Nokia’s evolving product strategy

Nokia’s evolving product strategy
http://saunderslog.com/2008/02/17/nokias-evolving-product-strategy/
Along with other bloggers at MWC, I had an opportunity to meet with several Nokia representatives to discuss their new phone lineup early in the week.  A pair of those meetings were particularly interesting from the perspective of product management discipline, as they show the progression of features from one generation / product family to the next.
Juha Kokonnen explained that Nokia products are divided into five categories for five separate markets:
The Explore line is the technical leadership product line.  These are the N-series phones which push the boundaries of what a phone is.
The Live and Classic lines are the broad appeal products.  These can be inspirational in nature, supporting one particular feature very well, or style oriented.
The Achieve line is focused on the enterprise.  These are the E-series phones and smart phones.
The Entry line is focused on low end phones and emerging markets.
So what does that have to do with anything?  Well, classic "sunrise / sunset" product management strategy is to launch premium priced full featured products into the market at a high price point, and then segment the feature set over the lifetime of the follow on and more affordable products.  Paul Kunkel’s 1999 bookDigital Dreams explains how Sony does this so well in their products, and Nokia has apparently adopted a similar strategy.
Juha Kokonnen is the product director for Explore devices.  He talked with us pretty extensively about the N96 and the N78, both of whichI’ve already written about earlier in the week.   The N96 is the lead product in the N series line up.  All others have similar, but lesser capabilities — less memory, a lower quality camera, fewer video codecs, and so on.  The N96 is the ultimate media consumption and creation tool that Nokia sells.  From an industrial design perspective it’s also the lead, with the unique dual slider design it inherited from the N95, and the clever foot which pops out on the back to angle the phone and make it easier to to view.

The contrast between the N78 and the N96 is a perfect illustration of how products segment within a product line.  N78 is the successor to the very popular N73.  It’s a good media consumption phone, with built in music player, but not as good a media creation device as the N96, as it supports a less capable 3.2 megapixel camera.  It’s also smaller, and more pocketable than the N96.  For casual photography it’s perfect.  And, in a nod to its design as a media consumption device, the built-in FM transmitter in the N78 makes it a great way to listen to your music in the car.

Meeting with John Barry a little later, who represents the Broad Appeal 6200 series phones, we could immediately see the progression of features from the N series to this more affordable product line.  He showed us the 6220 "Classic", and the 6210 "Navigator".
 
The 6220 "Classic", while inheriting many of the features of the N95 / N96, has a smaller display, less memory, and is missing the industrial design touches. It’s still a great phone, but now it’s priced and marketed as a mid-market device rather than a high end device.
The 6210 "Navigator", by contrast, is a paradox.  It’s the most advanced navigation phone that Nokia sells, equipped with a compass and GPS, plus a three year subscription to Nokia Maps (value €217 - more than half the price of the phone!).  With its other features, it really should have been packaged as an N-Series device.  The specifications on the 6210 are nearly identical to the N78, plus it includes the map data subscription.  To show the impact of compass navigation, I recorded a short video from my meeting with John Barry.  It shows exactly how the map reorients itself depending on the position of the viewer.
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What does that tell us?  I’d surmise that Nokia thinks there is an opportunity to dominate the pedestrian navigation market, and they’re putting their best foot forward with this very capable device.
The cool thing about this latest crop of devices is that it really shows how far Nokia’s strategy has progressed.  When Ifirst wrote about the N90 in 2005, state of the art was a 2 megapixel camera.  Its music capabilities were good, but the PC software it came with was terrible.  The N90 also had very limited storage.  But as cell phones went, it was state of the art.  Nothing on the market could touch it.  In 2006 theN70 slider debuted, along with navigation.  Later that year first Nokia phone with large scale music storage appeared -the N91 with its 4 gig microdrive.  The N91 was also Nokia’s first phone with wifi.    In November of 2006,the N93 arrived, with anupgraded camera (now 3.2 megapixel).  Optimized for video, this was the first Nokia device that really showed the impact of high quality video in a camera form factor.  The companionN73 also hit the market at about the same time, but optimized for still photography.  And shortly after thatthe N80i slider debuted, optimized for internet and especially internet telephony.  In April of 2007, theN95 changed phones again by shipping with a whopping 5 megapixel camera and built in GPS.  The N95 was the first camera phone that I actually considered an adequate substitute for a dedicated camera.  Fast forward to the fall, andthe N81 upped the ante on music by shipping with 8G of solid state storage and newly optimized music software.
