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Darren Waters

Nokia learning lessons

  • Darren Waters
  • 11 Feb 08, 12:13 GMT

Nokia is a smart company - you don't have 40% of the global mobile market without being clever, of course.

But it's clear the Finnish firm is learning from the successes of other companies. Take the company's new flagship store in London, for example. Take a look at this short video I filmed at the store this morning.

Remind you of anything? It reminded me of an Apple store. Coincidentally, Apple's flagship UK store is on the other side of the street.

Nokia has learned from Apple that customers want to play with technology. All of the handsets and all of the different types of experiences you can have with a phone are available in store.

There's even a psuedo-Genius bar, where customers can get problems solved by well-trained staff.

And it's not just at retail that Nokia is learning.

The company has seen the weather forecast and knows that the web 2.0 revolution of creating and sharing content is changing people's online experiences and that users know expect that freedom on their phones.

And so Nokia has launched , a portal where you can dump files - from video to photos to documents - and exchange them with friends.

What makes share.ovi.com is that Nokia has made it very open - you can share 100 different file types you have created and access it from any connected device. It doesn't matter if you are using an N95 or an Apple iPhone.

You can upload from PC or from a phone. You can pull in content from or .

This is a smart move by Nokia. It shows it is learning the lessons that digital content should be set free, not tied to one platform or one website.

Comments

  • 1.
  • At 03:26 PM on 11 Feb 2008,
  • William Amado-harris wrote:

The Barcelona showcase really doesn't suggest anything other than enhanced convenience for mobile users. Adding features smacks of gimmickry, revenue earning gimmickry, sure, but little that adds user service other than by reducing the additional 'tools' a person might need. Nokia is launching an A-Z tool, yeh, that's useful, as long as you don't mind having an open internet connection while your finding your way around. But the applications that would make life easier are simply lacking through shortsightedness. The mobile in its current form is a dinosaur. It's too small to use as the 'all singing - all dancing' machine makers pretend and is beginning to resemble one those paper finger puzzles we played as a kid where each successive opening reveals new letters, colours, drawings. (They didn't have music back then). If we're looking at mobile future, lets see a device the size of today's mobile that unfolds with four interlocking screens, where the top screen can be front or back or 2 or 4. Then you've got functionality. You can show maps, send and read e-mails, carry advertising and promotions, read books. Hey... you could even use it to make phone calls and listen to music.

Slightly off the point ehre, but what I love about the Apple Store is not that you can play with the technology (I do love that though) but that things are in a logical order.

Imagine a regular shop, your printers are on one side, and your digital cameras on the other, and the photo editing software another, what I like about Apple stores is that those would be grouped together, similarly the way that everything is neatly laid out making it simple to find your way around, knowing where what you are looking for will be - unless you want an Apple keyboard; I spent a long time looking for one!

Just had a fiddle with Share on Ovi, and it's an interesting idea, but at the same time it might be trying to do what lots of others have already done well, just bringing the different media together, in which case it probably won't catch on!

Apple has been leading the way with consumer-friendly technology for years, and has been poorly copied ever since Bill Gates left to set up Microsoft.

I am not surprised to see Nokia 'inspired' by their retail concept.

  • 4.
  • At 04:38 AM on 12 Feb 2008,
  • hardmanb wrote:

Isn't it amazing? One day, I am going to T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T stores, taking a number and waiting for service. Then trying to decide between conflicting and restricted feature sets and prices subsidies and upgrades, while trying futilely to get straight answers from carrier salespersons who don't know how to operate the phones and demonstrate all the features, and who have no idea of downloading, upgrading, syncing, and compatibilities.

Now, since the iPhone...everyone is revealed as wearing no clothes, and all the old business models and revenue streams are cracking before our eyes.

At last, everyone is desperately trying to figure out what the consumer actually wants and to give it to them (in choice of colors). Hallelujah!

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