have to admit it's better than what I was getting previously. The keyboard has made taking notes and writing emails very easy, making the phone a 60% desktop replacement.
It's a fairly good PDA, and even with AT&T service, it's been a use-able phone. All it has to do is not suck entirely, which tends to be what the other products do.
Considered that kids want what the other kids have, my guess is that this quote from Nokia that kids want a Windows Phone is rubbish. Kids want an iPhone. Apple is already on track to be the biggest phone-maker in the world.
Nokia, RIM, Samsung, and Sony do not have a chance unless they undertake some serious R&D and make something equally revolutionary. And somehow "revolutionary" isn't a word *anyone* associates with Microsoft. Windows phone ain't it, any more than GEOS phone. WebOS could have been it, but Palm and the HP both screwed that pooch.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
They are fed up with the carriers, not the phones.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
... that Windows phone runs Windows? Think of it like this: Android phones don't run Ubuntu.
Uh, no. The young people make very few calls on their phones. It's text messages, IM, Facetime, VOIP over Xbox, facebook; everything but phone calls.
- Living with a 20-year old in the basement.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
the first of the five stages of grief.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Some Creepy old guy walks up to a group of kids.
Creepy old guy looks at kid using his iPhone
Creepy old guy: Can you play xbox with your iPhone?
Kid with iPhone: No
Creepy old guy looks at kid using his Android.
Creepy old guy: Can you play xbox with your Android?
Kid with Android: I don't think so.
Headline: Young People soured on the iPhone and find the Android baffling.