Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
This week saw a number of big players in the mobile space roll out their quarterly results, which traditionally for the fourth quarter are pretty solid thanks to all that holiday shopping and what not.
However, instead of everyone whooping and hollering about how awesome they are doing, there was a cloud of despair for many companies that was rightly or wrongly blamed on the impending launch of Apple Inc.’s iPhone at Verizon Wireless. It was sort of depressing.
Here are these big-wigs of the corporate world sounding like they have a case of the Monday’s all because the nation’s largest carrier is on the verge of selling the world’s most iconic mobile device. Why all the blues?
The deepest shade of blue appeared at Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Nokia Corp., two device makers that have seen their share of struggles since the first iPhone teleported from some distant planet and onto the scene back in 2007. At that time Motorola was the virtual king of the world thanks to its own iconic device, the Razr, while Nokia was still seen as the 800-pound gorilla of the device space thanks to its overwhelming dominance in worldwide market share.
Fast-forward – or teleport – to today and it’s a much different story for both companies. After hitting rock bottom, Motorola has seemingly been able to gain some momentum thanks to its smart phone platforms powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system. However, that momentum has come at the expense of just about any other device segment and was to an extent bank rolled by Verizon Wireless, which is now set to welcome Apple to its device fold.
The news is more depressing for Nokia. Sure, those Finns are still No. 1 in worldwide sales volume, but that is mostly due to its engrained brand recognition and not because of innovation. The company continues to cling to its Symbian operating system that by the day looks more archaic compared with Android and Apple’s iOS. But, they are serious about the U.S. market, so that’s nice.
But, back to the blues.
In a move that whether correct or not seemed premature, Motorola Mobility’s CEO Sanjay Jha this week said that the company was feeling the impact of the iPhone landing at Verizon Wireless during the fourth quarter. You know, even before the device going to Verizon Wireless was announced. That has got to be a bad sign. If Motorola was being impacted by the launch of a device at its preferred domestic carrier before that device was even announced to be heading to that carrier, well … that perhaps is enough reason to be blue.
Further depressing the scene was Nokia, which for a company that is still the largest manufacturer of mobile devices in the solar system, sure does know how to bring down a crowd. It’s newly instated CEO noted that “Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution. In short, the industry changed, and now it’s time for Nokia to change faster,” admitted CEO Stephen Elop. Really Stephen!?! This guy has a history in the mobile device space and has he only now realized that Nokia is in desperate need of a change?
Nokia is not currently a player at Verizon Wireless, so the move of the iPhone there is not really of much concern in some regards. But, few would argue that Apple’s presence and success in the mobile space is not doing Nokia any favors. And, with the iPhone gaining yet another carrier outlet and one with a different technology than the original device, it does show that Nokia’s continued inability to produce compelling devices that are compatible with multiple technologies is comical. And not in a funny ha ha sort of way either. More of the sad panda suffering from the blues sort of way.
In addition, the one domestic carrier Nokia seems to have a stable relationship has recently decided it was not interested in carrying some one of its flagship devices. Ouch!
One positive for both companies is that now with AT&T Mobility losing its domestic exclusivity of the iPhone, the carrier seems to have realized that there are other smart phones out there that people might like to know about. Sure, other operators have for years been touting devices that were “as good” or “better” than the iPhone, but it’s hard to imagine anyone going into an AT&T Mobility store assuming that the carrier sold anything but the iPhone.
But, as with all good plans, I am sure this one have a higher chance of failure than success. And that would be just sad, for if the status for these two companies remains quo, the blues could become a permanent mood.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Now, I am not saying that one technology or another is set to rule the 4G world, but when you get something as technology neutral as the FCC to endorse your acronym, you are in pretty good shape.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@ardenmedia.com.</a
