Nokia talks shop about its revised US strategy, but is it enough?

The old adage goes "be careful what you wish for; you just might get it." After years of bellyaching (we're as guilty of it as anyone) that Nokia was giving Europe first dibs on its hottest handsets over North America, we're now seeing perhaps the most dramatic, positive shift in North American strategy in the company's history -- in fact, they're straight-up saying that they want to push all the way to number 1 in the local market. But is it enough of a shift to fend off aggressive moves from Samsung, LG, Apple, and the rest of the gang across every conceivable market segment?

Nokia's product portfolio manager for the region, Ira Frimere, sat down with Computerworld recently to discuss the renewed push, admitting that the company has had to rethink some fundamental things about its products and its business model to help its cause in the States; one small example is the fact that the Surge is launching without the typical four-digit model number or Nseries / Eseries code that is found on virtually every Nokia sold worldwide, ostensibly because Americans apparently prefer names to numbers (it'll launch as the Surge 6790 internationally, it turns out). Additionally, the company has dedicated a facility in San Diego to working with its North American carrier partners -- AT&T and Verizon, most prominently. It's still early on, but the labor there seems to already be bearing fruit, considering that AT&T will be stocking three S60 devices once the Surge launches -- a record -- and Verizon's rumored to have some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

Frimere adds that Nokia believes services are key to winning American hearts and minds, an area the company has been putting extensive R&D into lately with its Ovi line (unfortunately, so is everyone else -- and getting to iTunes and App Store-level acceptance with Nokia Music and the Ovi Store is going to be an uphill battle, to say the least). Ultimately, the conclusion seems to be Nokia's reluctant admittance that breaking into the US market requires a willingness to give carriers far, far more respect than they deserve by bending and breaking to their somewhat odd demands -- and that's going to be an ongoing problem for consumers, whether you're a Nokia fan or not.

[Jayayess1190 @ Jul 16th 2009 4:17PM]

Where is the N900?

[i.c. weiner @ Jul 16th 2009 7:07PM]

ummm it's already out

[Mark Anderson @ Jul 16th 2009 4:19PM]

Interesting. Nokia have a lot to convince the US market with but need to get it right. A good step would be using 3.5mm jacks as standard on all S40/S60 phones and tidying up the browser.

[syko21 @ Jul 16th 2009 4:21PM]

What 3 S60 devices are you talking about? They have the E71x and soon to be Surge, but thats only 2. The N75 was ok but got pulled from their lineup a year or so ago.

[Chris Ziegler @ Jul 16th 2009 4:24PM]

The 6650.

[Return of Jackson...whoo! @ Jul 16th 2009 4:21PM]

NO

[joaquindel @ Jul 16th 2009 4:32PM]

Shut up Michael.

[MZLweasel @ Jul 17th 2009 5:41PM]

Why don't you two Beat It.

[periks19 @ Jul 16th 2009 4:23PM]

Why doesn't nokia makes a cell phone for sprint? they only make some for verizon but since is cdma it would make sense to make one for sprint too.

[joaquindel @ Jul 16th 2009 4:31PM]

Completely agree. You would think CDMA phone makers would make Sprint versions too because Sprint typically has about one half of phones available than Verizon does, thus resulting in a higher ratio of customers to phones available, thus resulting in more sales of one model.

[teej @ Jul 16th 2009 5:08PM]

it may be that Sprint doesn't have room for Nokia handsets in their lineup...

[Hey Ya @ Jul 16th 2009 5:42PM]

Maybe Nokia would rather work with a company that has the largest subscriber base in the country, and continues to add, than a company that has the second smallest and continues to lose.

Just a guess...

[Periks19 @ Jul 16th 2009 6:01PM]

@heyYa

Well I guess you don't know how to read or are either ignorant, when did I say nokia should only distribute phones to sprint? i said they should also provide sprint with phones so they can boost up their sales. Maybe if you weren't so ignorant or a Sprint hater you will know that still sprint has nearly 50 million subscribers and has more than tmobile making them the third largest carrier. Tmobile does have some nokia handsets so according to your logic why does tmobile have nokia handsets when they have less subscribers to sprint.

If that was the case then why Verizon currently the largest wireless provider has the cheapest and lowest end nokia phones while att has better ones? My comment in general was to why nokia doesn't make more cdma devices since there are more cdma subscribers in the USA and according to nokia they want to make an impact in the USA so cdma and gsm devices totally makes sense business-wise.

