Can Nokia Recapture Its Glory Days?

I think Nokia's North American issues stem from a number of issues. First, they kept putting out variations of the same candy bar style when the the preferences was for flip/clamshell phones in the US. When competitors were making phones that stood out, Nokia kept selling the same old thing. Style over substance? Yes, but that's the US for you. Second, they never embraced CDMA despite the fact that at least half of US wireless users were on it. Verizon never had anything other than the most basic Nokia phones and Nokia didn't even make the more recent ones.

The Smartphone thing is a bit easier to understand. The iPhone took many by surprise, even the carrier selling the thing. Prior to the iPhone, smartphones were business only, and fairly bland. The problem here is they're now late in the game with AT&T pushing the iPhone and the other three majors pushing various Android devices. With the vast majority of people in the US still purchasing their phones from the carrier along with their service, they'll need carrier support to gain market share. Even T-Mobile, with their no-contract plans and unsubsidized phones, is still in the business of selling phones to their subscribers.

 

I always loved Nokia as far as quality went. They had some insanely durable phones. (I once washed one of their phones, and it still came out fine after a dry out.)

But they just couldn't stay up with the technology like the other companies...

~*Ash*~

 

My sister dropped her old Nokia in the toilet at work, and you could actually hear her better when she called after that. A phone that actually worked better after taking a swim in a toilet. That is very rare. I made a point to never touch her phone after that though.

 

In a nutshell, I don't think that Nokia can, unless they have a huge management shake up. I was one of the biggest Nokia fans on this site, but they just finally forced me to go elsewhere a couple of years ago.

They just ignored the american markets, favoring the rest of the world. They had such sexy phones with quad bands, candy bars, and features that were only relevant in Europe for example. Besides that, it was rare for a US carrier to have even the best of their tri band or quad band plus UTMS phones subsidized. They were just too slow to market anything good to the US.

Yes, they were slow with the clam shells, but that is only part of the reason. They make solid phones, and if I lived in Europe, I might have one. But they failed to start making all of there phones for the US market.

I use to drool looking at Nokia phones overseas. But since moving to the iPhone, I'm not even tempted to look at those phones flirting with me in the shop window anymore. They can vibrate, gyrate and shine all they like, the Nokia sirens no longer call me. Nor any other phone for that manner, even the latest Blackberry Bold 9700. As nice as it is, and it is one of the better ones, my iPhone does it all, and many times much better, at least for me. It also seems to have the build quality that Nokia once had, but even Nokia has started to look cheap. I am curious about the new 'gPhone' coming from Google directly. That is the only one that may be a possibility to look at. But I'm not holding my hat.

BTW, is is possibile to have a worst advertising campaign than the current Moto Droid ones? Geez, not only is the name awful (even Android is stupid), but those Droid TV ads are the most uninspiring that I've even seen for a phone. Totally alien to me...but I guess that is the sales pitch for some.. Anyhow that is off subject.

But on topic, Nokia has no one to blame but themselves here. I think they lost it, and the management has no clue why or what will work...other than copying Google or Apple. The game has really changed in smartphones. Just my thoughts...

 

In various places I still see quite a bit of interest in and excitement over Nokia's announcements of new smartphones - but the problem is it's so difficult to find one that is actually quad-band GSM and has all the desired 3G bands as well.

Apparently back in the summer (July 2009) Nokia even did an ad campaign aimed to familiarize US users with the "unlocked/unbranded" concept in an attempt to drive their US volume. And the E71-2/E71x has really been pretty popular; although there are probably at least as many users who bought the non-subsidized version once the price point came down a bit - and especially once it was available in b&m stores like Best Buy. After at&t released the subsidized E71x, it has been primarily purchased by those who intended to block cellular data and only use WiFi.

Will a Nokia smartphone appeal to those who want an iPhone - no - probably not, never will. But there are also plenty of smartphone users who have absolutely no desire for the iPhone.

Personally I wish Nokia would keep producing models with the form of the E70/6800 series - it's unique, and I happen to like bar phones - the flip open keyboard is fantastic, imho. It keeps the phone "phone sized" when closed but has larger keys than with a Blackberry style QWERTY. Plus, whenever I use my phone in public it never fails to get "What is that???? That's really cool!! What service are you on????"

 

I too would love to come back to Nokia but they've got to stop the practive of having two h/w versions of the same model. I want to be able to buy an import and have it work on US bands — all of them not just some. Or vice versa — buy a US model and have it work in Europe on all bands. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening

 

Lol viewfly, I love the Droid commercials, it fits the name perfectly and I do like the name as well. Then again I also like the name *Android*.

