Most people, until very recently, did not care in the slightest about 'apps' on cell phones. You guys are thinking way too much like silicon valley geeks about this.
It did. Does it still? Maybe not, but is the problem really having lots of phones, or is that they're not good at competing in the high end where Apple is doing so well? Are the two mutually incompatible?
If Nokia had just stuck to the high end, they would have lost billions of Euros of sales. There are tons of people over here in Europe, at least, that are perfectly ok with their cheap and reliable Nokia phone.
I don't actually know, thus the question mark at the end. I just get the impression that the market is moving to smart phones and that Nokia has very little presence there.
But, you're quite right...Nokia has sold a lot of phones (probably an order of magnitude more than Apple), in Europe, in particular. But I'm not sure a shotgun approach to product lineup creation is a good answer (I don't know that it isn't, it just seems like it hurts more than it helps, in terms of brand awareness, loyalty, etc.).
I do tend to think that a lot of manufacturers making Android phones will have an impact...but, I think that impact will come from competition amongst manufacturers and service providers, and the openness of the platform. The openness means I can already do things with an Android phone that can't be done with an iPhone, and that gap will probably continue to grow. That said, the Apple market size means that it gets more apps than Android...so there are also things one can't do with Android that you can on iPhone (though for non-technical reasons).
What I'm saying is, I have no idea. I'm just wild-ass guessing, like everybody else.
> But I'm not sure a shotgun approach to product lineup creation is a good answer (I don't know that it isn't, it just seems like it hurts more than it helps, in terms of brand awareness, loyalty, etc.
I think Nokia probably has a few too many phones, but on the other hand, I think it's not a bad idea to cover everything from the 25 euro super-basic units to some of the really fancy smart phones they have. And have them they do.
In terms of branding, I think that Nokia has a great reputation for building good, solid products amongst most people I know. Part of having a lot of different kinds of phones is letting people pick one that "reflects their lifestyle" (or some such marketing BS:-) rather than the one-size-fits-all iPhone.
Yeah, it worked for Nokia, who over the last year made less in profits from all there phones, to Apple and its 3 phones. Yeah, they sell many more phones, but make a lot less profit.
It worked for Nokia.