[derX @ Jul 16th 2009 9:54PM]

Well I guess you don't know how to read or are either ignorant, when did I say nokia should only distribute phones to sprint?
>>When did he say they should only distribute phones to Sprint?

Maybe if you weren't so ignorant or a Sprint hater you will know that still sprint has nearly 50 million subscribers and has more than tmobile making them the third largest carrier.
>>US cell phone carriers are often referred to the Big Four, with Sprint as the third largest. The same as second smallest. And they are losing customers (though the Pre may lessen or neutralize this, though I doubt the latter). Furthermore, AT&T, at second place, has 78.2 million (http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26752).

Tmobile does have some nokia handsets so according to your logic why does tmobile have nokia handsets when they have less subscribers to sprint.
>>No problems here. Though I am not sure if it's because TMobile Europe and Nokia are already close knit and TMobile USA is just a spinoff of that larger company...

If that was the case then why Verizon currently the largest wireless provider has the cheapest and lowest end nokia phones while att has better ones?
>>Because VZW is recently the largest carrier. The former largest carrier, AT&T, uses the same cellular technology as the rest of the world--the world Nokia already caters to.

My comment in general was to why nokia doesn't make more cdma devices since there are more cdma subscribers in the USA and according to nokia they want to make an impact in the USA so cdma and gsm devices totally makes sense business-wise.
>>Just because VZW is now the largest carrier doesn't mean there are more CDMA devices in the US. AT&T isn't that (about 9 million) far behind at all and you ignore the smaller GSM networks.

[periks19 @ Jul 16th 2009 10:31PM]

@derx
ATT has 78.2 plus 32.8 of tmobile thats 111 million gsm subscriber right?

Verizon Wireless has 87.6 million subscribers and sprint has 49 million thats 136 million cdma subscribers not to mention you also ignore all those small cdma companies like cricket 3.84 million and metro pcs 6.1 million and many more.

Well you get the point there are more cdma subscribers in the U.S.A anyways my statement is not who has more or who rules my statement is once again business-wise wouldn't it make sense for Nokia to also develop cdma handsets thats all I imply and you brought out the pre that maybe maybe not would help sprint well the iphone was the only thing that add subscribers to att once their agreement expeires and vzw gets it is over for att they will start loosing subscribers like crazy.

All I am implying is if Nokia makes nice cdma handsets on VZW and Sprint that would surely fill their pockets with cash, lots of it. This is sorta like the iphone if there was cdma version for VZW or Sprint guess how many more millions of sales thats for Apple? Palm is surely gonna sell the pre with gsm guess how much more needed money will that be for them and when the VZW version comes to VZW guess how much more money?

[pavlindrom @ Jul 16th 2009 4:28PM]

I'm all for the change. I like Nokia already. I actually have before I moved to the States more than five years ago. Whooosh, time flies fast. I remember when the 33xx was very popular indeed.

[joaquindel @ Jul 16th 2009 4:28PM]

In San Diego, off one major freeway (I can't remember) you can see about five big Nokia buildings. I think this may be the facilities they are talking about. Sony and Qualcomm also have buildings close by.

[john @ Jul 16th 2009 4:30PM]

It's not just about services...it is about phone design and OS and hardware.

Don't think for a second you can rest on your collective design laurels.

[cayton @ Jul 16th 2009 4:35PM]

I bought the E71 recently, and I love it. It's a great phone, and I'm a sucker for the physical keyboard. I'm all for more Nokia phones in the States.

[digitallysick @ Jul 16th 2009 5:18PM]

You should have bought mine I just sold it, the latest firmware causes inbound calls to lock up the phone at random. Also freezes with gps/maps on randomly. Plus the camera still takes purple pictures , even with the latest firmware

[sr @ Jul 16th 2009 6:47PM]

^^^ Yeah their SW is garbage. I too loved the E71 but then I realized what a buggy POS it really was. Another joke from Jokia.

[Rohan @ Jul 16th 2009 9:55PM]

Jokia - so clever. Oh man

[Bill Gates @ Jul 16th 2009 4:45PM]

"Americans apparently prefer names to numbers"

I lol'd.

[NutMac @ Jul 16th 2009 4:51PM]

I suppose outside USA, people prefer random model #, where models differ greatly even when model #s are similar, and higher # is sometimes lower-end but also sometimes higher-end.

