Remember those days when everyone around you has a Nokia phone? Those were the days, now the future of Nokia is could be worse.
Last week, Nokia and Microsoft announced partnership on their mobile platform, which quickly drew mixed reactions from the mobile tech world. Some said it was a good decision, but most said it is stupid. Even some said that Microsoft had sent a trojan horse, current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (former Microsoft director) to sabotage and buy Nokia.
Although Nokia is still the best seller of 2010, it is quickly caught up by Apple's iPhone and Google's Android phones, so all Nokia did was pact up with Microsoft, using Windows Phone 7 and dump their popular Symbian completely.
For me, it is Goodbye for Nokia right now. Here's why:
- Windows Phone 7 is a limited and flawed platform
Windows Phone 7, which is technically a big step forward from Microsoft's previous effort, the Windows Mobile. But the OS is still severed by "several" drawbacks (or limitation):
No system-wide file manager
No Bluetooth file transfers
No USB mass storage mode
Limited third-party apps availability
No Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browser
Too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing
No video calls
New ringtones available only through the Marketplace
Music player lacks equalizer presets
No multitasking
No copy/paste
No DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software)
No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far
No internet tethering support
No handwriting recognition support
This has put Nokia is a very bad situation, WP7 is untested and severely limited platform.
- Symbian is great but only flawed
Symbian is a very good OS, used by Nokia since the early 2000s, it is still one of the most popular and friendly OS in the market. But Symbian hasn't aged quite well, the Symbian on Nokia touchscreen phones are horrid. It is outdated that makes Symbian less competitive to Android and iOS, not poor platform at all. If Nokia put in more effort redevelop the Symbian, it could be a powerhouse yet again in the smartphone market.
What do they do now? Shove Symbian completely and adopt WP7 as their primary platform. This makes Nokia no longer the
vertically integrated supplier, building hardware, software, and online services, to just another handset builder, like HTC, Samsung or others.
- Nokia phones still have the "unappealing to the public" design
Nokia phones generally have the same looks over the years, square-ish, blocky, sometimes even ugly. Some are striking, yes, but most of them are just really meh or yucks! For example, my Nokia 5730 Xpressmusic, the one with slide out QWERTY keyboard, is very unique when putting between my friends' phones, but oh my gawd!! Boy, it's ugly!!! It looks like a big black brick! If Nokia needs to change, change the looks too!!!
Nokia still think they are back in the 90s or early 2000s, back when they were a dominant company, with little marketing, the company can be successful. Forward to the world of today, the market has changed, now we have Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG, Acer, Motorola (they are back), Sony Ericsson and more. The landscape has changed, consumer nowadays have even more choices than before. With Apple and Google quickly becoming the "it" in the mobile market, Nokia must ramp up their marketing...
Life is tough ahead for Nokia, with the market share and stock tumbling. Nokia is no longer the best of the bunch, more should be done rather than switching to Windows Phone 7 and losing identity in the process...
