What if Nokia’s time……… is just over ?

Life is an endless mystery we constantly debate why we are here and we are constantly debating our future. One thing in life is for sure; though we all die or go away in some sort of way or we come back in another way. Anyway same happens in business companies come and go. Products come and go. The topic of Nokia’s downfall has been a hot topic lately and I have been constantly finding ways to piece all the puzzles together. Now there have been a whole host of reasons and very strong opinions but I am not going to go there. I am more looking at Nokia as a brand perceived by the average customer, which is far more important than we geeks, analysts journalist think.

This idea of Nokia’s time being over has crept over into my mind too many times recently; my heart says Nokia can pull through this time but my head just says what chance have they honestly got whatever strategy they choose ?

In business there is something called the Product life cycle.

The chart explains the lifetime of a product from its early idea through its various sales stages as well as its inevitable death. Now this chart also funnily enough mimics the lifetime of a business. Now you are probably saying well how come there so many old companies still alive then ?

Well companies reinvent themselves Nokia being a prime example. They started of manufacturing paper after that they dabbled around with rubber, supplying electricity (nearly going bankrupt !) footwear including rubber boots, military communications equipment, I think you get the idea now and then finally going into telecommunications.

There are also companies that where once pioneers, monopolies, strong competitors now in the oblivion or frankly irrelevant. Some examples include Sega, Sony and IBM – I am sure you have some as well.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Nokia is moving into the decline stage.

Nokia primarily develops devices that are there to make calls. And they have been very successful at it dominating the world in the 90’s and early 2000 until…………well the iPhone stole the show in 2007. They obviously struggled and still are transforming themselves into a company that develops mobile devices that take the internet more into account. Companies doing well at the moment in the smartphone business are primarily involved in the computer market in some sort which does give them the slight advantage, but the again Nokia did sell a Netbook and some half hearted attempts of tablets.

Nokia have been trying desperately trying to gain some attention mainly from US based journalists bloggers for some attention and failed multiple time.

I guess what I am trying to say is, “what if it is some else’s turn to dominate the market?”. What if it is nature taking its course? What if Nokia is just passing along the torch to the next bearer/leader, the bearer being Apple or Google with Android?

What if Nokia’s downfall is due to the fact that people have just moved on to other brands out of curiosity, change of environment……… human nature?

A lot of people have come up with reasonable ideas and conclusions but none of them consider the fact that people move on from brands from time to time. What if Nokia has gone through the Product life cycle and hit the decline part and for the final time they can’t reinvent themselves.

Doctor who regenerating ie cheating death

A funny analogy would be Doctor Who not being able to regenerate himself.

Maybe it doesn’t always have to be the fault of the product. In this case its obviously a contributing factor.

BUT……..

I mean you don’t go through life wearing the same shoes from the same company, write with pens from the same company or drive a car from the same company all your life or do you ?

I just think a lot of people have been looking at Nokia’s downfall based on technical aspects rather than other influences such natural human behaviour. I dont claim to be a psychologist or something, but in Product design we often talk about the emotional and psychological impact of products; Apple are prime experts in that field.

So when I say Nokia are too late its probably because people are resigned to accept as Apple and Android phones being the future not because they are better maybe because they are just moving on. Just as they accepted Nokia was the brand to be with in the 90’s and 2000’s

One thing is for sure the younger segment have without shadow of doubt moved on from Nokia, most of them remember Nokia as a phone they got as their first phone notably the 3310.

I have had this in my mind for some time and needed to get this out of my mind what do you guys think is it just Nokia’s time is over or am I being just weird ?

Category: iPhone, Nokia, Nokian, Rant