Louven reports, “The Finns stand with a market-leading share of nearly 37 percent, but the new competition from Apple and from BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion in the retail business has the giant duly concerned; especially in the high-margin smartphone business.”
Louven reports, “‘Technically, the Nokia phones were much better than the iPhone,’ said Carolina Milanesi, the market researcher Gartner. ‘But were too complicated to use.’ In the coming years, ease of use will decide success and failure, said Vanjoki.”
Louven reports, “Still, Vanjoki expects that, in the end, Apple will amount to little importance in the market. ‘The development of mobile phones will be similar in PCs,’ predicts the chief strategist. ‘Even with the Mac, Apple has attracted much attention at first, but they have still remained a niche manufacturer. That will be in mobile phones as well.'”
The full article via Google German to English translation is here.
MacDailyNews Take: With a “Chief Strategist” like that, it’s no wonder Nokia is hemorrhaging market share, euros, and employees like there’s no tomorrow; because, for them, there likely isn’t. This quote ranks right down there with beleaguered Palm’s then-CEO Ed Colligan who said in November 2006, “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” Ed presaged his company’s fate by disappearing into obscurity earlier this year. The quote for which Vanjoki will likely be best-remembered (you might as well just start chiseling now, headstone carver) has been iCal’ed for copious and gleeful future use.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Karwa” for the heads up.]
Sturgeon’s Law:
“Ninety percent of everything is crud.”
So far.
err … isn’t “optimizing the design of our phones” part of a “technical issues”?
don’t blow smoke up our ass, nokia. if you don’t know what the hell you were (and are) doing, just say so.
Clarification:
The other- so far- 10%, is from Apple.
@Turnips: Do I really think that Nokia is stupid?
“Even with the Mac, Apple has attracted much attention at first, but they have still remained a niche manufacturer. That will be in mobile phones as well.”
There’s your answer.
The mac started with underpowered hardware going against an entrenched standard platform (DOS.) DOS had the entrenched apps.
Apple has already blown by that barrier–it has the apps–it has others playing catch up.
I don’t know how it all plays out but I do know that the Mac comparison is backwards (back in those days we said that mac had fewer but better apps.) Windows won because it inherited the bigger ecosystem.
And Apple has shown with the ipod that indeed it can win as the sole hardware vendor. Because it learned from the 80s and the 90s not to give competitors a big price umbrella.
And Nokia… Nokia doesn’t even have the Android hardware diversity thing going for it. (And guess what… if Apple is truly threatened by cheap hardware for the 3rd world… Apple will start making it.)
But hey guys…. cling to your delusions… and hope Apple gets stupid.
The only thing that could hurt Apple is if its users start having lousy experiences… and by lousy I mean worse than its competitors. Looks like the ipod all over again to me.
And the thing about smartphones is that they’re ALL expensive. It’s the contract, stupid. The cost of the device is almost a rounding error.
We can continue to sit here and shake our heads at why these people balmer etc etc do what they do but I think it comes to a simple 5 letter word-PRIDE
Even if God himself came down and told them all that Apple was right they still wouldn’t admit it–they can’t…
remember marcellus wallace “that little thing prick’n you in the back of the head? that’s pride…”
Amen
I heard this from an experienced professional trainer, Roger Konopasek recently.
We live in an age of disruption. Even a 13 year-old has his own YouTube Channel. Either you change and adapt with the times, or SOMEONE ELSE WILL EAT YOUR LUNCH!
Clearly Nokia is like Microsoft. They’ve gotten too comfortable with their own PAST SUCCESS!
Julian @ http://no-spamming/
As my good friend Zeke used to say, “You can always tell a Finn, but you can’t tell him much”.
Sorry MDN Zeke, I knew another Zeke, years ago, back in Chicago .
@Turnips
Ha ha (Rutabaga) Swedes, Finns … missed by that much.
However, the word turnip always reminds me of the English soccer team’s failure to proceed past the qualifying round of UEFA Euro 1992 with a 2–1 defeat against Sweden, which led to newspaper headlines such as “Swedes 2 Turnips 1” and manager Graham Taylor’s nickname “Turnip Head”.
“But I am very confident that we now know what we must do, namely to build cell phones that are easy to use and that look good.” …
The toon’ link below sums up the bleedn’ obvious perfectly.
http://www.businesscartoons.co.uk/4477.htm
from
http://www.businesscartoons.co.uk/sales_cartoons_catalogue_6.htm
@Turnips
Nah. If Nokia does something deserving of arrogance, we’ll support it. Right now though, they’re more like the arrogant champ that got knocked out but the upstart and are still talking smack. Now is the time to quietly get ready for the rematch.
Instead they are offering the same old crap, suing instead of innovating (really bad sign), and acting like the fact that they got knocked out never happened. That’s beyond arrogant. That’s delusional.
@ I’m a PC
I think it goes like this…
bada bing, bada boom, bada bomb.
You decide.
@ theloniousMac
Is Apple really deserving of their arrogance? They make only expensive devices which only the relatively wealthy can afford. Nokia makes products with a wide price range, and has made communication affordable and possible for people all over the world, and has therefore made the world a better place. Thus I believe they can be afforded some arrogance, even though I despise arrogance in all its forms.
As for the suing, I believe that it rubs you the wrong way simply because they are suing apple. Imagine if Apple was suing them, then how would you feel about it?
There does seem to be plenty of evidence that Nokia is preparing for the next round, with their resources I believe that they can afford a lull but in the the coming year they should be coming on well.
As for “innovating”, that’s a buzzword that seems to be quite popular these days. Innovation is not always a good thing! For example, putting power buttons and usb ports on the back of the computer. That may be innovative, but it’s also very annoying!
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