The first real Wp7 iPhone competitor or the leader of Nokia’s phone portfolio will have to have a name that is remembered as the Nokia everyone dreams about the absolute high end. Something like Droi,d almost everyone remembers the droid as the iPhone competitor no one remembers the N8 as an iPhone competitor. Its a physiological thing Nokia needs its not all about specs and features

Nokia did have Nseries for high end branding to differentiate from the cheapos (then there was vertu but that was high in terms of materials).

For a time they rocked. In interviews with managers from other manufacturers, they envied the success and desirability of these devices. Nokia were the best cheapo and the best high end.

But then for some reason, they started producing devices that didn’t belong in the Nseries. They gradually became associated with delays and being buggy.

The analogy of cars was meant to describe Nokia smartphones as the cars and something like a scooter being dumbphone, but still cool because of brand association with those cars. I guess a better all car analogy maybe ford. Cheap KA/Fiesta and more expensive Mondeos, GT ETC.

Still though, Ford not the totally top (desirable) phone brand whereas Nokia once was. I guess there could optionally be something like Dell/XPS/Alienware, HP and Envy to your VW/Bugatti/Labo. Cover the cheap, make good at high end.

Which brings me onto the point of having a separate series/name for the ultra high end. One that retains the name over time to get that branding recognised. This crap thing they had with postcodes and now with the endless Nxx-xx. wth. Of course, this would need Nokia to have a high end device to begin with.

Take Volkswagen because they have a perception of selling good engineered well built golfs it is difficult for them to sell anything in the top range, there aren’t many people that would buy a 100 000 grand Volkswagen except of fanboys. The solution was they bought luxury brands to fill that gap, they bought Bugatti, Audi-Lamborghini as they specialise in that area and they have the brand that people aspire to.

Lets take Ferrari they are owned by Fiat because they know that people wouldn’t buy 100,000 grand Fiats and because Fiat isn’t associated with expensive supercars.

It is so much easier to concentrate on one section of the market like Ferrai or Apple with the iPhone. Steve Jobs always gets ask why can’t you make cheaper products ? Simple because those products would be crap but also because Apple are seen as a company that sell expensive computers and people love buying expensive things it makes people feel good about themselves and they can show off in front of their friends if Apple started selling cheap products that feel of exclusivity would fade away. that why Apple have sacrificed market share for profit, but that might change with the iPad.

To come back to Nokia, Nokia are a more like a Fiat while Apple are more like a Porsche if Nokia made one phone a year, I am pretty sure Phone’s would be collecting dust at warehouses . In a way the feature phones are dragging down Nokia. Nokia’s brand perception is at a all time low they are not a brand to aspire to anymore like the competition.

Gaining that high end brand perception is almost harder than making a great phone, that is what Nokia have to try and regain that brand that everyone wants to aspire to, to make the Microsoft alliance successful or it might end in tears even if Nokia do make great phones again.