It was in November 2014 when
the Nokia CEO officially announced that Nokia would not be making cellphones
anymore. Though it didn't happen globally and Microsoft bought Nokia, the brand
could not be revived. Microsoft experimented with Nokia, first as Nokia, then
as Lumia. It also tried a layered formula - Nokia for feature phones and Lumia
for smartphones.
The catch was to develop a
cellphone OS version of the world's most successful computer OS, Microsoft's
Windows. Two years down the line, now there is a very real possibility that
Microsoft would soon issue the official line that is shutting down its phone
making operations.
Nokia was the global handset
leader for 14 years till April 2014 when Samsung outdid it becoming the world's
largest handset maker. Since then it is all the Samsung and Apple. In fact,
Apple's entry in the smartphone market in 2007 was the beginning of the end for
Nokia. Apple saw a meteoric rise. And so Samsung who rode the Android wave with
Google, the most innovative of the tech giants, launching first Android OS (Android
1.0) in September 2008.
So, Apple had finesse and
panache and Samsung had versatility of Android, but Nokia had none.
When the road ahead was clearly
going to be smartphoned, Nokia was still banking on its feature phones. It
didn't develop fast and beautiful products like iPhone and iOS or versatile
products like Samsung's smartphone range or Google iOS.
By the time it realized its
fault, the damage was already done and any chance to recovery was beyond any
threshold of redemption. Android was free for everyone but Nokia failed to see
the opportunity even if its Symbian OS with shabby and unacceptable apps looked
archaic in front of iOS and Android - functionally as well as aesthetically.
Now, in 2016, Apple is the most
profitable cellphone maker. Google's Android is the most widely used OS. And Samsung
is still the largest cellphone maker by volumes of sale and shipment.
While Nokia is still looking
for some lease of life, this time trying to collaborate with a Finnish business
outfit that will manufacture the Nokia brand cellphones and Nokia will get
royalty.
Today brought another news of
another mobile phone world leader of its time going out of the business.
BlackBerry, once the darling
of Canada, America and the corporate world elsewhere (including India) today
declared that it would not be making smartphones anymore. The company said it
would now focus on its software business and would outsource the handset
manufacturing requirements.
BlackBerry also died in the
wave that came with iPhone, Samsung phones and Android iOS though the basics
were different. BlackBerry was always a smartphone company with its encrypted
software solutions that made it a must have gadget for the corporate honchos, something
that ultimately became its nemesis. Communication is the mainstay of any
business and BlackBerry targeted it. The strategy paid rich dividends initially.
Its parent company, Research In Motion's (RIM) share zoomed to an all time high
in 2008 and Fortune had declared RIM as the fastest growing tech company in
2009.
But that was it.
The corporate and enterprise
focus that had brought glory to BlackBerry, soon became a black-hole for it
that made every attempt to redo its strategies void - because the company was
still roaming in the wilderness of mobile phone devices with efficient
messaging and communication platforms while the new entrants were rapidly
ramping up the mobile phone market to handheld computing devices that would act
as all-serving entertainment hubs - be it messaging or emails or chats or
complete web browsing or a never ending app ecosystem fuelling interest and
engagement.
BlackBerry saw corporate consumers
and enterprises as its base while companies like Apple, Samsung and Google saw consumers
in everyone - be it a business leader or a politician or a celebrity or a
common man. And their product offerings were designed keeping them in mind.
They were able to cater to every class of consumer. So when a CEO found that an
iPhone or a Samsung phone with Android iOS could have provided the comfort of communication
that a BlackBerry device would provide and at the same time, would also act as
a handheld computing device offering a world of entertainment, he immediately
switched to it. And BlackBerry's fall shows it, indeed, was the case.
So, the company that was the
fastest growing tech company of 2009, was sold for less than $5 Billion in 2013
and it still hovering in the range of a market cap of $5 Billion - a meteoric
fall from a high of $83 Billion worth of market cap.
Though BlackBerry was a
masterly combination of hardware and software, like Nokia, it failed to read
the pulse of the market. Like Nokia, by the time BlackBerry realized where it
erred, it had become too late. Nokia failed to move on from feature phones to
smartphones while BlackBerry failed to move on from corporate-centric
smartphones to people-centric handheld entertainment hubs.
Featured Image Courtesy:
Screenshots collage from BlackBerry and Nokia websites
©SantoshChaubey
