The Fall of Nokia

Not so long ago, Nokia was synonym with Mobile & vice versa. What went drastically wrong that once the poster boy of mobile revolution fell like a pack of cards from the pinnacle. In 2002, when i bought my 1st mobile the but obvious choice was Nokia and there was no second thought.

Someone right said that “Only thing constant in life is change”. Either we change ourselves or change will change us. Same applies to corporate houses, best example to quote is Bajaj. Once the market leader in Scooters segment is now world’s 3rd largest manufacturer of Motor Cycles & completely phased out Scooter business. Nokia didn’t realize the importance of change and result is out. Let’s understand 4 mistakes made by Nokia which costed it dearly in India.

1. Dual SIM Handsets:

Today even Indian Handset Manufacturers like Micromax and Karbonn are ahead of Nokia in terms of Market Share. These manufacturers identified the opportunity in Dual SIM segment early and rode back on the success of same. For quite long, Nokia was reluctant to launch Dual SIM Handsets. When they realized their mistake, it was too late and damage was already done

2. Smartphones:

No one anticipated such a stupendous growth in Smartphone segment. Samsung, which was no 5 in terms of Market share identified the opportunity and today Samsung is No 1 in Indian Market. Nokia missed Smartphone bus too.

3. Low Cost Handsets

Bottom of Pyramid in India always want best value for money, they love to make choice even if it means all the handsets have same features. For quite long Nokia, didn’t launch any new models specially in bottom segment. When they realized their mistake, they launched Asha Series but again positioning was wrong. They positioned Asha series as mobile for young college going crowd but it was a wrong strategy. Infact college going students buy best of mobiles available in the market.

4. Choice of Windows Mobile o/s

Nokia had their own mobile o/s Symbian but there was not much focus to build eco system around the same. Google identified opportunity in this area and launched Android as open source Mobile o/s. The last nail in the coffin for Nokia was, when they selected Windows Mobile o/s for their Smartphones in 2011. Around same time HTC was shifting from Windows Mobile o/s to Google’s Android Platform. Reason behind this move was Nokia’s CEO, who is ex-Microsoft. When he joined Nokia, the valuation of company was 37 USD and finally it got sold for 7.2 USD.

Someone rightly said that 1 wrong decision is followed by series of wrong decisions. Hope Nokia episode will be learning for corporate houses and education institutes will include it as Case Study. On technology front, it is saddest day in my life. Alas, The Titanic sank :(

Copyright © 2011-2013 Nitin Bhatia. All Rights Reserved.