DISQUS

Paul Biba · 2 years ago

Absolutely right!! I owned an E62 and liked it so much that I replaced it with an E61i. I am very familiar with smartphones, being an Associate Writer at Palm Addict, and I must say that Nokia does an extremely poor job of getting the word out. If I didn't known about such sites as MobiHand, Handango and others from my Palm and Windows Mobile usage I would have no idea of how to go about finding apps for my phone.

The only thing I do know is if I want to make additions to my phone the one place NOT to look is at the Nokia USA site.

By the way, great Blog. Keep up the good work!!

zach · 2 years ago

Thanks so much for the comment and the kind words Paul! Your statement couldn't be more true: "The only thing I do know is if I want to make additions to my phone the one place NOT to look is at the Nokia USA site."

It goes further than that though. Nokia is lucky to already have you as a customer. I would bet the barn that your original decision to purchase your E62 had absolutely nothing to do with information that you obtained directly from Nokia (on their site, in an ad, etc). Instead, it was probably a result of a combination of important things - word of mouth, blogs and other websites, etc. Now that you have a Nokia device you're hooked - because the product itself is truly outstanding! You surely wouldn't have known that though if your only source of information was "straight from the horse's mouth", so to speak.

I'm in business development and I know how much money companies spend on marketing/advertising and the like. If Nokia hopes to make a dent in the US market as we've been lead to believe (and they should because there is a lot of potential), they really need to sit down and look at where their dollars are going.

Look at Nokia Japan. Sure it's a different market but the "Boo hoo for you" video that recently caught a good amount of buzz is a perfect example of marketing a product's potential. Look at the list of features they cover in their marketing! While not all of those specific features are available in other markets, there are still a host of equally impressive products that Nokia could be pitching here in the US.

Imagine Mercedes tried to push their S class sedans by touting features like air conditioning, power windows, and anti-lock brakes! As ridiculous as that sounds, that's the state of affairs for Nokia US right now...

Abul · 2 years ago

Great point there Zach.
It still amazes me how Nokia seems to ignore the fact that not everyone out there that has a Nokia knows exactly what to do with it.
I come across daily S60 3rd edition Nokia owners who are amazed with my N95 can do, but don't realise that their N73 or N80 can do the exact same thing!

There is a massive between between us mobile enthusiasts and the "normal" mobile user who only knows how to make calls and send SMS'.
If Nokia (or any other company) could actually feed into this empty vacuum, the possibility of growing would be huge.

NickP · 2 years ago

Guys, we should fault Nokia to an extent... As in who they hire in the US to do their marketing and evangelism. This is a quite across the board problem of Europe companies in the US and how the information flow to those in the US goes.

I've dealt with Nokia (as a vendor to them) for some time... I live in California but lived in Europe for quite some time. I would assume the product managers for the n-series in Finland are likely as frustrated as the users are in how poor the flow of information is.

The standard answer anyone gets when asked why the US is so poor on taking information other business units have is that (quote) "Things are different in the US"... I agree to an extent but also believe the mobile phone situation is quite different today. We have two large networks using GSM/GPRS/UMTS (or almost there) and we have two other networks using CDMA. I hear the same gripes from the CDMA handset suppliers in Korea and Japan - on how backward the marketing and feature positioning is - even though the networks support what is needed to deploy new applications.

I've seen it in the automotive space and the mobile phone space (I also dabble in automotive infotainment/telematics).

Clearly those at Nokia USA who a majority are Americans not Finns or other Europeans barely get the use cases of some of these features and don't think Americans will use them. I've been a huge advocate for Symbian since early Series 60 days and I'm as disappointed as anyone else in how poorly the take up by carriers has been. Though I squarely fault that at Nokia USA's sales and get this... positoning efforts.

These are all problems that can be fixed... Alot of the old guard in the mobile phone industry in the US just doesn't get new technology. Doesn't matter if they are at a carrier still or at a supplier. The European and Asian brand owners really need to cross pollute the US sales and marketing teams more. Not just say they do this but actually do it. I've seen the poor product pitches from handset mfr's to the carriers in the US. The carrier mentality has barely changed since the days of Air Touch and GTE Mobile. The only guys making a difference are either foreign (T-Mobile) or going after a young demographic (Boost, Amp'd)...

Alot of work is still to be done.

zach · 2 years ago

Sorry it took so long for me to reply Nick, but you're absolutely right on many fronts. Nokia US and the companies they hire to do or facilitate their marketing need to sit down and give serious thought to where they are, where they want to be, and what they're going to do to get there. Forget about Nokia's numbers - the simple fact that BB and Win Mobile devices do well in the US is proof alone that Nokia is not doing its jobs. Americans want features, plain and simple. Nokia has to present what's available and analyze their channels to market - the numbers will fall into place...