Nokia Microsoft: my tuppence worth

My tuppence worth of smart arse observations about Nokia

I would like to add a few points regarding Nokia that I "feel" haven't been given sufficient coverage.

A personal insight into why Nokia has always been lagging behind in regards to the all important third-party apps.

When Zipipop started back in 2007, we became Finland's first company to make Facebook apps and in 2008 we won the Mobile 2.0 Best Early Stage Startup award in Barcelona for our Zipiko app.

Zipiko had been started as part of a Nokia competition, and the challenges we faced with our commitment to developing on the diverse Symbian web browsers is easily understood; however, not so well known is the attitude we encountered with Nokia's third party developer support team.

We attended a meeting with them to find out if they could provide any support in making Zipiko work better on Nokia phones.  The result was (remember it was 2008): pay 400 € and we give you the license to develop for us, and access to some extra documents on our developer portal. Doesn't sound like much to pay, but it was a lot for us at the time when we got almost nothing in return.

The attitude was basically: we are by far the largest maker of phones and it is your privilege that we let you develop for us. One of the team members was also totally dismissive of Facebook (which is a choice I respect, but not if you are in the mobile app developer business).

Not long after came Apple with its pay 100 USD and we give you an advanced SDK (software development kit), and easy-to-use app store, and a share in the sales.   Unfortunately we were too committed to Nokia, and our resources got consumed alongside the infamous "burning platform".

Things were later improved regarding third-party developers, but I totally agree with this 2011 analysis post (three years later) in the All About Symbian blog:

"The biggest failure in the Ovi strategy is that Nokia fundamentally underestimated the importance of third party applications. Ovi Store was slow to arrive at the start line of the app store race and the early implementation was poor. While the implementation has improved markedly, it is still fundamentally limited by an inadequate software catalogue, which is the direct result of failing to fully connect with developers and build the services, tools and platform requirements they needed to create a sustainable business."

So to this extent I think Elop was right in saying;

"The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems."
 
And to this extent I was supportive of the move towards Microsoft, in the sense that they at least did software (and hopefully app portals) better than Nokia, and there was the potential to tie into the substantial goodwill amongst businesses.

One thing is not listening, but another thing is not being told.

When I first came to Finland I was very aware that it was almost sacrreligious to criticize Nokia – both personally and especially not in the press.

So it used to worry me that the Nokia execs could potentially go about their day-to-day business in Finland, attending private dinner parties, etc. not even hearing suggestions that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

When my relatives and friends in the UK started swapping their Nokia's for the Samsung and Motorola clamp-shell phones (e.g. the Razr) around 2005, I tried hard to find a Nokia clampshell in London stores but Nokia didn't make one: Nokia's attitude was that it was just a phase and they didn't start producing a clam-shell until the significant "phase" was coming to an end – by which time huge swathes of users had abandoned ship.

So I am well aware that the fact I am writing this post now shows that I too was party to that silence.

Developing software iteratively in short time periods works – but not for physical devices

We are all aware of how Nokia's early fame for being easy to use got replaced with a reputation for being difficult to use – so I won't dwell on that; however, I did get really fed up with the many substantial faults in my various Nokia phones that I believe was the result of trying to rapidly develop physical devices iteratively in a similar way as software, but this doesn't work for physical things:  new models of the same phone would come out with fixes to the things that were broken or broke (sometimes physically) in previous (and recent) models.

In my case a stronger case fixing to the lanyard (mine snapped off) was added to the N92, and a harder screen to the N95 (the first soft one cracked in my pocket).

And after a while I lost all interest in the multitude of new upcoming models because they seemed to come out every month and it was impossible to keep track – compared to the hype surrounding the yearly release of the "signal" new iPhone. 

OK, I finally got that all out of my system – time to look forward

So I appoligise for taking this opportunity to use this post as a cathartic opportunity to release some long-buried angst.

I do believe that the Microsoft tie up will ensure Nokia remains at least the third big player in the market.

But it will take something extra to bring them higher – a few years ago at a private party one Nokia exec said he liked my Nokia King of Keys strategy – but I never saw any developments in that regard.

Maybe they should listen to it again ; )

Nokia – King of Keys

Now that Nokia CEO Elop has chosen to back Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform the race is truly on. There are many pros about this arrangement, but I believe Nokia should add another key strategic element that will help it go beyond potentially being just an "as good" option. And I believe that this should be keys. Key management is a complex challenge for both large and small organizations and Nokia is ideally positioned to become the King of Keys.

Like Google's Nexus 2, it will not be long before Nokia phones start shipping with a built in technology called Near Field Communication (NFC). This is a short-range wireless communication technology standard that enables the exchange of data between devices over a short distance. This has many potential uses and one of them is keys.

Many of us nowadays are used to having some form of wireless electronic key for accessing organizational buildings, which often require the typing of an additional pin code. These two components can easily be built into a mobile phone with the added advantage of being able to issue and remove keys remotely.

Trials of NFC mobile keys are now starting to happen. For example, a Clarion Hotel in Stockholm has recently partnered with the mobile operator TeliaSonera and one of the world's biggest automated key companies ASSA ABLOY to test replacing keys with mobiles. ASSA ABLOY has developed software that can issue hotel keys before guests arrive and they can even leave without having to physically check-out. This could also be used for guests coming to visit corporate buildings. ASSA ABLOY is a Nordic company (with half Finnish roots) and my advice is that Nokia should go and talk with them – if they are not already.