Anytime you want the Droid ringtone, let me know, I have it on my computer, great for message alerts.

Yes, absolutely, the Nokia E71x, which I like very much only has the US 3G bands, the biggest reason I did not venture that route.

I would love to get back to Nokia and I do sincerely hope they can bring back the glory days From my experience Nokia is still the phone to have in the parts of Europe and Asia that I am familiar with. I have many stories on the durability of Nokia also but admittedly none as gross as Jay's.

 

Nokia has always had a quality handset, I remember my first Nokia, the 6200. That was one reliable device with great reception and call quality.
This is somewhat sad news, I have always been a fan of the Nokia handsets especially the candy bar ones. I hope they can recover from this and get back to what they once were.

 

I had the 6131 for awhile, while it was a nice device. it was no 6200 or 6230. I don't think the form factor was part of their downfall.
if you look at a lot of high end handsets including the iPhone, they are all candybar style phones.
I agree with you Mike, I think somewhere along the line Nokia lost it's edge and needs to get back to the drawing board to get back into the competive game.

 

The Moto Droid is a pain in the a** to Apple fanboys. You might even say its a "Hem-droid"

Back to Nokia: funny how fast things change in the handset industry when the "good old days" was only 5-6 years ago. Having said that, I think Nokia is still pretty good. I don't think any handset maker has hit the nail on the head with any one device. I really like the N97, but then when I see it has seperate USB and charging ports, I think "Why can't they make it so you can charge it over USB???" I can do that with my 4 year old RAZR!! Then when I look at the new Moto Milestone, I see it only has 2100 band for 3G and think "Why can the N97 have US and EU 3G bands, but Moto missed that on their flagship device aimed at buisness people (who sometimes travel)? If someone could make a phone that could charge via USB, has support for 850/1900/2100 UMTS, has a 3.5mm headphone jack, and sliding keypad (and is well made) I would buy it...

My N95 was actually still made in FINLAND! Alot of Nokia's I see made recently were made in Hungary. So yea, still made in EU. The 3G band problem isn't just Nokia. The N97 as I mentioned has a mix of US/EU bands.

 

N97 is either a mixture of 2 US & 1 EU or 2 EU & 1US 3G bands, depending on the variant. The same goes for the N97 mini. I was looking long and hard at the N97 when I was in Moscow earlier this year, but with only 1900MHz US 3G on it I decided to pass.

Keep an eye on Xperia X2

 

Yea, why not 850 UMTS instead of 1900? It was the same with tri-band GSM phones years ago. They would always be the higher freq band of the "foreign" country (ie: either 1800 or 1900). WHy didn't they make it with the lower band instead???

USB Yes
3.5mm headphone jack Yes
sliding keypad Yes
well made Yes
850/1900/2100 UMTS Almost (900/1900/2100)
Windows Mobile 6.5 NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! issed:

 

Beats me. But the real question is why not 850/900/1900/2100? Or even 850/900/1700/1900/2100? I'm sure its is not that hard of an engineering problem to solve...

I'm sure just like with X1 they'll have a 900/1900/2100 version. But there's indeed no excuse for WinMo — haven't they learned from the "success" of X1?

 

It's a matter of cost of the hardware. The more freqs, the more $ it cost to make.
I keep hearing talk about Software Defined Radios (SDR) but haven't actually seen any yet.... I guess they haven't gotten there yet, or the cost is too high still. But that would solve all the freq mess in the phones.

 

I would as well but with a front facing qwerty keyboard . Oh wait! that's exactly what my 9700 is

Before the advent of 3G, when Nokia was making two models of GSM phones 900/1800/1900 and 850/1800/1900, Motorola was making quad band phones. Then Nokia's bad habit rubbed off on them and they made the V3xx for NA and V3x for the rest of the world.

Now with 3G, it is even crazier and I am not even going to bring up 1700 3G for T-Mobile.

 

I would not even like Apple to run a commercial like the Droid ones. Nothing to do with 'Fanboys'.

The metallica/ robot Droid commercials remind me of the Big 3 style muscle car commercials that leave me with no interest in the car. Just my taste in style.

