It has been less than a month since I decommissioned my Nokia C6 as my principle business phone. After many years of carrying three devices, it felt a weird but slightly liberating to consolidate down to two—my personal iPhone and my backup “warhorse” BlackBerry. Having been a hardcore Nokia user for the better part of *gulp* 20 years, finally letting it go has made me come to a few realizations. Not only have I not missed my Nokia one bit, this will quite possibly be the last Nokia I will ever own. Moreover, I feel no sense of loss whatsoever (I achieved final closure while disposing of the drawer full of now defunct Nokia chargers amassed over the years).
In spite of the many endearing “come as standard” Nokia device attributes (reliability, great signal quality, battery life, camera, maps, general indestructibility etc.), looking through the current Nokia range, I do not know whether to feel depressed, incensed or a little of both that currently there is not a single device that I would be excited to buy. How can this be?
Next to the dazzling array of big-screen smartphones on display at my local Carphone Warehouse, Nokia definitely seems to be the ugly duckling. But are my negative feelings towards Nokia motivated by the quality of the product or something else? Am I just prejudiced? Have I become one of the ever-swelling population of “app addicted” victims of Apple’s Ministry of Spin, smitten with the glitz and glam of the iPhone and all the wonders of the vast iTunes universe? I am really starting to wonder.
Ordinarily I consider myself to be a creature of habit and I do not normally switch brands without a pretty good reason. The problem with Nokia though is that as much as I wrack my brain, I cannot really put my finger on a defining moment when it all went wrong for me. But, obvious ecosystem limitations aside, the fact remains that my love affair with Nokia fizzled out a long time ago.
Thinking back, when I unboxed my C6 a year ago I did get that same kind of sinking feeling you get when you buy an expensive pair of designer jeans, only to discover that the particular brand or cut went out of style five minutes earlier. The feeling got worse every time I used my C6 around my iPhone and Android totting peers.
So maybe my emotional shift away from Nokia is purely an image thing. Is the Nokia brand itself just uncool? If so, Nokia is in big trouble because, like the demise of flared trousers, being uncool is a brutal, unstoppable downward spiral. Being an industry insider, it really has become impossible to ignore the abundant positive media glam surrounding the iPhone and Android. It stands in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly negative media coverage of Nokia’s fall from glory, the demise of Symbian and the huge question marks hanging over the value and viability of the Microsoft collaboration.
It seems Nokia will need a nuclear powered marketing and branding team to reverse their negative image and to reinvent the winning brand needed to restore Nokia’s street cred to its former glory. So until the likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and major tech circle influencers start being photographed using the latest Nokia Smartphones as their principle devices and lauding its praises on Twitter, I fear Nokia will continue to slip further into mobile B-List celebrity status.
In the meantime, I will be counting myself among the impatient masses fervently awaiting the launch of iPhone 5.
You can follow Geoff Casely on Twitter @geoffcasely
Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, Carphone Warehouse, Geoff Casely, Innovation, IPhone, iTunes, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Marketing, Nokia, Symbian
Posted by Tattletech on Jan 25, 2011 in
MWC,
Mobile,
Mobile industry stats Well finally, a company has decided to step up and talk about what ails mobile operators and they are from the great country of Sweden. Birdstep, which helps mobile operators improve mobile broadband services, has started a blog series - Top 10 relievers for Mobile Operators. Interesting because they seem to be really hitting the sweet spot with the issues that are surrounding operators today – Capex, data caps offloading traffic, etc.
It’s all well and good to talk about the next big app or solution but lets face it, this stuff is really at the heart delivering a great mobile service… today there is some good insight on how mobile operators should take a hybrid approach to data.
You can follow Birdstep on Twitter @birdsteptech. They will be at MWC 2011 in Barcelona in the Swedish Pavilion, Hall 2, stand 2F13, if you wanna check em out. Plus, that Pavilion, always has cava. –JH
Tags: Birdstep, Capex, Mobile network operator, Mobile Operators, Mobile World Congress, Sweden, Telecommunication
Posted by Tattletech on Oct 22, 2010 in
Mobile industry stats,
Online ads,
Stats,
marketing We stumbled across a good blog about data recently posted by Bango – a cool UK company that focuses on mobile analytics and mobile billing. We liked the post so, we decided to re-run it here. Despite the fact that it is heavily all about Bango’s abilities, it’s still a good read. The premise is simple because it addresses one of the biggest issues that mobile marketers have today — so many types of data available, how do marketers really know what to use.
