Nokia didn’t get the memo, clearly. Slashes forecast and outlook
By Alexis • Jun 18th, 2010 • Category: Industry News, Nokia
- Photo: Nokia
We had no idea Nokia would be slashing its annual forecast when we wrote a piece on what Nokia needs to do to save its ailing smartphone business. But alas, the Finnish mobile phones manufacturer has made just that move, managing expectations by lowering them while Google Android, iPhone and BlackBerry continue to chow at Nokia’s legacy market share.
We’re losing, guys
In a somber press release, the company announced it expects to either be on the lower end or slightly below its forecast for Q2 revenue, which was previously EUR 6.7 billion to EUR 7.2 billion. They chalked this forecast revision down to ‘the competitive environment, particularly at the high-end of the market, and shifts in product mix towards somewhat lower gross margin products’. Said with less corporate speak, the Nokia smartphone group is admitting that RIM, Apple and Google Android are absolutely dominating them in the smartphones market, and, the Finnish company’s inability to compete means they will make less money. Makes sense?
Stop with the rubbish handsets
In an unrelated yet poignantly relevant post, we said that the smartphone industry was at a nexus where handset aesthetics was no longer more important than the mobile OS and software eco-system built around the hardware. Our words weren’t even cold before the Nokia smartphone team released the aesthetically shocking pink Nokia X5 coupled with its still ho-hum mobile OS. Add that to the fact that the Nokia N8, which had so much promise is being received as nothing more than a me-too device that checks all the right boxes but does nothing special (our review drops early next week), Nokia seem intent on digging its own grave.
Start paying attention
- Photo: Nokia
Nokia users, fans and the tech community is all but telling Nokia what they want from a Nokia smartphone for our interest to be piqued again. Simply put, build a fantastic phone with a fantastic mobile OS and stop with the confusing overlapping product lines! Converge your OS into one thing that works well and steal engineers from all the best smartphone companies in the world. The hideous Nokia X5 should have never seen the light of day and the Nokia N8 should have been special. It’s not. It’s good, but not special. You need one phone, one line that is absolutely remarkable to gain back share at the top end of the market.
That said, if I were a Nokia shareholder, I would demand to know why its taken three and a half years to gather momentum since the original iPhone dropped way back in 2007. Nokia X5 and Nokia N8 aside, what, if anything, is Nokia cooking up to stem the tide?
Tags for this article: Nokia, smartphone
This was written by a raving idiot :/, just not funny. Should this be regarded as a professional write up? Look at the headings its outrageous! Me too with nothing special? bluetooth mouse and keyboard support, dolby surround sound, 12mp wide angle lens, FREE onboard video editting… I could go on and on. Now is there anything special about iphone 4? What you said? the screen resolution? when since any one cared about screen resolution? when the iphone had the low res screen everyone was happy with it, they all thought it was the best still but suddenly they pack tiny pixels in a tiny screen and it becomes fantastic. Let me highlight: hd vid recording, 5mpxl camera, multitasking are all me too features for the iphone because phones years ago had them!
This is one of the writeups that give tech blogs a bad name, sheesh!
Hey Kalel17,
Thanks for responding on the post. Every comment counts.
Here’s the thing, though, who has received the N8 as a remarkable, game-changing device? 12mp camera is great. Nobody is denying that. But does a high resolution camera sell hardware?
Perhaps you took exception to the tone of the article, but they did slash their forecast, citing struggles in high-end smartphones as a result. What kind of tone would have been better? Nokia isn’t experiencing the dizzying highs they did in the late 90s to the mid 00s, and why is that? The company itself should be asking these questions.
I’m not denying those features – they tick boxes, sure – but what about them makes people ‘want’ the phone in droves? Nokia hasn’t made an absolutely irresistible handset for some time now and yes, that is using the iPhone’s mass (borderline hysterical) popularity as a measuring stick.
I think the company has a hit phone in them. I’m absolutely convinced of it. BUt do you think the N8 was it? And if yes, why is there not more noise about it?
I definitely appreciate your comment but I’m still at odds about whether Nokia is listening to what people (say they) want. What am I overlooking, here?