Nokia was a triumph of the single market policy in Europe in the 1980’s. Nokia came into being as a key participant in the GSM alliance comprising in its early days of European companies. In the late 1980’s making and selling goods across Europe was a painstakingly difficult task due to different languages, currencies and standards etc, however mobiles changed that and GSM was the vehicle that made it a possibility.
In the early days of mobiles it meant that people could roam from France to Belgium still be connected and receive a bill for a call. GSM allowed mass mobility. By late 1990’s Nokia ruled the corridors of power alongside Ericsson and Vodafone.
In 2007-2008 Nokia was producing nearly half a billion handsets a year and had the chance to join the Open Hand Alliance, what most of us know as Android. Nokia might made a mistake of turning the offer down which eventually led to Samsung surpassing it as the world’s leading handset maker using Android as the OS. Who would have ever thought that Nokia could be in such as financial mess? In June, Nokia announced that it plans to close production and research plants, with 10,000 job cuts by the end of 2013. Nokia also posted a pessimistic outlook. Nokia had signed its own death warrant by not joining the OHA. It’s now fighting fierce competition in the smartphone market with heavyweights such as Apple and Samsung.
Nokia’s struggling to stay afloat and has plunged from the burning platform that was Symbian and into the icy waters of Microsoft’s Windows Phone with its Nokia Lumia line of smartphones. It’s just the final nail in the coffin, considering the options available. You could buy an Apple iPhone or a top-end Galaxy SIII and you’re guaranteed to get an upgrade which is not the case if you buy a Lumia 900 or Lumia 800 or 700, you’ll NEVER get upgraded. This means a further dive in its sales and the final push over the edge and no amount of marketing or star power can save it (yes, not even King Khan can do much)!
Would you still consider buying a Nokia smartphone???
More on this topic: Nokia’s Layoffs, The Euro and the End of The European Dream