TAG | Nokia shows Apple how to do mobile phones after monster 2007 |
|
| by Stan Beer | |
| Saturday, 26 January 2008 | |
|
Page 2 of 2 In addition, Nokia continues to develop successful new products at a rate that other handset makers simply cannot match. According to Ovum, Nokia said that 30% of Q4 2007 revenue and profit came from new products that only started shipping in that quarter. At the beginning of 2007, Apple signalled its intention to be a mobile phones player - or at least a smartphones player - when it unveiled the iPhone. Despite being hailed as an innovative and even revolutionary product and being hyped to the moon, sales have been relatively modest. Part of the problem could well be that Apple still hasn't brought out a 3G model, which outside the US is mandatory to the success of a product like this. Another problem for Apple could be the disposable global mobile phones culture that prevails outside the US. While Apple users are content to hang on to their products until they practically die and need to be replaced, mobile users are used to shelving perfectly good but outdated phones for the latest Nokia, Motorola, Samsung or Sony Ericsson for nothing up front as soon as their contract expires. And of course the handset companies, led by Nokia, are only too happy to feed this mindset by bringing scores of new products to market each quarter. Apple is an innovative company but the cut-throat mobile phones market requires innovation and the release of new products at a breakneck pace. This is a market that moves six times as many units as computers each year. When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007, he described it as a revolutionary product, a mobile phone, a portable Internet device and iPod all in one package. He may be right about the iPhone being the best iPod ever, although iPod sales continue to dwarf iPhone sales. However, as far as the mobile phone and Internet device part goes, Apple's revolution compared to the Nokia juggernaut that rolled on relentlessly through 2007 resembled an ant armed with a toothpick trying to attack an elephant.
Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now
|
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
