For anyone who follows mobile tech closely, it is no secret that both Nokia and BlackBerry are struggling to reinvent themselves. Both were dominant players way back when, Nokia with their feature phones, and BlackBerry with their smartphones. Both were late into the era brought forth by the original iPhone, and both paid a great price.
Introducing a brand new platform into the market these days is incredibly hard, especially in a time where iOS and Android absolutely dominates the market. Just ask Nokia and BlackBerry. But while BlackBerry’s marketshare has been steadily in decline, Nokia’s Lumia devices seems to be growing steadily. Slowly but surely.
1. Brand Perception
Nokia while struggling, seems to be able to keep their nose clean. They managed to avoid bad press as much as possible. This helps with brand perception to your regular consumer. Perhaps a little bit of psychology is at play here.
I would go out on a limb here and say that a lot of users my age probably had a Nokia as their first mobile phone. It was a glimpse of freedom, a way to stay in contact with friends. In other words, it’s a good memory.
When they see a new Nokia phone, at least they would be willing to at least give it a shot.
Not just that, if news regarding the company is constantly negative, how many developer would be willing to spend the effort to build apps for the platform when they constantly hear that the company is going out of business? Not a great business proposition for developers if you ask me.
2. Garner Interest
Nokia builds great hardware, and more. Take the Lumia 1020 for example. 41 MP, ZEISS lens, Backside-Illuminated, Optical Image stabilisation, 6 element lens and the icing on the cake, an additional Xenon flash. I have not seen one tech reviewer that doesn’t like the camera. Even if they might not like Windows Phone 8, they still talk about the phone’s camera hardware. This also gets your regular consumer talking, and discussing about the product. Basically, free publicity.
But still, it is a flagship priced phone. Not many are willing to sign a 2 year contract, or pay the off-contract price for a platform they are not sure about. I know I wouldn’t. That’s where the Lumia 520 comes in, a super cheap Windows Phone 8 device. At less than $200 off contract, it’s cheap enough to buy it just to give it a try. (Even I bought one myself just to play around with it) This will at least make it easier to get people to try platform, and give it a shot.
If not, the phone is $0 on a 2 year contract at the cheapest price plan. Great for those who are just transitioning from feature phones to smartphones. It’s cheap enough that there is no reason not to get it. Even if they might never use it for anything more than text and calls, it does not matter. All that matters is the number of users on their platform that they can tout to developers to encourage them to build apps for the platform.
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Slowly but surely, Nokia is slowly shipping more Lumia devices every quarter, gaining more major apps. On their last quarter, they shipped more Lumia devices than BlackBerry did BBOS and BB10 devices combined.
Could BlackBerry use the same strategy? I have no idea, I will let smarter people have a go at that. But I do know this. I want BlackBerry to survive and keep making hardware and software. Even after using phones from all 4 platforms regularly, I like BlackBerry 10 the best. It is efficient, and it is productive. There is loads of potential I see in the platform if they can continue to work on it. I have said time and time again, the Q10 is a few features (make more use out of the God damn keyboard) away from being the perfect device for me.
So Dear BlackBerry,
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