kelvin.kuan

Nokia's Restructuring: Nobody Loves A Value-Chain Hog

hi David,

I appreciated your article. I did a search on google regarding the Nokia restructuring and I came across your article. I am glad i had an opportunity to read it because I have been having the same intuitive perception about Nokia for quite some time now... to me, Nokia in the mobile world is akin to Microsoft in the computer world. Although i am not an Apple fanatic, (i don't even use an iPod), I have to say that Apple understands the Consumer Experience. i have high hopes for future versions of the Apple iPhone. Tracking the development progress of the iPod to what it is today, I have confidence that the future of the iPhone will only get brighter.

I can't put my finger on it, but Nokia made certain decisions along the way that just lost me as a fan.
My first mobile phone was a Nokia right up to my third or fourth. But somewhere along the line about a year or two ago, they just lost their appeal. And i think it most likely had to do with Nokia's past decade of flooding the market with varieties of what was essentially the same experience (kinda like the phone-cover swapping fad that they instigated many years ago). For some reason, the actual user-experience never improved. Functionality may have increased over the years, but the quality of experience (which is ultimately a more nebulous yet essential ingredient) has stayed the same. I hate to give Apple as an example but comparing Apple to apples, it is now a legitimate comparison because Apple has ventured into the mobile market, and with their very first product, their design philosophy already shines through: elevating the consumer experience. It's ironic that Nokia talks about this, advertises about this, and yet when you use their phones, the experience hasn't changed over these few years.

I remember reading that the software is largely responsible for the overall consumer experience and i think Apple will eventually become a standard-bearer in the mobile industry (as it has been for the consumer electronics industry) simply because it is a software-driven company. The closed ecosystem you talked about has worked for Apple because they had the software to make it all work smoothly and stunningly for the end-consumer. Most people "put up" with what they have because they don't have something better (or have not experienced something better).

If Nokia doesn't improve it's operating platform (Symbian) or abandon it for something else soon, they will struggle to keep the lead in the years ahead. They are already guilty of recycling the same consumer experience to mobile phone users around the world.

Best regards,

Kevin