The uproar over Apple Inc.’s and AT&T Mobility’s travails with hackers could help Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. gain visibility, tout the virtues of their own unlocked devices and, naturally, steal a march on their crafty competitor.
Nokia denies any coincidence between its “unlock” ad campaign and the iPhone controversy. Nokia has launched an advertising campaign that runs ads in prominent newspapers in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, featuring an icon of an unlocked padlock and either of two statements: “Phones should be open to anything” or “The best devices have no limits.”
What is the meaning of this?
Johann Eidhagen, Nokia’s director of marketing for its multimedia devices in North America, said the campaign has nothing to do with the iPhone. The padlock icon conveys instead a sense that consumers could “unlock their potential” using a Nokia N series device, he said. “Open to anything” simply touts that N series devices can host third-party applications, he added. The ads are merely the first, “buzz” phase of an extensive media campaign to tout the N series, Eidhagen said, and the public would see more detailed, related ads soon.
Motorola, for its part, features its unlocked phone offers on the most prominent link off its homepage. The banner, “Hello Freedom,” (a play on Moto’s signature “Hello Moto” phrase) calls attention to a full page of unlocked Motorola phones that the company said had been on offer for more than a year. Just not via the prominent, leading banner on the vendor’s homepage, one is tempted to add.
They say timing is everything. Or is that what they say about location? Both observations fit here.
Locked to the core
Meanwhile, by late last week, it appeared that Apple and its shadow of earnest hackers had drawn lines in the sand. Apple’s iPhone-related spokeswoman, Jennifer Bowcock, stood by her latest public remark that those who had unlocked their phones, then had their devices rendered inoperable by an Apple software update, should simply go purchase another device.
The anonymous iPhone Dev Team-individual identities remain covert due to the murky legalities involved in the distribution of unlocking procedures-which had released the free AnySim unlock solution, in turn vowed to provide iPhone owners with another tool to return the device to its factory default state.
The sense that Apple may have contractual obligations to AT&T Mobility to discourage unlocking or any other tampering with the device could not be confirmed with the carrier. AT&T Mobility spokesman Mark Siegel said that the carrier has not and will not discuss terms of its agreement with Apple and he referred further questions on the matter to Apple.
Siegel said that the number of actual unlockers was probably in “inverse proportion” to the amount of press devoted to the issue.
“The overwhelming majority of our customers are thrilled with the device,” Siegel said.
Apple wedges
But Nokia and Motorola clearly played off a growing sense that Apple had intentionally punished some members of its loyal fan base by rendering their unlocked iPhones inoperable, or by wiping out unauthorized, third-party applications. That sense was captured by one headline on the Hardware 2.0 Website: “iBricks will be a PR nightmare for Apple.”
Thus Nokia and Motorola’s attempts, however blatant by Nokia or subtle by Motorola, to use the issue as a wedge to break the public’s fascination with Apple’s disruptive entry into the handset market.
Last week, New York-based brand expert Alan Siegel, of Siegel+Gale, said that Apple had made several missteps, beginning with its abrupt price cut to the 8 GB iPhone ($600 to $400 within two months of release). Siegel had praised Apple’s recent, seemingly friendly reminder that altering the phone would void its warranty, but warned that beyond the friendly reminder lay a minefield of possible PR disasters. That was before Apple deliberately bricked unlocked iPhones with its software update. That effectively meant that Apple’s friendly reminder about warranties amounted to code for “we’re going to brick your iPhone if you messed with it.”
“You have to be careful,” Siegel said last week. “These are very sophisticated people buying your products.”
The audience for Nokia’s advertising is just as sophisticated, apparently. Despite extensive discussion of Nokia’s new ads on various blogging sites, not one even considered the possibility that the ads were explicitly designed to tout the N series of devices. Most comments simply cited the ads to launch discussion of the iPhone unlocking controversy.
But Nokia’s Eidhagen insisted that everyone must have gotten it wrong.
“The campaign is not about locked and unlocked products,” Eidhagen said. “We simply mean these (N series) products are open for experimentation, third-party development and that you can actually evolve with the product as you use it. That’s our message. We’re talking here about ‘unlocking your potential.’ Our devices give you the freedom to use them in any way you see fit.”
“This campaign is being designed and run to support our retail marketing efforts in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco to coincide with the launch of our new, high-speed N95,” Eidhagen added. “The phrase ‘open to anything’ came from one of our advertising agencies and we fell in love with it because it spoke to the potential of our product.”
