Nokia's Platform Evolution
Mr.Fun says ...
I think this Mr.Fun I refer to below is a former SI poster:
Member 3671206
Hopefully clipping a post from another message forum in it's entirety without the authors permission is not completely tasteless.
The author of the post below is "mr.fun" from NY and the forum is Mobile-Review. "mr.fun" is a very astute observor of the wireless scene and this is what he had to say a few days ago about Nokia's platform approach to product evolution:
tinyurl.com
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>> By 2001, when the state of art of the phone was changing very slowly, if at all, Nokia started to become completely obsessed with manufacturing efficiency and low cost. While it had pioneered the concept of "platforming", that is using a core design and spinning off modest varients, it started to get very rigid about it. The idea was 90+ of the components would be exactly the same across every phone in the family, and realistically, Nokia had 3 real families - Series 20/30, Series 40 and Series 60. This design philosphy worked well in the years in which little changed - 2000 through mid 2003 - but by mid 2003, the pace of innovation had really picked up and Nokia's rigid process couldn't accomodate it. It had "standardized" on the much criticised 128x128 4K color screen and the bar form factor, and couldn't change very quickly. Even hot swappable MMC cards were a real challenge for the company. Note that Nokia has COMPLETELY redesigned its process for product development - interchangeable modules have replaced the rigid platforms, so look for Nokia to be MUCH faster in response to market trends and much more flexible in its design approach.
As for physical design, I think Nokia got a bit rigid in that respect as well. It didn't help that certain form factor choices were off of the table because of the "platforming" but I think Nokia had two approaches - classic and outlandish, and had a hard time with anything in between. That said, I like many of the products that Nokia has been bringing out lately - 6680, 8800, 6670, etc. - so maybe Nokia is breaking out of its rut.
It interesting that the rest of the competition is working to become more "platform" based in their approach - particularly Motorola and SE - so we'll see if they get caught making some of the same mistakes as Nokia. Right now, Nokia has a pretty impressive pipeline of products, both announced and unannounced coming. This year, I think they'll take alot of market share back. <<
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I consider the above to be an EXCELLENT and observant post, and better stated by "mr.fun" than what I might offer in the same vein, but I'll probably attempt to expand upon it.
- Eric - |