Nokia's strengths have, over the years, been more around engineering and this service is all about technology; and the pin codes would be entered through a standard number pad. So it would be a match made in heaven. A Qualcommm representative told me that there are still challenges with varying standards around NFC, but this would play to Nokia's advantage, since they still have the leverage to enforce a worldwide standard related to NFC keys.

Also the combination of Microsoft's business credentials would work well with organizations looking for a solid key issuing system. A Nokia executive a few months back (at a party) was not initially enthusiastic about this King of Keys idea, since he said that the direct to business sales is a relatively small part of their operations – but then immediately his eyes lit up and he said that he would definitely consider it.

This is an open market and Nokia should act quickly to claim the space.

It is not if, it's when

It is not a matter of when mobile advertising really takes off, it is only a matter of when. Just check out these two quotes from two of the biggest players in the internet and advertising world:

“In a few years mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on the normal web.” Eric Schmidt, Google CEO (2008)

“Mobile is the most overhyped thing that I have ever heard of in the short term but the most under hyped thing that I have ever heard of in the medium term.” Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP Chief Executive (2008)

Therefore I was delighted to be invited to speak on a panel at the IIR Mobile Advertising Amsterdam conference last month. There was some complaints that it was the same old same old, however, I still found useful facts, inspiration and much to ponder upon.

I was there to introduce the importance of knowing people's intentions – both for providing useful services but also as a way to make services more appealing to advertisers. Since if you know people's intentions you can offer advertisers a chance to influence them.




It is interesting to note that in the mobile sector one of the few services to be maturing and generating significant revenues is turn-by-turn navigation, and this is a service that deals with clear intentions, i.e. intentions to get from A to B. This knowledge is enabling them to provide preference-based, contextually relevant advertising, i.e. where is my next preferred service station. Could it be that services that can clearly identify their users’ intentions have a better chance of succeeding?

So what other key things stood out during the conference:

Mind your PPPs

The three Ps (Privacy, Preference, Permission) came up again and again. The idea being that you need to obtain all three from people before you can feed them advertising. And it turns out that many European mobile operators are busy creating opt-in databases of users willing to receive advertising in return for benefits.

This makes perfect sense since the mobile is a particularly personal devise that advertisers need to treat with the greatest respect. These same criteria should be applied to the web in general and I am wondering when a PPP component will be integrated into browsers, so that ad feeds can provide more personal and contextually relevant adds.

Click through and creativity

Thomas Curwen, a market planning director, introduced the notion that the obsession with click through is damaging to mobile internet since it underplays the importance of brand awareness and attitude shifting that can be obtained from more conventional "impression-based" advertising.

Another theme of the conference – also forcefully pointed out by Paul Berney (Managing Director EMEA, MMA) – is that currently the mobile industry is not making enough effort to engage with agencies. And Curwen also made an easily missed point that currently advertising "creatives" are just not excited by the perceived potential of mobile advertising – particularly for winning awards. Blyk (the service that provides free mobile usages in exchange for personalized ads) showed some of the most created mobile adverts and campaigns I have seen.

Mobile web browsing is different

One of the biggest problems highlighted with mobile advertising has been the lack of accurate statistics of mobile web usage that the media planners and buyers need. And it was interesting to hear about the GSMA MMM (Mobile Media Metrics) project for sharing data between the UK's top mobile providers in order to deliver more useful information about mobile and mobile internet usage.

Data presented by Nielsen showed that not surprisingly news, sport and weather are popular web sectors for mobile users. Also, it is important to bear in mind that mobile internet is accessed at different times of day than desk bound usage. Again it is not surprising that around 60% of respondents said that they use mobile internet while traveling; however, about 50% said that they use it at home – which suggest that it is becoming easier for them to engage with their mobile device than it is to sit down at a computer. There are also peaks around lunchtime and some restaurant campaigns in London have used this fact to great success.



The Four Rules of Engagement

Jonathan McDonald was both a great host and a significant presence at the conference. He gave a fluid and engaging presentation that was half prep talk and half a imploration to the industry to pay attention both to ancient aspects of human behaviour and the the impact of the modern fluid, transparent nature of the internet. The days of marketers not playing straight are numbered due to the speed which negative information can spread around the web through blogs, Twitter, etc.

I was particularly inspired by his Four Rules of Engagement that he effectively agures should be applied to all aspects of life but in particular to marketing:

The Rules of Engagement:

1) Transparency of Offering (make it crystal clear)
2) Relevancy of Communication (not assumed, but assured)
3) Value of Incentive (not necessarily monetary)
4) Ease of Interaction (make it intuitive)

Read more about how to apply these in this excellent blog entry.

The iPhone Effect

We all know about this so I will just show these stats to remind us about the effect of an intuitive interface, reliability and unlimited data plans.



Summary

Mobile ad spending may currently only be about 1% of radio spend, however, this was also the case with internet advertising around ten years ago. However, it is predicted that mobile internet will develop much faster. And don't think of mobile internet in terms of screen size and connection speeds, think of it in terms of context of use – in particular location and time.