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RE[6]: Comment
by hhas on Sun 21st Apr 2013 15:48 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: Comment"
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"The damage phase is over


Did you read anything I wrote? I already called out Elop for his well-intentioned but commercially disastrous Osborning of Nokia. If I was a shareholder I'd have been aghast at his "burning platform" announcement; yes, Elop was right, but you don't say such things publicly if you want to retain consumer and shareholder confidence while you're trying to fix it.

I already explained how Elop should've kept quiet about EOLing Symbian until their Win8 products were ready, and then burned it to bootstrap their new platform's user base, which in turn would've created more confidence amongst other shoppers that this was a strong platform worth consideration rather than an unknown quantity, an odd kid out in a sea of 'safe' Android products.

Nevertheless, the Symbian flight is done: they can't lose any more sales that way. So the Symbian->Win8 'transition' is complete; it just wasn't done in a way that would've retained their existing customers.

To reiterate: it wasn't the decision to adopt Win8 that did Nokia damage, it was a single premature public announcement by a newbie CEO. That sort of idiot slip can and does destroy industry-leading companies, no mendacity or Machiavellian machinations required: just ask Adam Osborne, for whom the "Osborne Effect" is named. And he had a lot more experience than Elop when he nuked his industry-leading Osborne Computer Corporation into the ground.

Win8 haters who willfully ignore all these non-technical factors and wider history just so they can use Nokia's fall as an excuse to trash Win8 and MS are being intellectually dishonest trolly trolly weasels. We get it, you don't like Win8 and feel personally betrayed by MS's decision to stop kissing your ass and try kissing somebody else's for a change. Tough titties, MS doesn't owe you a thing; and if you're still not happy FOSS/Linux is just over there: feel free to build your own.

"e.g. by aggressively pushing dedicated product stands


Now you're just being a dick. I identified a genuine problem with how Nokia products are being presented on the high street: scattered randomly across general product shelving where they're drowned in a sea of largely undistinguished uniform Android devices.

You think iPhones would be holding their own position as highly desirable premium products if Apple let stores treat their products that way? Hell, no, they buy dedicated shelf space from those stores and put up their own Apple product displays which they have designed and built themselves. And that investment pays them back, because when shoppers walk into the store they still see the same vast dull sea of Android devices, but standing out from it all is this ruddy great physical monument to the total and utter awesomeness of Apple products.

Apple and Nokia are both selling products that fly in the face of the Android orthodoxy. Apple seize their 'differentness' by the hairy ones and turn that seeming liability into a major selling point. Nokia marketing can run all the gorgeous high-profile TV campaigns it likes, but the moment potential buyers walk into a store, they see a glossy premium Apple iPhone stand along with shelves of 'safe choice' Android devices. Rummage those shelves long enough and they might find the Nokia handset they were thinking of looking at, stuck in there like the proverbial red-headed stepchild. Not the way to create a great first impression or reassure potential buyers that this is a platform on the rise, one they can really trust in.

Seriously, I may not be a marketing bod by trade, but I trained in art and have been around brand designers and sales types enough to appreciate that what they do (or don't do) is a critical factor in determining the popular success or failure of a mass-market product. Heck, in one job I even left the computer to go humph branded floor display stands into high-street shops and fill them with our company's products. Believe me, presentation makes a difference. Maybe if you put some effort into expanding your understanding of the larger world beyond your own nerd-centered comfort zone and personal preconceptions and prejudices, you might find something substantive to contribute next time.

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