Gabor Torok's Forum Nokia Blog

Apple is a very strong brand, especially in the USA. Just look at the iPod's market share in the American market (70% or so) vs. here in Europe (more like 25%, but differs greatly between different countries). People are crazy about the iPhone here too, but we still don't know how successful the iPhone will be outside the USA. People who discuss phones on blogs aren't exactly representative of the average customer.

But as you say, it's a very nice product. What Apple do well is that they don't make compromises when it comes to the user experience. Can you imagine Nokia throwing out half the standard S60 apps from a new model, to make it easier to navigate the UI?

I agree with ptrmn, they're going crazy just because the phone is from a company named "Apple". Simple, isn't it?

So are you guys saying that no other company can achieve the same excitement as what Apple did? Or simply it's Americans who get excited too easily? In any case, it's not only the UI Apple is very strong in, but marketing, too.

antonypr: I wasn't saying that. The iPhone is a very good product, and it's good in a way that makes people notice it. Other phone manufactures try to compete with features, while Apple stick to what they're good at.

I'm saying the brand helps them a lot. So does the UI. And I don't agree with you that other phone manufacturers will catch up _soon_. The "iPhone killers" we've seen so far are way behind when it comes to eg. responsiveness in the UI. And keeping up the image as a manufacturer of kickass phones is much easier if you don't churn out dozens of devices each year, like the top OEMs. Apple aren't interested in competing in all market segments. They just don't compromise as much as everyone else. They could have waited another year before launching the first iPhone, and it still would have had the same impact, simply because they presented something new and fresh.

@ptrmn: I agree that you are not "explicitly" saying that. But you mentioned that the brand helps a lot and iPhone's UI as well. Those two things are from "Apple" and they are really good at them. If iPhone were released by another company, I think we'd have a different story.

Yesterday it was the iPhone 3G launchment in 22 years around the globe. Almost every newspapers had a note or even entire pages talking about this... phone. Is it the iPhone the Nokia's funeral, on smartphones devices?

We didn't see another crazy mega-succesful phone since the launchment of the Motorola RAZR V3, 4 years ago. Motorola V3 has become the most selling mobile phone in history. Now V3 is dead.
It is dead because Motorola didn't launch anything better and more inovating, next to V3. So the question is: is iPhone about to stay in our lives since now and other companies will loose costumers because of this Apple's mega success, or is it just must-have item for now?
The difference is that Razr V3 had a poor software and it was the most successful phone because of it's design, but iPhone has become a mega hit not just because it's uncommon design, but yes for it's inovating software. An inovating software that Nokia and other companies don't have.
iPhone is for sure the most carismatic phone ever made. The question is: iPhone success will last forever, or it will have the same destiny than V3? Maybe yes, maybe not.
Maybe yes if Apple does not create more inovating devices like this one, in the next times, but maybe not because Mac is selling more and more every year, maybe yes because despite there are hundreds of mp3 player's by Sony, Creative, Nokia and Sony Ericsson's mobile devices with powerful mp3 players, and many other companies, despite all this, iPod is still a mega hit, a must-have for every music lovers, because it is made by Apple, because it has an original and even so simple design, because... what more? It's Apple. Who has an iPhone, can easier buy mps songs on iTunes and play them easier on their Mac as well. It means that Apple is earning money through 3 products, one takes to the other.

The point is: Is Nokia and other companies doing well their homework, when a single device like this one is going into our lives around the globe in a massive way like iPhone's doing?
Nokia has become famous because of it's original devices design, that no other company would imagine that it could be possible to be made, and the some about the software. But since some years ago, we don't see any must-have Nokia device anymore, in what concerns about the design and software. Almost everything you get on a Nokia device, the other companies have it too, since the same level of design and software. Nokia is failing on US market since ever, maybe the very best market in the world they could have.

Nokia is probably being successful in it's lovely China and India, but be careful, iPhone and other mobile companies are not in coma at all, and they will fight for those markets too, and it will become quite embaressing for Nokia, as a company as it is, to go #2 in Europe and maybe other places like latin America, for consumers wonder. Maybe you should start hiring again the same industrial designers and developpers who have created N-Gage, 7610, the Fashion Collection 3 years ago, 3650, and many other weird and wonderful and respected and successful devices that Nokia made before. Maybe a lot of Nokia developpers, as they are, they obviously prefer Nokia's software, but the other hundreds of millions of mobile consumers may not care about that when they have the best design and inovating software on a device like iPhone, for example. As the subject title sugests, Nokia must kill iPhone, before iPhone kills Nokia.

Thanks for your comments, Insane! I'm sure that a lot of things are true in what you said, however, please note that iPhone alone will not change the world.

Just one example: I tend to believe that iPhone is in fact a smartphone. Do you know what makes Nokia the most successful company in the world (in terms of sold devices)? Their high-end super-powerful devices? No. It's their low-end or rather mid-range phones. Does iPhone or any other advanced device compete in that area? No.

So I'd rather suggest you to take a closer look at what really the situation is and only then start to think about burying Nokia.