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I'd been a very happy and loyal Nokia cellphone user for about 10 years up to 2008. When the beautiful-looking N96[1] was announced early that year, I excitedl

I'd been a very happy and loyal Nokia cellphone user for about 10 years up to 2008. When the beautiful-looking N96[1] was announced early that year, I excitedly signed up to be notified of availability, and waited expectantly for a call or email. I never heard anything. A few months later, the iPhone hit the market in Australia. I bought one shortly after, and have used only iPhones ever since. Could they have done anything to rival the iPhone? Who knows, but I feel that if only they'd been the kind of company that followed up with loyal customers who'd expressed strong interest in buying their new release, they might have had a better chance at building a competitive product. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N96 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N96

Lordarminius 10y ago
I agree with all you have written but I do not think the woes of Nokia need be permanent. Arguably, Nokia possessed a far larger and more geographically dispersed fanbase than Apple and one comparable only to Blackberry. Those fans are still alive and kicking. I am not by any means a product development expert but I consider Nokia to have made three mistakes (atop everything else the pundits divine): 1. Not creating a quality smartphone for the mass market 2. Selling the brand to Microsoft (which proceeded to decimate its value with its hideous windows OS) 3. Not trying again. The battle for market share by smartphone makers in my opinion represents skirmishes in the larger war for lebensraum in a connected future; and that is not over by any means.
sofaofthedamned 10y ago
Anybody could see that Nokia were going under as soon as the first Android and Apple handsets came out. I'd been a Windows Mobile enthusiast for years - even though they had unaccelerated display drivers and were for all intents and purposes crap they had proper calendars, task lists etc. For simple phone I loved Nokias, and owned at least 9 of them. Rugged, reliable, they were brilliant. But at the time the Windows Mobile stuff were something nebulous called 'smartphones', whereas the Nokia ones were 'phones'. These things were very distinct and different at the time. A Nokia was a great phone, it lasted 6 days on battery and you could type whilst driving (yeah) from muscle memory. The iPhone came and blew this up. It was a smartphone, it updated the screen at 60fps, it was done properly, it synced your calendar etc and like the Nokia it was a fucking good phone. Windows Mobile was shit for too long and paid the price, as was Nokia - but for very different reasons. Nowadays I can't stand Apple and their products, but you have to respect how they sorted the crap out of the smartphone and phone markets and gave us a whole new market that has pretty much changed the world.

Lordarminius 10y ago

I agree with all you have written but I do not think the woes of Nokia need be permanent. Arguably, Nokia possessed a far larger and more geographically dispersed fanbase than Apple and one comparable only to Blackberry. Those fans are still alive and kicking. I am not by any means a product development expert but I consider Nokia to have made three mistakes (atop everything else the pundits divine): 1. Not creating a quality smartphone for the mass market 2. Selling the brand to Microsoft (which proceeded to decimate its value with its hideous windows OS) 3. Not trying again. The battle for market share by smartphone makers in my opinion represents skirmishes in the larger war for lebensraum in a connected future; and that is not over by any means.

sofaofthedamned 10y ago

Anybody could see that Nokia were going under as soon as the first Android and Apple handsets came out. I'd been a Windows Mobile enthusiast for years - even though they had unaccelerated display drivers and were for all intents and purposes crap they had proper calendars, task lists etc. For simple phone I loved Nokias, and owned at least 9 of them. Rugged, reliable, they were brilliant. But at the time the Windows Mobile stuff were something nebulous called 'smartphones', whereas the Nokia ones were 'phones'. These things were very distinct and different at the time. A Nokia was a great phone, it lasted 6 days on battery and you could type whilst driving (yeah) from muscle memory. The iPhone came and blew this up. It was a smartphone, it updated the screen at 60fps, it was done properly, it synced your calendar etc and like the Nokia it was a fucking good phone. Windows Mobile was shit for too long and paid the price, as was Nokia - but for very different reasons. Nowadays I can't stand Apple and their products, but you have to respect how they sorted the crap out of the smartphone and phone markets and gave us a whole new market that has pretty much changed the world.