From a time line perspective, the features introduced have consistently debuted in one or two devices one year, and then migrated to the entire product line within 12 months.  And what we can see is that the Nokia product line is being optimized around music, the internet, photos and video, and now navigation.
2005 camera phones with 2 megapixels introduced.
2006 2 megapixels standard across N series product line
3.2 megapixel cameras, navigation, WiFi and music introduced
2007 3.2 megapixels, music, navigation and WiFi standard across N Series product line
5 megapixel cameras introduced, with 8M solid state storage
2008 3.2 megapixels, navigation and music migrate to 6200 series broad appeal phones
Compared to other devices in the market today — say the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry or any of the Windows Mobile devices — the starkest contrast is in how Nokia’s products are being designed for both content consumption and creation, while their competitors are primarily focused on content consumption.  You won’t find iPhone users, for example,streaming video using Qik. In addition, by far themost popular camera phone on Flickr is the N95.  That’s because when it comes to media creation the iPhone is the equivalent of a 2005 era Nokia phone.
For creative folks, nothing really beats Nokia. That seems to have been their vision from the beginning and it’s just now becoming obvious to the rest of us.  Moreover, as social networking grows to dominate the way that people share content, Nokia’s early focus on creating media may prove to be an overwhelming advantage. The person inside Nokia responsible for both the early vision around this product line, and the subsequent product management execution and focus has done an outstanding job.
Previewing Nokia’s new mobile range.
http://saunderslog.com/2008/02/11/previewing-nokias-new-mobile-range/
When you think of companies who really understand mobility and mobility use cases, there‘s only one contender, and it‘s Nokia.  Even Apple‘s iPhone, as pretty as it is, is a sophisticated expression of ideas that others pioneered first.  If you want to know where mobile is going, the company to watch is Nokia.
So it was with a great deal of anticipation that I accepted the invitation to sit down with a few of Nokia‘s product managers to preview their announcements for today - the Nokia 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, and the newest members of their multimedia computer line, the N78 and N96.  These products are at the confluence of the two major mobile trends today - social networking and multimedia.  They represent, in my opinion, both the future of mobility and the next logical expression of many trends that have been emerging for the last several years.
So let‘s begin with the Nokia 6210 Navigator.  Priced at 300 euros, this is a mid-range consumer slider phone with 8G of flash memory, a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, integrated GPS and a built-in compass.  The magnetometer-based compass is a great innovation, which allows this device to be targeted at the pedestrian navigator, rather than the automotive navigator.  Maps automatically orient themselves to the stance and position of the user, and with Nokia Maps 2.0, the device also knows about pedestrian routes.  It can, for instance, tell you to walk through a park or across the street to reach your destination.
Nokia Maps 2.0 incorporates satellite, 3D, and hybrid views. Taking full advantage of the graphics capabilities in the phones, it‘s capable of easily rotating maps to any viewing angle. Maps 2.0 has two modes - drive or walk.  As many will tell you, I am not a fan of phone‘s as devices for automobile navigation.  Nokia‘s goal with drive mode is to allow phones to become replacements for dedicated navigation devices.  They‘ve optimized their map retrieval algorithms to give performance equivalent to dedicated navigation devices.  In addition, with traffic information updates, it can now route drivers around traffic obstructions.  With these kinds of innovations, Nokia may yet convince me to abandon my dedicated navigation device.
In walk mode, Maps 2.0 incorporates pedestrian routes.  Perhaps most interesting, however, is the fusion of multimedia and maps that Maps 2.0 provides.  With multimedia travel guides, the phone can provide pictures, videos and walking tours of destinations.  The guides will be provided initially by Berlitz, but we should expect to also see guides from other well known travel guide companies.  Nokia representatives wouldn‘t confirm, but I wouldn‘t be surprised to see Frommers, Rough Cuts, or Lonely Planet.
