07 September 2008

Interview with Nokia's Ukko Lappalainen
Vice President, Nokia Nseries Markets

Eldar Murtazin from Mobile-Review has posted up an interesting interview with Nokia's Ukko Lappalainen - Vice President, Nokia Nseries Markets.

In this interview with Eldar, Lappalainen speaks on the concept behind the latest wave of Nseries devices and other industry issues. Interview if focused on the future of Nseries phones line and it can give you a better idea of how this line-up will develop in the next year.

Ukko Lappalainen is responsible for the global "go-to-market" (i.e. sales and marketing) of the Nokia Nseries line of multimedia devices.

He has held this position since January 2008 and is based in Finland. Ukko previously headed Nokia's device business with global operator customers. He was responsible for the sales, account management and activity development with these operator customers globally.

Ukko joined Nokia's infrastructure business unit Nokia Networks in 1995. He led the global marketing programs of the 3rd generation UMTS mobile networks in 1998-2000. With Nokia Networks, Ukko was twice based in France, in 1995-1998, and again in 2001-2002.

U.L. I think you are right, we are still creating the category that we call “Multimedia computers” – phones that you can use to make calls, but their primary focus is on multimedia. How we’d like to see it is that when you get into a retail store there’d be mobile phones here and here, and on the other shelf – multimedia computers and multimedia devices, not only Nseries at that, we acknowledge there are some other players on this market. I think we are on the right way to a real retail category, as other companies are starting to employ this strategy as well. We are trying to make it more prominent by pushing the Nseries portfolio in every way we can– if you visit one of our flagship stores you’ll see that there are areas with multimedia computers alone where no other phones are showcased. But in fact we are only at the beginning - we need to make further steps to achieve our ultimate goal.

E.M. What is your position on the Eseries vs Nseries dilemma? The Eseries has never been particularly successful to begin with, but these days it’s growing more and more like the Nseries, offering various color schemes that are quite different from traditional all-business and no-nonsense designs.

U.L. Yes, but on some fronts it’s the other way around – Nseries devices borrow from the Eseries. For instance the email functionality and Microsoft Mail for Exchange that started out as an exclusive Eseries project, but ended up on Nseries devices as well. But the real difference between these two line-ups is the consumer type we target. With the Nseries we cater for the needs of technology enthusiasts who buy their phones not only for utility purposes, but also to, say, show off with all this technology; whereas the Eseries sways more towards rational and pragmatic consumers. But you are right, they have gotten a little bit closer and maybe these consumer segments have become closer too.