But that took us to this — a very cool video summary of the past 10 years on online ad revenue plus some pretty amazing stats for 2010 put out by the IABUK. Now this little ditty really makes you think. So many juicy stats you can pull out of here, but the key to this the images… take a look at the images they lay into this video.
Some stats? The 1st broadband connection in the UK was in March of 2000, and now 40 million UK citizens are online, 93 % of those are on broadband. In 10 years UK online ad spent grew to 3.5 billion pounds. In the UK 1 in 4 pounds in ad spend goes online. It goes on and on. Watch the video. It’s fascinating.
So this also reminds us of a blog post by GlibHippo, an online ad network that sort of is the uncola of ad networks who recently compared the current online advertising sector to Deadwood. Have a read here.
Oh, and this bring us to our final point – stats. Today, IntoMobile reported that Nokia out sells iPhone 2 to 1! Yea so i know that just didn’t read right, even I looked twice, but then I realized that you have close your eyes to the Apple glimmering and all its minions and seek out the light in this topsy turvy mobile world we live in today.
Tags: Advertising network, Apple, Bango, Deadwood, GlibHippo, IntoMobile, IPhone, Nokia
Posted by Tattletech on Jan 6, 2010 in
Mobile,
Mobile industry stats Might be a bit dry but we think its newsworthy. The much anticipated Indian auction was pushed back to February according to Re-Think Wireless. According to the article, the process has been continuously postponed largely due to issues with the defense department, which is supposed to vacate some of the spectrum on offer.
In other notable spectrum news, Mexico is looking at the 700 MHz spectrum as 3G auctions go live according to Mobile Business Briefing. Now this is a market we hear little about and miss the fact that it is quite potentially large. Driven by a booming GSM market, the mobile industry in Mexico is growing at a yearly rate of around 22%, reaching around 43% mobile penetration. So keep your eyes open.
And cause we are a bit lazy today, here are the three most interesting mobile stories (according to us)
– Sprint promised 4G event with Microsoft at CES
– Huawei rubs salt in Nortel’s wounds
–Google and Nexus One
– JLH
Tags: Google, GSM, Nexus One, Nortel
Posted by Tattletech on Jan 6, 2010 in
Conferences,
Emerging tech,
Innovation,
MWC,
Mobile,
Mobile World Congress,
Mobile industry stats,
Nordics,
Start ups,
Technology 
In the most recent ICT Development Index (2002 – 2007) by the International Telecommunications Union, Sweden ranked number one in the level of ICT advancement in the world. As a result, Swedish mobile and telecommunications companies are in the midst of a renaissance of both development and innovation bringing mobile technologies to edge markets as well as adapting them to existing and new products. Sweden is also ranked as the second largest online networked economy in the world according to a 2009 World Economic Forum report.
But there is more, since 2005, Sweden has had the highest penetration of mobile phones in the world, with more than one handset per person across the country. And, in 2008 more than half of all mobile phones sold in Sweden were 3G and in 2009, they joined Norway as the first two countries to launch 4G service.
Want more? At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Feb. 15 to 18, you can talk to the next generation of innovation at the Sweden Pavilion. The Swedish Pavilion (Hall 2, stand 2 F13) represents the best and newest of Sweden’s mobile technology companies, products and services. With 18 co-exhibitors and more than 40 affiliated companies, the pavilion showcases a veritable revolution in mobile technology and innovation from Sweden.
Also on the stand is the Swedish Mobile Association, www.swedishmobileassociation.com, which provides data and analysis on the Swedish mobile and wireless market. The 18 exhibiting companies in the Pavilion represent the vanguard of this technology leadership in the evolving mobile landscape. The Pavilion showcases the entire spectrum of Swedish mobile technology from mobile advertising and gaming to online payments, devices and next generation mobile enterprise. Visitors to the Pavilion will be able to talk and meet with C-level executives from the following companies to learn about innovations in mobile and telecommunications technology for the next decade and beyond.