And for Charylee.... Yes I would buy that kind of phone too...sans keyboard to get a sticky key with (which happened with two of my Nokias that I owned after 2 years...normally the 'end' key)...but oh, wait I have one of those phones with those missing Nokia features...the iPhone 3GS

I agree with everyone else, dmapr, RR, etc. The arrogance of Nokia deciding that we didn't need quad bands (while every other mgfr gave it ) and now we don't need all 3G's was just too much. Plus the build quality of my last Nokia...6131...really was not the best...not to mention the placement of the microphone on it..

 

I have to say that when I look at the iPhone from the standpoint of a developer I can only applaud Apple for some decisions they made software-wise. As far as I can tell they have a small provider-specific component while the rest of the phone is unchanged. It comes with all supported languages included, all you need to do is switch to the one you need. Easier to support & maintain for sure.

 

Good point .

So are you suggesting that Nokia adopt that iPhilosophy to make it easier for them to regain their lost glory?

Viewfly, I never had a phone without a physical keyboard and I never had a keyboard with sticky keys but I never used a phone for 2 years

I wasn't too happy with the build quality of the 6131 also, but considering it is still going strong sans problems, after 3.5 years I cannot say anything bad about it.

BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.405 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102

 

Sure, although since Nokias usually have a physical keyboard they'd need to think of a h/w design that allows for easy DIY swapping out of keypads (like on the 3100), and have switchable region/language options to match different keyboard layouts: QWERTY/AZERTY/QWERTZ(U)

My 6131 is now falling apart as well — lost the IR port cover, the little pop-port cover attached to the back of the battery door has lost one of the ties as well.

 

All Nokia phones have always been well made, I think Nokia is simply lacking some "wow" devices lately. The N97 and N900 are pretty sweet, but nothing to seperate them from the pack. The Moto Droid/Milestone is on par with the N97 and N900, but Moto put Android on it and did a good marketing campaign to get people interested. Nokia is pushing Symbian/Maemo OS's, which are in need of revamping (Symbian) and not ready for prime-time yet (Maemo). And their marketing is lacking, especially in N.America. They just can't get people excited about their products.

Good point. Multi-language OS works well with a touch-screen only device, but not always ones with physical keypads.

Oh! Wait! Just read the Xperia X10 will have USB charging, 3.5mm jack, etc...and Android! :highclap: ...(and the best part: I can get it for free from work :browani In addition to Nokia recapturing their "glory days" I'd like to see SonyEricsson as well (...or just "Ericsson")
*edit*
ahhhhh...the X10 has no physical keypad....ahhhhhhrrrggggg :-(

 

About 2 years ago my sister's family all got Nokia flip phones on AT&T when they upgraded. These phones were quickly breaking, I think the first one was broke within a month. After the warranty expired they all ended up using their old V3's and V180's again.

 

I've never had a problem with sticky keys on either my 6820 (4+ years old and still used) or the E70 (it's almost 2). I was very interested in the E90 but they never released one with US 3G. I've been pleased with the build quality of both of my Nokias - although I was actually concerned how well the flip out keyboard might hold up when I got the 6820.

 

Nokia will always be there, they are as constant as the Northern Star, just not as exciting as a rapidly rotating pulsar. What they do lack is 'pezaz', but then they have arguably always lacked that, their designs have never really been exciting, but they have been functional. Nokia is a bit like Coca Cola, they don't really change much, they're just always there and everyone knows them.

 

I think YESSSS!!!

I like Nokia!

for me they are the best!!!

Nokia- simply and comfortable!!! :browani:


_____________________

 

I don't know much about this legal battle...but is this how Nokia plans to regain it's leadership role, but taking iPhone innovation instead of doing it themselves?

"The legal battle between Nokia and Apple has been ratcheted up another notch today with Nokia's announcement that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging infringement of Nokia-held patents by "virtually all" Apple products, including the iPhone, iPod, and Mac.
The seven Nokia patents in this complaint relate to Nokia's pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products.

Nokia filed suit against Apple in late October over alleged infringement of Nokia's cellular and Wi-Fi patents by the iPhone. Apple responded earlier this month with a countersuit of its own for infringement of its own patents. In its court filing, Apple argued that it was not infringing on Nokia's patents, and even if it were determined by a court that it was infringing, Nokia had not offered fair licensing terms, demanding reciprocal access to iPhone-related patents not relevant to industry standards."

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/29...ints-to-include-virtually-all-apple-products/

If only Apple had the rightful lock on using icons...

 

...from reading the quote, it sounds like the other way around to me...that Apple took Nokia's patented ideas...or not?