Many phones, one cool phone and some phones

Today we know how many Nokia phones were sold and how many Apple iPhones were sold for the last quarter and it talks a lot about the way their marketing has gone.

Nokia shipped 15 million phones in the 3rd quarter down from 18 million in Q3 2007 and marginally lower than the previous quarter. Nokia did better on E-Series compared to N-Series.

In the same quarter, Apple's iPhone sold 4.4 millions devices which was significantly higher than last year but also significantly lower than the last quarter.

Nokia goes to market with enviably large lineup of consumer phones - N-Series and business phones - E-Series with basically the same underlying software S60 and is available on most markets and traditionally been strong in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific markets.

Apple is available in its iconic iPhone model *only* so far but has scooped the North American market. As it is getting available in other world markets, iPhone killer pretenders have started started to appear in these markets too denting Apple's ability to create the same impact as the North American market.

That Apple could garner the sales it has has shown that the market is always prime for neatly packaged and marketed product which is backed by *design* selling points. It has to be noted that iPod was a pointer in this direction. Apple replicated not only the design selling points of iPhone but also the revenue engine strategy    - App Store much line the iTunes service. Inevitable successes as they are they highlighted a sustaining business model which other players including Nokia could'nt figure out earlier. But it was anyway there to the see - the iPod model was there. Apple may well do the iPod redux for the iPhone - Nano and themes built around the same icon.

Nokia's Tube, its earnest challenger to iPhone comes with free music and seems to take the fight to the iPhone camp. However, the story is that the E-Series might hold the key for Nokia whose business phones are making compelling alternatives in the enterprise segment.

What about the other contenders? Samsung and LG are doing well in their own right but lose out on the content platform in the long run. HTC has emerged as a good contender with its own avatars of smartpones and then there is the Android factor. One area of mobile usage that is the mobile marketing will be tapped by Android phones when they are widely available.

Android has had a lot of negative press with long delays but has compensated with a winner in G1. With lot of takers for openhandsetalliance, Android is presenting a great means for many of the handset vendors to stay in the race. Many - the Samsungs, LGs, Motorolas, HTC may well gravitate towards Android for lack of compelling content and future could be a tug for equilibrium between Nokia, iPhone and the Android in most markets.

P.S.: I would like to post on some brave new phones sometime :)

Image : xataka.com 

Soul searching for Symbian

A nice editorial feature on AAS on what makes most impressions. If it is a phone the impressions are with an iPhone and not an N95 8GB. Steve, here deliberates on the impression factors like screen size, brightness, vivid colors, form factor. Added with a new way of interacting with gadgets it makes the package irresistible. Symbian phone makers - Nokias and Samsungs should weigh in these factors too even though their numbers are healthy.

A lot of phones out there could do a lot more than the iPhone, but for an iPhone user these might be the features that she does not bother about. Even some of the power users, would have realized the shortcomings of iPhone later and bore with it. That is the effect of impression-based sell.

The economics of handset development is skewed towards incremental development where the life of a base model gets extended with minimal changes to the basic interfacing for umpteen models and that's what happens when you have successful model like the Nokia N Series. A close study will show that even without touch, the Symbian interface needs a makeover to create that cool impression with ordinary folks.