The Nokia 6220 Classic is best described as N95 functionality, but at a consumer price point.  Priced at 325 euros, this is a slider with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, xenon flash, and a assisted GPS capabilities.  It‘s for imaging, and sharing.  In addition to the features we‘ve come to love in the N95, the 6220 also adds geotagging of photographs.  Now you can upload your photos to Flickr or Nokia‘s Share with Ovi, and they will be automatically geotagged. Nice!
The new N78 is really the successor to the N73.  It‘s a candybar style phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera, upgraded to include a 3.5mm headset jack and GPS.  Like the consumer grade 6200 series phones above, it also includes a GPS for geotagging capabilities.  Perhaps the most fun new feature, however, is the built-in FM transmitter.  Sitting in your car, you can now listen to your music through car‘s radio!
I also saw the N96, some details of which were leaked last week.  Optimized for video playback, the N96 supports multiple codecs, including DVB-H.  It also includes a 5 megapixel camera, and sports a whoping 16G of internal memory, and can have another 8G of SD added externally.  Nokia representatives informed me, given the screen size and compression, that this 24G of storage was enough for 20 to 25 Hollywood blockbuster.  And, in perhaps the best tradition of Nokia‘s industrial design heritage, it even includes a tiny pop-out kick stand that surrounds the camera lens.
In all, I was impressed.  The two new N-Series phones are the continued expression of Nokia‘s focus on multimedia.  The 6200 series phones take the innovations pioneered on the N-Series and make the available at consumer price points.  And the new focus on navigation across the entire range brings a host of new sophisticated tools for geo-tagging and sharing media, while also enabling new navigation scenarios.
Consumers are going to love these phones.  I certainly plan to take along a 6210 Navigator with multimedia travel guides this summer when our family vacations in Europe!
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=21bb0885-4c75-4958-b3a9-d15497872e0a&MatchID1=4647&TeamID1=6&TeamID2=8&MatchType1=2&SeriesID1=1170&PrimaryID=4647&Headline=Nokia+shifts+strategy
Anita Sharan, Hindustan Times
Email Author
February 15, 2008
First Published: 03:45 IST(15/2/2008)
Last Updated: 03:49 IST(15/2/2008)
In a major shift from its product-centric strategy that it has successfully run with for years, Nokia has decided to become solutions-centric. What it’s beginning to do in India – its second largest market after China – reflects a global shift in strategy.
Devinder Kishore, director marketing, Nokia India, says, “We are moving into selling solutions. Devices will not be the only thing any longer. Over the next three-to-six months, we will be offering combinations of products and services…there will be lots of services.”
For example, the just-launched Nokia 6110 Navigator whose integrated GPS offers location-based services to the consumer, besides 3G, multimedia and camera features. While GPS is also integrated with Nokia N95, N82, E90, and S60 and Series 40 devices via Bluetooth, Kishore says the 6110 sets off the bundled solutions rollout.
The strategic shift is built on Nokia’s bid to retain consumers over their lifetimes. It therefore extends to very clear consumer identification. A major global study by Nokia has thrown up a segmentation model outlining 12 types of consumers – common to all markets – looking for very different things from their mobile experience. “Our research shows that our consumers are not cut by age or price, but choose by aspiration and involvement with the mobile category,” says Kishore.
The 12 segments have been distributed under four consumer categories – Live, Achieve, Connect and Explore. The ‘Live’ category is aspirational for whom the handset is a lifestyle accessory. Nokia Xpress Music targets this category. The ‘Achieve’ category wants products and services that help with the achievement endeavour. Nokia’s E-Series targets this category. ‘Connect’ is made up of simple “connectivity and progressive simplicity” users. The ‘Explore’ category loves technology, is fairly global, individual, but loves to share discovery. The N-Series targets Explore consumers.
Nokia’s product philosophy is guided by the Flow, Wow and Show aspects of mobile phone experiences. With ‘Flow’ the product works just the way the consumer likes it (example, E-Series). The ‘Wow’ product creates such a strong emotional response that it feels almost magical (N-Series). The ‘Show’ product appears “simply beautiful and just for me.” By pushing different combinations of these three aspects within each consumer category, Nokia’s attempt is to create four unique impressions.
