Looking back at the fall of Nokia

Looking back  at the fall of  Nokia

In the last two decades, the definition of mobile has transformed a number of times. The basic
definition of cell phones has seen numerous changes with addition or elimination of every
feature. Mobile phones have been used as media players, cameras and what not. Although
Motorola is crowned with the invention of first mobile handset, It was Nokia which made people
realize how effective mobile phones can be. Nokia made handsets that were ridiculously
simple to use and were well within the expense radar of all sections of people. Nokia turned out to be a great success and dominated Indian cell-phone markets for a long time period. But in accordance to the present scenario, Nokia is rapidly losing its clinch on the market.
Nokia which was once synonymous to mobile phones is currently on the rocks. Where did Nokia go wrong? What changed Nokia's success graph to a sinusoidal curve. Let us find out.

The mobile phone market is one of the most dynamic ones. There is so much happening every
minute that a firm has to be adaptive to the rapid changes if they want to sustain in
the market. The tailspin of Nokia was a consequence of series of related and unrelated blunders.

Conservative Nokia ?

One of the major factors responsible for the failure of Nokia is that Nokia has never been adaptive. Instead it has been slow and has always followed an orthodox approach.
Stephen Elop flagged multi-core phones as a "wastage of battery". Yes, Nokia's single core phones undoubtedly offer better battery, but why would one buy a phone with
enhanced battery and degraded experience? Nokia still sticks to their "NO-ANDROID" policy, resulting in a failure attack.

Attacked by all

Another big hole in the Nokia-market was that Nokia lost its control. They had no idea where they were heading towards. The market strategy of Nokia failed badly. And what came next? An unexpected and unwanted face competition with HTC and other giants which made Nokia to
descend their long term progress in the market. Subsequently, it was continuously attacked by new and now-very famous companies. Nokia, which was a pioneer in mobile industry was pushed back and what came next was beyond anyone's imagination. It had to face competition with Chinese cell phone manufacturers in the lower end mobile phone markets. Poor kid, squeezed by all.

Platform is the key

Nokia doesn't use Android operating system. It uses two operating systems namely Symbian
OS(by Nokia) and Windows Phone(by Microsoft). However both of them didn't pay off for Nokia. Symbian ruled markets for quite a  while but couldn't stand in competition to
Android and other smartphone operating systems which resulted in the end of Symbian in 2012. Nokia officially announced that Nokia PureView 808 will be the last Symbian phone from
their side. So Windows Phone is all Nokia has now. Windows Phone operating system lacks applications but unavailability of applications is not the only hurdle one faces, it seems that the developers pay minimal heed to Windows Phone which results in the unexpected
performance of the available applications. The above fact can be justified by Google's announcement of "no plan to build Windows applications". So, there won't be even an official Gmail application for windows phone Windows Phone.

The Internet  Explorer has issues like missing Forward button. GPS navigation
on windows phone Windows Phone still sucks. All of these shortcomings pull Nokia
off the race and makes a consumer feel betrayed. 

Nokia and Android

Why Nokia never used Android is still a mystery but there are two main theories, or
rather, conspiracies. Several people believe that Nokia is very conscious about its
partners and earnings. Software control determines margin or profitability. If the supplier or the content by the supplier has higher control on the product and market, Nokia would lose its margin on the sales. Android has been hugely popular and would have definitely laid an impact on the sales of Nokia smartphones which would have compelled Nokia to give a large piece of cake and credits to the supplier, Google.
Another theory for Nokia not using Android is that Stephen Elop had talked with both Eric  Schmidt of Google and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft but the Android deal fell apart and Nokia officially became partners with Microsoft.There were rumors that there will be a Nokia  Android phone by first quarter of 2013. However, according to some even if the rumors prove to be true, the Android may save Nokia but not Stephen Elop.

So Nokia did it all wrong ?

No, Nokia still has better hardware as compared to its competitors. Nokia hardware components,despite being expensive, are still more reliable and durable but the market demands platform not hardware. You would want a camera in your cell phone not a cell phone in your camera (Same reason for  why Samsung Galaxy Camera failed). Nokia needs to pay more attention on their platform. What do you think ? Is Nokia still in the race with its Windows Phone policy ?
Do let us know.