[LondonConsultant @ Jul 17th 2009 4:05AM]

Would you rather own an EOS 350D or a Digital Rebel...

[BFish @ Jul 16th 2009 4:44PM]

Hourglass is the next big thing on mobiles ? Hard to even express how lost Nokia is...
--
>>Moreover, he said, a smartphone could ship with wallpaper that shows a scene from nature, instead of a simple blue background. Engineers are also working to add an hourglass icon that would appear while a function is loading, as users are accustomed to seeing in other applications.

[Khav @ Jul 16th 2009 4:49PM]

It's like the new iPhone commercials showing off the brilliant never-before-seen technology of copy and paste.

[periks19 @ Jul 16th 2009 5:04PM]

@khav

Or the commercial where it shows iphone recording video or how you can speak to the iphone to do what your want (voice control) I mean seriously how is this new or how is this suppose to make people go whoa thats never before seen technology.

[Ashwin Jadhav @ Jul 16th 2009 4:54PM]

Nokia: a word of advice; cut the crap and bring the damn phones stateside.
Saying that Stateside customers like names more than numbers is just plain stupid. The devices should speak for themselves, look at HTC. Make some decent ads and show off the phones. Does anyone remember ever seeing a Nokia ad on tv? Not me....

[d0brii @ Jul 16th 2009 5:00PM]

I never liked Nokia, Quite frankly it is last brand that I would consider now days, With IPhone, BlackBerry and Palm,...

[Brian @ Jul 16th 2009 4:59PM]

Holy bezels, Nokia! What is up with that?

[periks19 @ Jul 16th 2009 5:13PM]

I mean if nokia wants to make an impact in the USA they will need to make good cdma devices and distribute them to verizon and Sprint also. Currently there are more cdma subscribers in the USA so making a gsm and cdma businesswise it makes sense to get more sales.

[periks19 @ Jul 16th 2009 5:15PM]

I mean if nokia wants to make an impact in the USA they will need to
make good cdma devices and distribute them to verizon and Sprint
also. Currently there are more cdma subscribers in the USA so making
a gsm and cdma businesswise it makes sense to get more sales.

[DirtyVegas @ Jul 16th 2009 5:18PM]

More handsets, more subsidies. Can't imagine dishing out 500 plus for a phone.

[bjsguess @ Jul 16th 2009 9:16PM]

This is what it boils down to for many consumers. The N95 and N97 are great phones but who among us has $600 to go drop on a device when a similar featured phone can be found for $200-$300.

You bring in your higher end devices, get subsidies that $300-$400 and I think you will see phones gaining popularity in the US.

[snuxoll @ Jul 18th 2009 1:32AM]

And with subsidies becomes the traditional carrier crippling, yay!

[digitallysick @ Jul 16th 2009 5:19PM]

The E71 and N95 are about the only decent nokia devices out there. (and those phones with similar styles)

The nokia pc suite is horrible, its bloatware, and windows only

[papari @ Jul 16th 2009 5:34PM]

The clash with the carriers goes all the way to the 90's, and it's incredible it's still going on. Thank God they're finally going to have get on with it.

But we're talking about a huge company here, and some of the most important decisions are, hate admit it, being made on the wrong side of the planet. So when the big bosses misjudge or quite don't get something (maybe due to the cultural differences), it's going to steer the company in the wrong direction for a relatively long time.

So now that Nokia is finally giving the US market a real shot, they should make their American division more independent. Recruit the right people, give them enough resources, but don't hamper with the results; that would be my advice for Nokia. This move could end up revitalizing their R&D and marketing on both sides of the Atlantic.

I know corporation giants like Nokia don't tend to follow the trends with quite the same agility as smaller companies, because of the long term planning (and the market control they misjudged and took for granted), but solely relying on long term growth, and the emerging markets, just isn't going to be enough.

They should oil their most creative part of their R&D wheel, give it a real good spin and see where it stops. Getting rid of the old ways of doing things and hiring better mid-level management to replace the old chaps could be one significant leap in the right direction. After all, getting into the mobile phone business has been Nokia's boldest move in it's existence, so they should have the balls to dramatically change things.

[Logboy @ Jul 16th 2009 5:37PM]

Yes your strategy in the past is to make it so unaffordable and hard to get that nobody buys them.