The new categorisation requires differentiated communication – Nokia’s advertising varies, according to the categories, from a global look and feel to totally local messages. The N-Series and Xpress Music campaigns may be more global, but ‘entry level’ ads – such as the one where the worried wife uses the neighbour’s Nokia to talk to her husband and son, or where the bus battery dies and Nokia comes to the rescue – create a different connect.
Using Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassador is something new for a brand that has all along talked leadership and technology. “He has a pan-India appeal and in smaller markets, a huge connect,” Kishore points out. “He’s tech savvy and comfortable talking about Nokia, which he uses. We took a calculated shot on SRK helping us explode the rural market for us.”
Nokia’s media planning tries to ensure that targeted category consumers get to see the ads meant for them, through a selection of different channel clusters.
“For N95, we advertise on Discovery, English movie channels, select news channels. For entry level, we would target a Doordarshan sponsorship on one-day cricket. We put big bets on the 20:20 matches, feeling that youth would respond well. Cricket is watched by all our consumer categories,” Kishore explains.
Nokia N90: The Ferrari of Cellphones
There’s an old saying that if you have ask the price, then you can’t afford it.  Welcome to the Nokia N90.  I’ve been carrying this telephone around for a couple of weeks.  Everywhere I go it turns heads. People stop to ask about it, and marvel at the things it can do.  It’s a darn fine camera that shoots stills and video.  It’s a music player.  It’s a screamingly fast wireless internet modem.  It does email and the web, plays games, and runs miniature versions of all your favorite productivity applications.
Did I mention that it’s also a drop dead gorgeous phone, with large dual colour displays, and gleaming chrome body?  It truly is delightful to hold in your hands.  And for some, owning this phone will be the equivalent of owning any other fashion accessory — it will be like choosing the right watch, or chain, to go with your ensemble.  It’s that pretty.
Industrial Design
In the photo to the left, you can see one of the distinguishing features of this phone – industrial design. It’s like a kids transformer toy.  Folded up, it’s just a phone.  The hinge, however, contains a camera, with very good Carl Zeiss optics.  If you grab that hinge, and twist, the telephone becomes a slick little point and shoot camera. If you then twist it 180 degrees from there, so that the camera and display are pointed at you, it’s a video phone.   And if you open the telephone, and then twist the display, it becomes a great little video camera.
The Camera
The camera is no slouch with 2 mega pixel resolution for still shots, VHS quality for video, and Carl Zeiss optics.  You can see some of the photos I took with it, below.  Image quality is what you would expect from a 2 mega pixel camera, with good colours, good sharpness.  The camera itself has a wide range of controls, including white balancing, resolution, and zoom.  My only complaint about it was that it is a little slow, which makes it difficult to use in low light, but for well lit, or outdoor settings, it’s excellent.



One of the most surprising things about this camera is the video quality.  I shot more than 40 clips with it over the last week. The video camera shot reasonable quality video (certainly good enough for us to preserve a few family memories with), and was consistently able to shoot in lower light conditions than the still camera. The videos are recorded in MP4 format, and can be played back using either RealPlayer, or Quicktime. Because of the MP4 compression I was able to record a respectable 12 minutes of video on the tiny 64M memory card that comes standard with the phone.  You can see asample of that video which I shot on the beach in San Diego.
The one note of caution on video: make sure that you record the video to the MMC card, and not to the (very slow) internal memory on the telephone.  Recordings made to the phone memory tend to lose synchronization between video and audio.
Three G: Woo Hoo!
While staying with with my mother-in-law over the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to give the 3G modem a whirl.  Ruth has no broadband, so I plugged the N90 into my PC, fired up the connection software included with the phone, and was soon surfing the net at 480k/s.  It was like having a broadband connection.  I’ve often used my RIM Blackberry 7290 for internet connectivity, in a pinch, but never achieved more than 50k/s.  This was marvelous.
Rockin’ Out!
