Remember a few months ago when Stephen Elop wrote that masterful letter to his fellow Nokia staff members in which he speaks of them as being a burning platform? I do and at the time I thought it was a brilliant piece of leadership used by Elop to motivate his staff. However as time goes on I am beginning to think that this might go down as one of the greatest pieces of Astroturfing ever. For those not familiar with astroturfing it is “the artificial creation of a grassroots buzz for a product, service or political viewpoint.” Let me explain..
Regular readers will be aware of my reservations concerning Nokia. I believe they are backing the wrong horse (Microsoft) with regards to their operating system. Alongside RIM they are bleeding subscriptions and users to other manufacturers (“cough” iPhone and Android). So the picture looks far from rosy and one would expect that they are focussed on ensuring a revival of the brand and its products right?
Just as things were starting to look better for them, they pull a fast one of epic proportions. Nokia has unveiled a new product naming convention. They will simply be putting a number between a 100 and 900 after their name without any alphabetical letter to denote the range name. The range will start from 100 (the most basic cellphone) and top out at 900 (the top of the range), with the next digits being unique identifiers for individual devices. They claim that this is to ensure that they do not confuse the users with the difference between a Nokia X7 and a C7. I think potentially this might confuse more Nokia owners than make it more clear.
Needless to say I think this is sweating the small detail which is not going to take the attention away from their bigger problems. Can you imagine having to explain to someone what the difference between a Nokia 230 and a Nokia 240 is? I can and it aint a pretty sight.
Nokia as much as I loved you at the beginning stages of being a cellphone owner, you need to make better products. It really is that simple. Worry about this kind of detail after you have unveiled at least 50 Windows Phone 7 products otherwise this will all lead to a big zero.