Mobile LBX
– Mobilaris
Mobile Advertising
– Frog2Frog
– Mobile Arts
– Plus Four Six
Gaming and entertainment
– Mobenga
User experience
– Ikivo
– Mobile Sorcery with MoSync
Mobile Infrastucture
– Synapse Mobile Network
– TalkPool
– Transmode
– Aktavara
– Telecom City
– Teligent
– Prosilient
Mobile Enterprise
– The Institution
Devices
– MyFc Launching its first commercial product at MWC
Mobile Training
– · Apis Technical Training
Since 2002, Swedish Trade Council has managed the Pavilion at Mobile World Congress. The Pavilion will also host two on stand parties during the show. The first party is hosted by Sweden Mobile Association, www.swedenmobileassociation.com, on Monday, February 15. The second party is hosted by the Sweden Trade Council on Tuesday, February 16. Both evenings will be opportunities to talk with some of Sweden’s leading mobile and telecommunications leaders regarding their plans for Mobile 3.0. RSVP to @sweden_at_mwc.
— JLH
Tags: Aktavara, Apsis Technical Training, Frog2Frog, Ikivo, International Telecommunication Union, Mobenga, Mobilaris, Mobile Arts, Mobile Sorcery, MoSync, MyFC, Plusfoursix.com, Prosilient, Sweden Mobile Association, Sweden Trade Council, Synapse Mobile Network, TalkPool, Telecom City, Teligent, The Institution, Transmode
Image by shinyai via Flickr
Re-Think Wireless ran a great story today about how Nokia says that they are gonna help people not get lost in London (which is so easy to do) After talking to about 12,500 people all over the planet, Nokia map-enabled devices can help lower getting lost in London. But it’s not just London that people get lost in, Nokia says they have identified the five “lost cities” on the planet and after London, Paris was the next hardest city to navigate followed by Bangkok, Hong Kong and Beijing. We can’t tell you how glad we are that Re-Think ran this story, it not only makes us chuckle a little, but it’s so full of excellent little pieces of trivia that we can only smile at the people that sat around thinking about turning this into a press release. The country with the best sense of direction? Germany – apparently one-third of people claim they have never lost their way – but the German’s also have the highest reliance on satellite navigation. Hmmmmm.
On of our favorite statistics is that Nokia found that 93% of those surveyed get lost regularly, with the average person wasting 13 minutes each time they do. An average person – what is an average person exactly in this scenario?
Tags: Germany, London, Nokia, Re-Think Wireless
The one, the only Joe O
One of Tattletech’s most favorite media men, C2M monthly editor Joe O’Halloran gives us strategic insight into today’s mobile industry. Sure, he is fun to hang out with and yes we might have a tiny crush on him, but we know how to keep it real and this month Joe covers some good ground in his e-cast Newsletter for C2M.
He reports that INFORMA completed a study that showed that more than half of all the data traffic will come from the home over the next five years. The new survey showed that mobile data traffic generated in the home environment was estimated at 40% in 2007, but by 2013 it is expected to reach 58%. INFORMA goes on to say in the report that such a rise, will likely spur a sharp rise in deployments of technologies such as femtocells in order to help operators offload mobile traffic to fixed networks via broadband connections.
OK – Femtocells – translation it is just a small cellular base station for residential usage and esentially lets your service provider give you coverage indoors instead of standing out side freezing to death.
Tags: C2M
Image via Wikipedia
Another great story on the Wired blog. It now seems that US mobile users are finally comfy with texting – sending around 357 text messages a month using it more than calling. This is the adult statistic – the article says that teens actually send /receive about 1,742 text messages a month. How much of that is drunken trade show texting?
Posted by inkgirls on Aug 7, 2008 in
Mobile,
Mobile industry stats We love Content to Mobile, a great story on new models for mobile video usage – this has been at the topic of most operators and VCs – and all those with an investment in the industry, this is good news. The report is courtesy of In-Stat’s David Chamberlain who always hits the issues hard – he says that they are potentially two models for mobile TV viewing: ‘waiting room’ and “leisure time” both with very different requirements.
What better way to rev up the adoption of MobileTV than to tie it to sports — also in this issue they report that NASCAR is turning to mobile TV to deliver as part of its NASCAR Nationwide Series including the Sprint Cup Series. Yea, Sprint needs to get focused ont that mobile TV instead of rotating out managment all the time.
Mobile World Congress 2012 is coming and we just heard from the fine folks at Birdstep that they have something they wanna talk about. The data explosion, that is data 2.0 explosion – what has caught mobile operators off guard — too much data. They are going to have a whole series about what needs to happen to keep mobile operators from going bankrupt by 2013. Yup, 2013, that is what “they” say. Tune in here and read their blog to get the forecast! Or follow them on Twitter @birdsteptech.
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