Stereo headphones are included with the N90, and it has built in software for processing the music to give richer and better sound.  The results are very good.  I downloaded a dozen of the free MP3 clips that Amazon provides, and was soon rocking out to Arcade Fire, Moby, and a bunch of other great bands.  Go buy a 1G MMC card, and then forget about an iPod.  This will do the trick.
Software
A good friend has the following advice: "Never use software from a hardware company".  Nokia’s software isn’t too bad, however.  The included utilities are quirky, but functional.  I was able to move files back and forth between the PC and telephone, synchronize contacts and calendar, and use the modem utility to connect to the internet.  Aside from some unusual behaviours (Nokia really needs a usability specialist to go through it), it works as advertised.
The one exception is LifeBlog, Nokia’s photo management application.  Although it’s included for free, give this one a pass.  It’s slow, buggy, and there are lots of better, free, alternatives out there, like Picasa or Flickr.
What about the phone?
Well, what would you expect from the top vendor of cell phones in the world?  It’s great. Great sound, great reception, great battery life, easy to use.  It’s just plain, insanely, great.
I have two, minor, complaints.  The first is the goofy Nokia cable interface.  The entire rest of the industry has gone to USB 2.0 mini plugs.  Nokia stubbornly clings to their proprietary cable and charger interfaces, which means that when I travel I have to carry an extra set of cables and chargers, just for the phone.
My second complaint is a little more serious.  There is no vibrator.  What that means is that this phone can never be my primary phone.  I sit in meetings all day long, and can’t have my telephone ringing all the time.  It must vibrate.  But you know,  my wife is going to love this phone, and since she carries her phone in her purse, the vibrator mode doesn’t matter to her.
The Ferrari of Cellphones
Prices haven’t been set yet in North America for this phone.  In Europe it goes for something like €750.  Like a Ferrari, this phone is a status symbol.  It is simply the best at some of the things it does.  And, like a Ferrari, some compromises are necessary if you’re going to own one — you can’t take luggage for four in a Ferrari, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.
The promise of the N90 is you will have a multimedia communications platform in a pocketable form factor.  It delivers in spades, whether you’re talking voice, video, music, or still photographs.  And for that, it’s well worth owning.
Beyond advertising, Nokia is trying to create more touch points through its concept stores, already opened across several major metros (Mumbai is still to see one, though) and cities, and a showcasing of its higher end products via malls and roadshows.
In the meanwhile, this market leader takes product complaints in its stride. There have been complaints, for example, of its N-Series phones hanging. “Yes, and we are working to fix the problem,” says Kishore. While Nokia’s servicing facilities are fairly widespread, it is also perhaps easier for a market leader to accept shortcomings and say something will be done about it, without getting defensive about it.
http://saunderslog.com/2005/10/16/nokia-n90-the-ferrari-of-cellphones/
SONY
DIGITAL DREAMS
Article by Mike Gallagher
Click on photos for larger views and credit
When flipping through Paul Kunkel’s Digital Dreams, the story of the Sony Design Center, there’s a guilty pleasure derived from looking at page after page of sexy Sony products. Between the glossy pages are well proportioned objects of beautiful line and grace, each photo increasing the level of techno-lust. For years the Sony corporation has been producing these objects of desire, creating products that have defined consumer electronics and consumer culture, their influence extending into the design world and the world in which we live. While the Design Center is responsible for such high visibility and influential projects, the individual creators have remained anonymous. Digital Dreams takes a look inside Sony, exposing the designers and the inner workings of the Design Center.
Digital Dreams begins with a flashback to Sony circa 1989, a time of slumping sales, stagnating design, and low morale. To change this climate of doom, the Design Center initiated a project known as "spirit". This project involved a handful of Sony‘s top designers whose objective was to create conceptual Sony products for inspiration and new creative direction. The results are a group of highly individual yet distinctly “Sony” products that, despite their age, still look fresh today. Each “spirit” project is presented as a flawless creation photographed in a highly seductive manner, accompanied with designer comments of concept and process.
