I have always been a huge Nokia fan. The first phone I owned was a Nokia 1011. Nokia simply knew how to build a great phone. They still do. Nokia’s problem has always been in software. That was why I saluted Nokia’s choice to partner up with Microsoft and bringing Windows Phone in as Nokia’s primary smartphone OS. They spend 8 months developing apps, helping Microsoft with maps, and designing a series of groundbreaking phones with the Lumia models.
Sadly Nokia’s Lumia series never gained any real momentum. Why this is I do not have the insights to fully speculate about. My guess is that the Nokia and Microsoft partnership ran into trouble shortly after the Lumia series launch and that whatever the disagreement was about it never got settle. Nokia seemed very alone in pushing Windows Phone. It became clear why Microsoft had held back, when they announced Windows Phone 8. I stayed on Nokia’s side even then and wrote in a comment on Google+ that the platform change would not hurt Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 sales that much. I still do think that it did not hurt them that much. The real damage was that sales were so low that it was hard to tell the difference.
I would love to still be on Nokia’s side. The new Lumia models look to be the best of the new Windows Phone 8 devices out there. But Nokia is in trouble, and in more ways than one. First they lost the full backing of Microsoft. Now they have to sell their headquarters to bring in cash, and on top of that Nokia’s smartphone marketing director is leaving. That is not all – this week it became known that Nokia is being dumped by Denmark’s largest telecom TDC. The reason is said to be Nokia’s lack of marketing funds to push Windows Phone. I know that Denmark is not a very large market, but that just underlines the trouble Nokia is in. A small market like Denmark should not require a very large sum to support.
Many would say that the signs have been there for a very long time, but even I am now beginning to believe that this might not end well. Nokia is in trouble, and I believe from what I’m seeing that they are in the kind of trouble that you do not survive. There is nothing that I would like more than to see Nokia pull through this, but without the full backing and marketing machine of Microsoft, I just do not see that happening.
Who is to blame for this? I’m not sure. I believe that both Nokia and Microsoft have a part in this. It’s just very hard to blame Microsoft for wanting to secure the success of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Nokia did not deliver on Windows Phone 7. They did not sell the number of phones Microsoft needed and because of that Microsoft partner up with HTC, who also badly needed a strong partner. So even if the Nokia Microsoft marriage seems like a deal made in heaven, it just wasn’t meant to be. Nokia it’s been great knowing you.
Post referenced above (all in Danish)
Microsoft og Nokia samarbejdet - Det helt rigtige valg
Nokia og Microsoft-samarbejdet fejrer 1 års dag – et kig på hvad der er sket
Er Nokia døende, eller er der stadig håb?
