Exactly a month ago I wrote that WorldofNokia, one of the influential British Nokia fan sites had closed down, citing nothing to write about.
In that post I pointed out that the dwindling Nokia fan publications was becoming a serious, serious problem for the company.
How bad does it have to get, I asked, before nobody can be bothered to write about Nokia exclusively?
Today, Ricky Cadden, one of America’s top Nokia bloggers — if not the top Nokia blogger — quit. He’s had enough too. Ricky was right at the top of Nokia’s blogger-relations list. He was a regular at the various Nokia events and flown to — for example — Nokia World and the like by the company.
But that’s no more, now.
In a post today, Ricky announced that he’s had enough. He and his writing colleague, Rita, will no longer be updating the site.
Ricky’s post makes absolutely shocking reading.
I can’t quite believe that it’s happening. It is utterly, utterly appalling from a Nokia perspective.
How bad is your reputation when the ‘Symbian Guru’ decides he’s had enough? Bad. Very bad indeed.
This is a super, super reflection of how screwed the company’s reputation is. Quite a lot of the executives and Nokia-watchers I speak to don’t think that this kind of news is a problem. They need their heads examined.
The output from Symbian Guru has been instrumental in helping countless Nokia users across the last four years. Now that resource will remain live — Ricky isn’t switching the site off — but there will be no more assistance.
Pretty soon the only place you’ll be able to get dedicated Nokia information and perspective will be from Nokia’s own community efforts and from Rafe Blandford at All About Symbian or Micky over at NokiaUsers.
Good luck to the Symbian Gurus! Good luck Ricky and Rita.
Nokia: Chalk this one up as yet another slap in the face.
Update: It’s made TechCrunch, Engadget and Mobile Entertainment magazine.
http://www.mynokiablog.com?
It is indeed a sad state of affairs.
Don’t forget, not just AAS, but Nokiausers.net is still alive and kicking Ewan, you forgot to mention us.
No real suprise to me. Half the Symbian employees walk around with iPhones. Can you imagine an Apple or Google employee using a compeditiors device to check mail at a tradeshow?
Symbian has been mismanaged from day one. Instead of targetting OEMs to promote the the OS to get new devices built, the focus has been on promoting Symbian as a brand to consumers. The average consumers doesn’t care about the Symbian brand, it is not relevant. Many users I speak to don’t even know you can run twitter on a Nokia device thinking its exclusive to iPhone.
Last year I gave Symbian 2 years before it becomes a footnote in history. I still stand by that.
TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo (if i remember right)…
it really is bad and boy do i hope they power out some fantastic devices to steer the ship around finally
Looks to me like they *are* bothered – http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/07/02/the-fightback-starts-now/
what??!! Seriously? The Nokia people don't think is a problem. That news made most of the people sad and they aren't bothered about it. ::mental::
Micky, sorry I didn't mean to deliberately exclude NokiaUsers or other sites — just a figure of speech. Nokia are lucky to still retain your attention!
OK, I think this is really no big deal, even for dedicated Symbian-Guru readers. Techcrunch, Engadget and ME are all well known to have an anti-Nokia/Symbian bias.
It's not worth my time or effort to justify my position, but suffice to say I'm confident the combination of Symbian^3 and ^4 (etc) and Meego will have the rest of the industry on the back foot.
It will be interesting to see who's right 🙂
Thanks for the support, Ewan – great to have finally met you at Nokia World last year.
Hi,
big thanks for forgetting TamsS60 – and our offer to the ad customers ;).
All the best
Tam Hanna
P.S. If Nokia reacts to them, then they have to do so always. Not sure whether they want to do that!
What? An American Nokia Blogger?
No wonder Nokia invited him to various events, they finally managed to get one american to use their handsets 😉
But seriously, its a shame. These blogs that closed down wasnt exactly visited only by the creator & his family, they had a huge number of followers/visits. Brand is everything in this market and by now even SE manages to create products that has a *buzz* to it. Nokia didnt by any chance reqruit their markets experts from SE? Because if they did, it sure makes a lot of things clearer…
Anssi Vanjoki, time your for 5min pitch 'Steve Jobs Style'.