Kunkel reviews the gamut of the Sony product family, showing the history (lineage) and examining selected products in detail. These in depth portions provide a variety of information; concepts, sketchwork, alternate versions, and project development. Insight is also added from designers discussing concepts, thought processes, problems, and humorous anecdotes, putting the project in context of a design experience.
Most revealing in Digital Dreams is how each Sony product family or product category is thought of in terms of multiple generations, using the metaphor "sunrise to sunset" to describe each generation as a "time" of day. The first generation, known as "sunrise", is the initial product that features a new technology or a distinct "breakthrough”. At this stage the product is often crude (technologically and aesthetically), due to a rush to market. Following the sunrise are subsequent product releases where both the engineering and design are refined. The product reaches "noon" when the engineering and technology are in their most efficient and functional state. The design at this point has evolved into a state of elegant and simplified being, achieving "Sonyness". This is what Sony considers a product’s high point, where "icon" status is attained. "High Noon" is not only a point of technological and design significance, but is also important from the view of the marketplace. High noon is the point where Sony begins to feel market competition from other products that have picked up on Sony‘s lead. In order to compete in the shrinking “afternoon” market, Sony creates numerous variations and mutations of the high noon icon. These designs address the lifestyles, personality and individuality of the consumers. This is the period known as "sunset", where the design "fireworks" occur in an explosion of colors, textures, materials, and styles. On this side of noon design is the driver, as opposed to technology in the sunrise period. Sony relies here on design for inspiration, expression, and the manufacturing of desire.
While moving through the Sony product families, Digital Dreams also covers the different dimensions of the Design Center. Kunkel touches lightly on Sony‘s graphic and packaging design, and deeper into web and interface design. The importance placed on web/interface design is significant because this is where Sony Design is presently concentrating great efforts. Sony foresees its future is in the digital arena and that its former analog ways are a thing of the past. Sony is currently in a period of transition, envisioning and creating the digital age. This transition involves redefining itself for a new generation of users or consumers who might be unfamiliar with Sony and its history. Digital Dreams is Sony‘s introduction to the twenty first century, and its blueprint for the digital future.
What Sony is dreaming of is a digitally integrated product line, with interchangeability at its heart. Sony envisions products that will work with or are compatible with each other. To make this digital convergence possible, a common digital medium is being created for use in digital products. This medium is an interchangeable memory/information storage unit to be used seamlessly between digital cameras, music players, computers and other digital products. Whether its visual, audio, or any other form of information/data, the memory storage unit seamlessly transfers data between products. These products will not be limited to what we know today as consumer electronics, but will also include new products that address the new needs of tomorrow. Sony is now developing the products that consumers might want or need in the future, given the extensive capabilities of portable digital data and the digital convergence.
The story of Sony is one that author Paul Kunkel allows to tell itself, and given Sony’s extensive catalog and influence there is much to be said. Digital Dreams provides a look at the success of Sony with beautiful pictures, pieces of interviews, and coverage of its impressive line of products. The picture Sony paints of itself is a company with integrity and innovation, which has resulted in its world leadership in electronics. This image is maintained throughout the book, with Kunkel praising Sony Design for its brilliance and beauty. Since Kunkel was approached by Sony to write Digital Dreams, criticism is kept to a minimum. Many products when "analyzed" are granted an unqualified "best" status, and Sony‘s unsuccessful ventures are downplayed or not even mentioned (Betamax). This is not a sober academic study of Sony, never scratching much further beneath the surface of what is seen.
Digital Dreams serves to introduce the Sony Design Center and establish its importance at the close of the analog twentieth century, and as a springboard to the digital twenty first century and Sony‘s future vision. The book praises Sony for its past and excites the reader for what will become of tomorrow. As a reference of Sony products Digital Dreams is invaluable in covering the Sony catalog and playing witness to its influence in shaping our lives. Worth a book in itself is the Sony never seen; the concept products, the marketing/product development, and products that never made it to market. These explorations unveil the inner workings of Sony, the Sony that has (until now) remained behind closed doors. In its exposure of Sony, Digital Dreams provides material enough for the most insatiable techno appetite.
Digital Dreams: The Work of the Sony Design Center
Paul Kunkel, Copyright 1999, Universe Publishing
ISBN 0-7893-0262-4