Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Lost in mobile space

AdAsia Magazine, Singapore, September 2004 issue

I’m a great Nokia fan. I really am. But I’m becoming worried, increasingly worried.

A couple of years ago, big Nokias were called sixty or seventy-something; the little ones were eighty-somethings. The last of that product line was the chique little 8910. It was also the last systematic model number I saw on a Nokia. This may sound rather anal, but I think it’s often a bad sign when people are screwing up their model numbers.

I used to be an extremely loyal Nokia user. In fact, the 6110, the first really great handphone I ever owned, was the main reason why I became such a fan. Boy, did I love that phone: its breakthrough menu system, its utter dependability and brilliant design! After that it was enough to blindly point out the next higher Nokia number whenever you walked into a handphone shop: 6210, 6310, 7110. I bought them all, and loved them. Even the clunky 7110 was a natural; people called it ‘the microwave oven’ but it was one of the greatest phones that ever hit mobile space.

Life was good. There was logic in the numbers, and Nokia’s reign was supreme. But then the empire started to fall apart.

Let me get this straight, I don’t think that Nokia’s downslide was caused by bad model numbers. Neither do I think that new competitors like Samsung or Siemens were decisive factors. It’s just a symptom. In fact, the first clue about something really rotten in the Kingdom of Finland was a really bad idea called Vertu.

Vertu’s launch marks the moment when Nokia’s marketers got busy with other things than introducing really great phones. Instead, some head office genius came up with the brainwave that mobile phones were becoming something like personal jewellery. A lifestyle accessory, sort of.

The first clue that this is a totally derailed idea is the dazzling speed with which mobile phone technology develops. And not only technology: form follows function, so designs evolve with the same breathtaking pace. The poor rich soul who buys one of these misconceptions gets stuck with a bejewelled precious metal straitjacket that he can throw away after six months. Why? Because that’s when the 64k colourscreen version hits the market! Another six months later it’s WiFi or an on-board megapixel camera – and it goes on and on. Jewellery? Are you kidding?

Sometimes I walk past the Vertu shop on Orchard Road and I hope it will quickly go away. But alas, I don’t think its premature demise will bring Nokia back to the straight and narrow highway. Because now there’s the Fashion Squad commercial.

Have you seen it? It’s a great production job, featuring silver-clad Trekkies that ride in on white steeds after a Nokia camera phone has reported someone wearing white socks at a posh party. The poor bugger is whisked away by the Trekkies to some Guantanamo for design terrorists or so, the story doesn’t say. But the idea is that style challenged paupers should feel safe when they buy a Nokia 7610 and wear black – including the socks.

I’m not making this up. I wonder what went wrong. Was it a bad shrimp in the Creative Director’s dinner the previous night? Maybe Nokia lost track but at least Bates should have known better?

Anyway, this is what happens when a great company like Nokia gets sidetracked. Nokia should keep on doing what it does best: think about the profound changes that mobile phones have on people’s lifestyles, instead of the other way around – and focus on making great mobile communications devices.

Fashion Squad! Arghhh!