Back from Nokia World
by Volker Weber
Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Photo: vowe)
I am back from Nokia World, after two very energetic days. And yes, Sir Tim Berners-Lee was speaking this morning at Nokia World as a guest speaker, invited by Nokia to get people out of bed after a long party night, and back into the show.
Nokia World is an immersive event. While you are there, everything makes sense. Nokia makes great phones, Ovi Store is the best app store in the world, Nokia is the leader in navigation, Symbian is the best smartphone platform. You feel how Nokia's gravity pulls everybody inside that world into one direction. The whole event is on message. Nokia colors, Nokia fonts, Nokia design, Nokia people.
I am not making this up. The E7 is a great, biiiiig (as Anssi said) smartphone with a keyboard. The N8 might be one of the best portable multimedia devices - just plug it into HDMI and get a blast from videos with surround sound. The C7 is a very solid stainless steel touchscreen phone. And the C3 Touch&Type is one great small feature phone.
It's only when you step outside, like I did today for three hours, and visit the launch of the two new HTC Android phones Desire HD and Desire Z, you get second thoughts. Here, at the high end, where a single phone costs 600 Eur, Nokia is losing ground. In the US, where software is driving smartphone sales, Nokia hardly even exists. In India, where $15 phones make all the difference, Nokia is king of the hill. And inbetween, in the midrange market in Europe, Nokia is under heavy fire from Samsung and LG.
The CEO-elect Stephen Elop made a short appearance at Nokia World today and handed out one million dollar to a developer based in Kenia. While Nokia is one big and effective hardware manufacturer, Elop knows what Nokia needs: developers, developers, developers. His former boss told him.
Comments
See Gruber's article and Richardson's 12th Law.
Nokia has failed to notice that it's a hardware company in a software market. Prospect of a train-wreck — substantial.
