Superheroes always have their anti-heroes, otherwise their existence becomes senseless. Recall any comics and you’ll see there are always super heroes loved by everyone and evil heroes rejected by the public. And when the main hero triumphs over, the story ends, because the hero can’t go on without a competition — that’s the credo of his life. The same thing happened with Finnish mobile manufacturer, Nokia. This company was leading in all phone markets and lost its glory. At the moment it’s difficult to imagine Nokia was once popular in the US, but it was so and US senior citizens will confirm my words. Anyway, it’s never easy to permanently dethrone a king unless you decapitate him, as he can always come back and turn everything over.
As you guessed, Nokia popped off because it was alone in the long run, in other words Nokia began dying as it always happens with superheroes. Years passed and the public came up with new heroes calling them Apple and Android. Many people started to worship them and many people found a new embodiment of God in them (forgetting their former idol, Nokia).
Apple and Android are the right mapping of our times; the Cupertino-based company is controlling everything in its activity, inside the company everything is planned in details and all people obey. In short, Apple is a perfect example of discipline. On the other hand, we are dealing with Google, which is known for its democratic views, and involves people by its openness. In practice, such projects always succeed and Android wasn’t an exception. As a result Google’s mobile operating system dominates the market and has already conquered half of the world.
Small companies try to preserve their existence in this panorama, and manage to stand the competition. But on the whole, big companies take the lion part. The same was with Nokia (though we can’t call it “a small company,” in this case its popularity doesn’t mean anything). And in the last few years the “once most popular mobile brand in the world” was not being able to get back its glory. Want it or not, Nokia’s back, and people have already started consuming Mango instead of Apple and sweetmeats.
Chapter 1: Discovering the tumor
Yes, Nokia spared no effort to find out why US smartphone users dislike this brand. If this “disliking” referred to the US and only the company would probably decide to leave it in peace and focus on other regions. Sadly though, the tumor spread and the countries where Nokia was once a leader began denying Nokia products.
Nokia forgave its competitors for all these losses, but when European mobile operators started preferring Android- and iOS-based smartphones, Nokia decided to act, i.e. take certain steps. By “steps” I mean the decision Nokia had to make concerning the choice of the operating system its handsets should run to win the battle.
This was the question of the day, because Nokia realized its main problems come from Symbian^3, while it was thought to be the key feature of Nokia smartphones. Beyond doubt, it was hard for Nokia to ban its native platform and choose another one. Moreover, it had a limited choice — either Android or Windows Phone. We even didn’t discuss iOS, because Apple will rather dig its own grave than share iOS with anyone. Well, many people thought Nokia tended to merge with Android — this would be the biggest coalition in the mobile history. But Nokia, as always, preferred to attack on different fronts at a time. (Such a strategy always makes a panic among enemies.) It worked. Nokia decided to treat the disease using several methods simultaneously.
Chapter 2: Getting rid of the disease
Before that Nokia had invited Stephen Elop, who was the president of the Microsoft Business Division at that time. This person is known for his “plain mind’ and the ability to make right decisions in difficult situations. Nokia haters called Elop a mole and assumed he agreed to take up that position to sell the Finnish company to Microsoft.
In contrary to this, Elop sold his shares of Microsoft and completely got involved in Nokia’s problem. There was no time and the “doctor” had to start the surgery immediately. He started.
While many fake friends were waiting for Nokia’s death, those who sincerely believed in Nokia knew it’ll come back.
Secondly, Nokia (no, starting here we must say Stephen Elop) analyzed the opportunities of both operating systems and came to a conclusion Android devices act and look the same. So if Nokia had chosen Google, it’d become the next bucket filling water into Google’s mill. Microsoft was in a more beneficial position as there were no many manufacturers cooperating with it and Nokia had all chances to become its main partner. I guess you understand what it means. Finally their negotiations successfully ended and the world saw one of the biggest unions.
This announcement was made back in April and from that time on the entire mobile world (including Nokia fans) didn’t believe the Finnish company could succeed. Sometimes it seems to me I was the only one who believed in Nokia (not being devoted to it at all).
Now you probably think I’ll say Nokia launched the Lumia 800 and the story ends. I must disappoint you, as Nokia was slier — it announced the Nokia N9. A phone with a stunning and buttonless design, but with one “defect.” A defect called MeeGo. Of course, this is a pretty nice platform, but MeeGo didn’t have future and the N9 is the first and the last smartphone with this operating system. Geeks were gradually getting interested in what phone the whole world was talking about, and wondered when it would be launched. Well, Nokia announced the list where its new flagship should appear. There was joy all around, but many people were more happy for another thing — they wanted this phone to “criticize” Nokia’s product once again. But it didn’t happen as Nokia turned out to be smarter and left out a lot of countries from that list. As a result, the Nokia N9 went only to those countries, where Nokia remained a leader. Almost the whole Europe and the US were looking forward to the day Nokia would launch the phone in their territory, while Nokia was firm in its decision.
When almost all conversations stopped about why Nokia isn’t offering the N9 in their countries, the company announced its first Windows Phone Mango-flavored design, the Nokia Lumia 800, a phone with the same appearance as the N9, but with Mango inside. Yes, Nokia blew all minds up.
The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 are smartphones in which nobody can pick holes. They are unique in terms of design and exceed many other smartphones on the market. Plus, WP Mango has come with many improvements and even Android lovers accept the huge job Microsoft developers have done.
Having a perfect product (I mean a high-end smartphone with a perfect OS) both companies started its promotion. I have no wish to introduce sales numbers in the UK or in other countries where this handset is launched, because you know it better than me, but I want to note — Nokia didn’t launch the Lumia 800 in the US. Caprice? Call it however you want, I think this is the most correct strategy — you do not like Nokia, so it’s OK, right?
Chapter 3: New life
Many geeks used to think Nokia has a goal to snatch Android and iOS users, but Stephen Elop is smarter than you think, guys. To clarify the situation, Stephen Elop announced Nokia is aimed at first-time users. Let each platform remain with its users, Nokia will attract those who will hold smartphones in their hands for the first time in their life. Do you know what happened? The second biggest carrier in the US is already in negotiations with Nokia and most likely will offer the Lumia 900 4G next year. Yup, Nokia hit the target!
Plus, Nokia is actively working on Symbian and it will soon launch Belle update. MeeGo is not forgotten as well, and though there are rumors we’ll see other devices running this OS, the N9 remains very popular. Moreover, it has already got PR1.2 update. Not that cool?
Totally, Nokia didn’t make real changes in its devices. I mean if you look at the posts where Nokia’s old and new handsets are compared with the best products on the market, you’ll see their key features are almost the same. They are the following:
- Stunning style
- Beautiful screen
- Great camera
- Integrated social networking
- Bing Music
- Easy browsing
- Microsoft Office
- Free sat-nav
- Powerhouse performance
- ample storage.
So what can US consumers say against the Nokia Lumia 800? I guess you’ll keep silent, folks, because this handset is perfect.
