Or how a company can let you down…
After my very first mobile phone which was a yellow Ericsson
many years ago with one line of a black and white screen and tiny buttons, I
switched to Nokia and I stick to it. I went through many different models,
including some legendary ones which still function even today. I always
believed that Nokia makes really good, sturdy and resilient phones. They might
not jump onto new technologies quickly but they were innovative, like
introducing WAP to mobile phones, with good hardware.
One of my first Nokia phones! Simply immortal
After focusing on phones with good cameras like the N81 and
N86 that including an amazing 8MP camera before many of its competitors, I
decided last year that it was time to try a smartphone. Even before it was
released, I fell in love with Nokia N8 by watching the promo video on the Nokia
website. The phone had good enough specs and featured an amazing 12MP camera. I
wouldn’t go for an iphone (I’m reluctant to follow the masses) and most Android
smartphones weren’t that impressive (low battery, bad camera etc) at the time.
When it was released reviews were a bit harsh on it.
Everybody said that the phone itself was good, but its operating system crap!
However, Nokia released a note that the Symbian operation system will receive
updates and will get better and the company will support developers in creating
enough applications to support their new Symbian smartphones. So, while I
suspected that the OS would be a bit bad, I bought the phone I think very early
February 2011. It went all downhill after that.
Innovative 'Matrix' phone
Elop, the relatively newly appointed Nokia CEO (and previous
Microsoft employee) released a memo about how ‘Symbian is a burning platform’
and that Nokia should abandon it! That happened around 2 weeks after I bought
the phone (which wasn’t very cheap)! That memo was the beginning of the end for
Nokia at least for me and I can explain why. It affected developers who refused
to work on Symbian applications. Which serious company would spend money to
create apps for a dying platform, even abandoned by the company who created and
supported it for years? However, without any applications, how can a company
expect to sell smartphones?
That memo had tremendous effects on the company itself. Elop
singlehandedly rendered all Symbian phones obsolete without having to offer an
alternative. He said that Windows Phones would be the future of the company,
however the first Nokia Lumia with WP as an operating system was months away
from production. The company lost its credibility and its sales dropped so
significantly that it now faces tremendous financial issues.
As a customer I felt like I was stuck with an outdated phone
making me angry on a company that I used to like. Nokia focused more on
creating the Lumia series and the preannounced Symbian updates arrived with
months of delays. Now, after months of waiting I’m running Symbian Belle. It is
so much better than the early Symbian version but it’s too late, too little.
There are hardly any good applications released on this platform for months. That
is the reason that I refuse to go for the Nokia 808. That phone was awarded as
phone of the year in the Barcelona conference at the beginning of the year for
featuring a staggering 41MP camera! However, it runs Symbian and not generally
supported even by Nokia itself.
Generally, Nokia and Elop are all about the Lumias now but I
refuse to follow them. I see the same mistakes happening. They announced that
not any of the existing Lumias can be upgraded to version 8.0! That means that
if I buy a Lumia now, I’ll get stuck with yet another obsolete platform. Why
would I do that again to myself? Not to mention the mobile phone carriers who
are boycotting Windows Phones since Microsoft bought Skype! Skype is loathed by
them. I feel bad for all the people who lost their jobs working for Nokia but
things look very gloom for the company now. Its market share dropped so much in
such a short period of time. Maybe Microsoft will buy it… I don’t know. If you want to read more about it, this blog by Tomi Ahonen is simply amazing. He used to be in Nokia and simply hates Elop's guts! You can read how a CEO put his company in turmoil.
But as a let-down customer I say goodbye to Nokia and hello
to Samsung!
I have several friends who love their Samsung phones. Hope you are equally satisfied. I'm still stuck in the 90s using a BlackBerry... I figure they'll likely be out of business when I need to trade in this version of their Bold phone.
ReplyDeleteI never had a BlackBerry. I heard they're good though... I've ordered a SG3 and I'm waiting for it. I'll let you know how it ends up
DeleteGreg and I will be buying new phones in October and need to start doing the proper research soon. Now we know to avoid Nokia.
ReplyDeleteI generally love doing research on buying gadgets! Maybe the new Nokia with WP8 might be good by then. You never know...
DeleteMy first phone (and series of phones after that) were all Nokia. I swore by them.
ReplyDeleteThen I discovered the iPhone. It was so elegantly simple and easy, And it integrates so seamlessly with my mac and my ipods etc, that I haven't looked back.
I used to swear by them too... I don't have any apple products apart from an old ipod. :-)
DeleteI advise throwing away all tech and return to dixie cups with string.
ReplyDeleteNooooo. That will leave me jobless!!!! I love tech. :-)
Delete