Nokia
In addition to great device experiences we must build, capitalize and/or join a competitive ecosystem.
So said Stephen Elop the CEO of Nokia at today’s quarterly earnings report. His report was extremely downbeat in that what ever Nokia’s strategy was to stop its precipitous loss of market share esp. at the lucrative high end of the phone market, it wasn’t working. Something new will be needed.
Elop went on to say:
The game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems and competitive ecosystems are gaining momentum and share. The emergence of ecosystems represents the broad convergence of the mobility, computing and services industries.
Today, the winning ecosystems at the high-end to mid range deliver great hardware, compelling user interfaces and the coherent aggregation of search, advertising, ecommerce, social networking, location-based services, entertainment and unified communications, just to name a few.
Asymco speculated that Nokia would adopt a multiple OS strategy (Symbian on low end phones and HD speculated that Windows Phone 7 would drive the mid and high end phone segments. Finally he speculated that MeeGo will be phased out in phones but maintained for tablets.
I disagree on some of this. First, I agree that Symbian will continue to power low end Nokia phones. And I agree that MeeGo is not going to meet ecosystem criteria that Elop outlines. But Windows Phone 7 is not really ready to compete in the kind of ecosystem wars that Elop talks about either. The apps just aren’t there, it will take time, 12 to 18 months perhaps. Neither is WP7 quite up to snuff on the latest OS issues although it will get there. Microsoft has the finances to get them through the next 18 months but Nokia doesn’t have time. They’re wounded and bleeding badly and something has to be done immediately.
Here’s what I’d do:
1) Adopt Android for both phones and tablets and skin it with something elegant and beautiful like Notion Ink’s UI skin called Eden.
2) Never refer to the OS, never refer to Android. Always refer to the UI. Give it a cool nordic sounding name to remind people where nokia is from. Identify the UI with Nokia. Most punters could care less as long as there are a lot of apps available and the UI feels slick and engaging.
3) Develop a few important apps at Nokia by a highly talented programming team using the new UI style, apps like a web browser, a music player (a la iTunes) app, an email app, a photo and video manipulation app and a Facebook app. Make these feel totally integrated with the OS UI.
4) Create a Nokia centric but open to all Android Market Place. Allow all Android apps to work on the phone but screen any apps going on the Nokia centric market place so that only really quality (free or payment) apps are listed. More importantly also encourage developers to develop Nokia specific Android apps using the Nokia UI so that over time the app ecosystem feels more and more like a unique Nokia experience. Keep driving the idea of the Nokia experience to people and keep saying things like quality not quantity but oh, by the way, you can also go to any Android Marketplace on the web to download Android apps too. Choice!
This strategy would fulfil all of Elop’s goals as stated in the quarterly earnings briefing and make Nokia competitive with a product that still had the Nokia tradition and unique brand image.
