…And a total dream.
As Murat Mutlu explains in this comment contributed on my earlier Nokia/Yahoo post:
Mate when I first joined Nokia, I put together a concept for Nokia s60 phones where they completely integrated with Facebook, including inbox, calendar, contacts, homescreen newsfeed as well as the main application which had chat etc. This was around 6 months before the Apple App Store was launched.
No one gave a damn internally, some even questioned why Nokia should build the app instead of Facebook (eer hello?). Nokia is so fragmented that no one knows who you should put your idea in front of, it’s amazing there is absolutely no incentive for staff to push to get their ideas developed, all you get is a 5 page ‘business case’ doc which you fill in and ‘assemble your own team’ to get it made.
As if you would bother go through all that along with your existing work! Like you said, Nokia has a ton of talented and passionate people but unfortunately none are at senior management level. I still don’t think Nokia has an app for s60 devices pre-5th edition do they?
Nokia is going no where fast, another re-org won’t solve anything, it’s the third one in 18 months. Their processes are retarded, their reputation is battered, they keep bringing out re-skined versions of exactly the same phone, and Symbian is still a utter and complete dog.
The thing is if Nokia just went for it and completely integrated Facebook Chat, they would seriously have a contender for Blackberry Messenger which has taken over the youth market. But they are too slow, too backward thinking.
Oh dear.
A Facebook Phone? What a novel idea…
http://mobileindustry.wpengine.com/2008/04/dum…
Just to point out my team was *awesome*, I'm talking about the guys who do strategy and OPK. Felt ridiculously difficult to do things that were ultimately for the benefit of the company. In the end I just ended up watching INQ, RIM and Motorola Dext etc do the kinda stuff I wanted. Sad times indeed.
It’s all about the money. If a “Facebook phone” would be an ultimate money-making killer, why facebook itself is not doing it?
Other companies are just doing what it needs to do to get the sales, they are not here to promote facebook. http://bit.ly/aPB139
INQ, RIM, and MOTO's solutions weren't so integrated or successful, in my opinion, to the level which Nokia's will be. And Yahoo added to that will be amazing. Maybe Nokia and Yahoo merge in the end…
Ewan, the more I read of your stuff, the more partisan I realise you are 🙂 Just when I wanted to bestow on MIR the notion that it was in some way fair and balanced, darn it! You go and do it again! Spouting opinionated partisan nonsense not backed up with facts, or an across-the-board poll, or….something.
How do we readers know that, like a minority of vocal people, Murat Mutlu hasn't got a (rather large) chip on his shoulder about who knows what? Clearly something Nokia related. He's just another aggrieved random, not some voice of authority. Why is his post given prominence?
And onto your own partisanship (which makes me unable to take seriously your pro-iPhone/iPad/Android writings), why did you not also post Ben Smith's responses? (surely more authoritative than Murat?) Ben wrote: “That seems strangely at odds with the 2 days of innovation-presentations I just got back from in Espoo and the C3 I saw with Facebook baked into the whole device. I'm no fan (I fluctuate) but this does feel a bit of an outdated view however valid it was back then… They have moved too slowly, but that doesn't mean they're not correcting that. …. the C3 is pretty real, priced and ready for sale (as are the other devices adding these capabilities).”
There you go Ewan. You write “It's a total dream”. Ben writes (having seen the C3) “Facebook baked into the whole device…ready for sale”. I think people can draw their own conclusions from this!
Secondly, if Symbian is “still a utter and complete dog”, of course anyone is entitled to this opinion, but I would point out that Symbian-powered Nokia smartphone sales grew a huge 35% over the last year, in marketplaces in which consumers are aware of and free to buy Androids and iPhones galore! And that's without Symbian^3's numerous improvements. http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/11548_…
Hi Alex! Why don't you contribute a piece to the site? Indeed, why don't you guest edit next week's newsletter?
I don't have a chip on my shoulder, Nokia treated me well, no complaints. I can see the flaws – I'm passionate about what I do and I want to make a difference whereever I work. I genuinely wanted Nokia to do things better and felt frustrated at the lack of structure in place to promote the ideas of myself and other staff (some of these guys were ridiculously talented in mobile). I ran a internal blog with these concepts and I would get emails from other employees asking how to get their ideas made.
If I feel like it's a struggle to get ideas seen that are ultimately for the benefit of the company then that's my view. It's not like I was suggesting a punch the monkey game.
I don't claim to be an authority but I've got experience of the inner workings and
had access information and worked on things that allow me to have a more in-depth knowledge than erm, let me see, someone who maybe hasn't worked there?
What do you class as a voice of prominence?
If you read my comment you'll see I tried to get backing for the FB idea 6 months before the app store launched. Today yes there are Nokia phones with FB functionality, no surprise there but now that is a stardard feature expected, back then it would have been a diffienator.
A couple of things, yes Symbian is a dog, that comment has nothing to do with the amount of phones Nokia sells. To prove that point just ask developers about what's like to develop for Symbian compared to iPhone SDK. Dog.
Yes ^3 is out and it's easier but do you think all those developers care now they've got their teeth into Android and iPhone tools?
Interally there are problems with Symbian that I won't go into but it's become a bloated piece of software.
Also Nokias smartphone marketshare, yep it's high but Apple is more profitable than Nokia with just 3 phones. What does that tell you? And do you know what features a phone needs to be classed as a smartphone? It isn't much.