Nokia charmed the world Terminator style – I’ll be back – with their series of commercials for their upcoming devices and with their audacious response to Samsung at IFA 2012, in Berlin with a banner that read "Samsung: Nokia welcomes you back to Windows Phone". Of course, why wouldn’t Nokia be quirky with Samsung. After all, Samsung surprisingly, out of nowhere launched Samsung ATIV S, a first ever Windows Phone 8 smartphone. Nokia, which enjoys a close relationship with Microsoft seems to have lost the game of thrones by not launching the first ever Windows Phone 8. And lets be clear, with all the success that Samsung is enjoying with its Android range, we know it isn’t really that committed to the Microsoft’s platform.
In a way even Microsoft screwed Nokia over – by not letting them hold the throne. But does the title of first OEM to launch Windows Phone 8 device matter? Yes, it looks like.
Timing is everything
When Nokia announced its two Windows Phone 8 devices – the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, they did not announce the availability or pricing detail for the device. Although, according to the Nokia’s official press release, the devices are supposed to reach market by end of this year.
It baffles me that Nokia hasn’t learnt a dime from its past mistakes or from others glory. If we consider the press release there will be roughly 100 days between the announcement date and the availability of the device. One thing that Apple perfected and demonstrated us again and again is how they announced their magical device and made it available, again magically, to the consumers within next few days of the announcement.
Here’s what Nokia can learn from Apple – when you catch the attention of the kid with a candy, let them have it before someone else grabs their attention. Apple is about to launch its next version of iPhone 5 on September 12, 2012 and it’s expected to sell 160 million devices. Naturally when Apple unveils its next iPhone our consumers with the attension span of a kid will forget all about the Lumia devices.
At the time of writing this article, Nokia shares are almost 16% down after the announcement. Now don’t get me wrong, the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 comes with excellent hardware with wireless charging capability and some really attractive accesory. Yet, it didn’t excite the consumer for one reason – Nokia could not demonstrate Windows Phone 8. Well, Microsoft didn’t allow it to. Now if you follow the market, you’ll know hardware alone can’t temp consumers. It’s the software and hardware combination that sells, which Nokia couldn’t market at its event last night thanks to Microsoft’s precarious commitments. Nokia could have easily held an event in November where users are already seduced towards the Windows Phone 8 operating system by Microsoft themselves and launch it in the market within weeks.
Like I said earlier, timing is everything and Nokia’s good time in the market is in trouble. As it turns out neither Microsoft nor Samsung can be held responsible for Nokia’s free fall in the market. It’s the timing.
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