24 October 2008

Nokia 5800 - An Ultimate Weapon
To Increase Market Share In North America?

Nokia and Symbian are huge everywhere besides North America, S60 powered line of phones dominates the global Smartphone market but unfortunately both, Symbian and Nokia still have a low penetration in the US.

Symbian devices are far behind phones powered by competing operating systems from Research in Motion, Microsoft, Palm and now Apple!

What Nokia needs to do to if it hopes to retain its market share in the United States!? Is Nokia 5800 XpressMusic a new weapon they need to increase market share?

Nokia is still latched to the lesser choice of US carriers, instead of the one with the best prices, service, and signal quality (T-Mobile), biggest 3G network population coverage and best call quality (Verizon), or the only 4G network (Sprint).

It will hold them back in America, and competing with the iPhone on the same shelf is another roadblock. I doubt at&t will fairly compare the iPhone to the 5800. Big pressure from the Cupertino cash cow, Mr. Jobs, will get nasty if reps refer to the cheaper 5800 as better than the iPhone. I wouldn't be surprised if they refuse to carry it at all.

From a global perspective, the iPhone and 5800 need no comparison. But in America, that's a totally wrong way to go. Nokia's brand is damaged here. Nokia stands for cheap to free dumb phones here, and if it isn't an iPhone, or running WinMo or RIM, it won't be considered a Smartphone by the average American. They have no idea Nokia even makes Smartphones!

1. The 5800 runs the top smartphone OS in the world, Symbian S60, and can replace a laptop in most basic computing situations because of robust multitasking, which means running all your apps at the same time, right out of the box!

2. Symbian is the Swiss Army Knife and Windows XP of the smartphone world. (This would be a bad thing in Europe and Asia, but America equates it with being the dominant industry standard.)

3. Music can be loaded to the 5800 from basically any computer, including Macs and PC's, in nearly every popular digital audio format, with no software required in most cases.

4. LOADS of applications will be available, thanks to the large Symbian platform developer community. Much of those applications will be freeware, in large part because of support for multiple programming languages, including Python, a free language with free developer toolkit enabling users to make their own programs.

5. No killswitch, since all our S60 are belong to us.

6. The 5800 has a higher definition screen. (We'll all know what hi def means in a few months...)

7. The iPhone is the premium and only offering from Apple. The 5800, though clearly a class above the iPhone, is just a typical run of the mill midgrade Nokia smartphone, and just a glimpse into the much glitzier Nseries and Eseries, Nokia's premium brands. The iPhone just can't stand up to the EXTREME power and function of those high end models.

8. Nokia makes alot of phones similar to the 5800 with and without keypads at various price points, and if you want something else, be sure a few more should be announced in the next 6 months.

9. You don't need a naked finger to activate the touch screen. The 5800 works with a finger, a stylus, or even a toothpick! Basically, you aren't FORCED to use your naked finger on a screen anyone else's nasty booger diggers may touch.

10. It takes EXCELLENT photos AND VIDEO right out of the box, has the LOUDEST SPEAKERS EVER ON A PHONE! and can replace your cheap digital camera and camcorder.

Now Nokia does need to stay with television technology and the competition, and stay with wide aspect ratios, but I want 800x480 at 4" screen or better on a premium Nokia touch device. (N-XT, anyone?) I wonder if Nokia will intentionally keep sizes down to minimize cannibalizing sales from the N810?