And if America "Apparently likes names better than numbers", well, buy a dictionary.

[Pre-determined @ Jul 16th 2009 5:38PM]

is this a rebuttal to Thomas Ricker's early AM EST write-up on Nokia's dismal, yet subjective, financial performance?

[Zale @ Jul 16th 2009 5:40PM]

Does anyone perhaps know why Nokia is waking up now?

Was it because they were never "allowed" into the US market (FCC mafia), or because they just never cared about the US market?

In any case, they need to hire a designing team to redesign their products and software. It looks atrocious.

[papari @ Jul 16th 2009 5:58PM]

It's many things, yeah.

I think the most dramatic mistake has been the complete misjudgment of the emerging handset makers like Apple and RIM. When Motorola was king of the hill with Razr, Nokia slowly got up and started rolling out flip phones from every corner of Earth, and nowadays Motorola's handset division is almost on the brink of bankruptcy.

Nokia probably thought they could do the exact same thing with the touchscreen phones, but like my previous post states, I'm pretty sure they completely misjudged the impact iPhone had. The American consumer is different than the European one, and Apple is not Motorola, Apple's marketing isn't Motorola's marketing. So having such a limited experience on the US consumer markets, and trying to apply the old playbook from the Razr era, they ended up making the completely wrong decisions.

They lost their business sector to RIM for just pure stupidity. I think RIM is going to end up suffering a lot in the coming months, and years, and I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

[dd @ Jul 16th 2009 5:59PM]

This blog post explains some of the reasons why Nokia hasn't been doing so well in US among some other things, it's a bit long :)

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/06/a-tale-of-two-smartphones-us-vs-rest-of-world-compared.html

[Maciek @ Jul 16th 2009 5:46PM]

Where's the F--ING support for T-Mobile US???? I was a Nokia whore but seeing how they totally ignore "magenta" here in the US land, I finally, and REGRETFULLY, flipped them a finger. I'm not proud to say it but I want my 3G in a nice phone, not some piece of crap flipper.

Maciek
symbiosis60.com

[rayfreitag @ Jul 16th 2009 6:00PM]

Come on, Nokia is no better nor worse than LG, Samsung. When compared to Apple it depends: are you talking about being evil or what?
The real point there is that American carriers are the closest in the World, trying to have all the power on their side!
That's never good to us, as far as you are a consumer, like me (and the most of us here)
Wake up!

[Brian @ Jul 16th 2009 6:16PM]

advertising, that's all you need to sell millions. Americans are so incredible stupid and uneducated when it comes to buying things. As long as you run an incredible ad campaign, it doesn't matter if every single review spot gives it 1/5, 3/10, or 0/100, it will sell like Mcdonald's food at a fatty McFatFat convention.

[gerbick @ Jul 16th 2009 6:16PM]

If Nokia thinks that the name is the main problem with their decline in the US... I can see why they've lost 2/3rd of their earnings so far in Q2. It's much bigger than that.

If AT&T subsidized the N97, you'd see more of them being sold. Heck, the only N-Series sold by an US Carrier was the weird N73 that didn't have wifi or anything of the such during the days of the very powerful N93i and such. I know that the US is an odd nut to crack; and the inherent superiority to having the option of an unlocked phone... but the average Joe Blow consumer doesn't care about that at all.

They want a high-priced phone as close to $0 as they can get even if it means they sign their soul away for 2+ years on contract. Nokia, bring your best phones (N-Series) to the US, have SOMEBODY subsidize them. And fix Ovi, start marketing Maemo, and get friendly with Adobe's Open Screen Project. And for once.. listen to what people want, stop giving stuff that people really don't even care about.

[jdechko @ Jul 16th 2009 6:34PM]

This.

Nokia needs to realize that here in the US, we are pretty cheap when it comes to phones. We, as a whole, won't pay for an unlocked, unsubsidized phone. Bring your N-series and E-series to the US carriers and let them brand it and subsidize it for you and you'll enjoy a lot more success here in the US.

I really like the N86, and would possibly buy its successor if it were available on ATT.

[Yagami Light @ Jul 16th 2009 7:40PM]

N86 isnt shitty enough for AT$T

[Chris A @ Jul 16th 2009 6:27PM]

They should come up with a subsidized E63 and E75 to go along with the E71. VERY excited about getting the E75 (eBay) now that my G1 broke last week.