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When it comes to rivals, Nokia is far more concerned about Android than Apple. In an interview on Finnish TV, CEO Stephen Elop said Nokia wouldn’t be following Apple’s strategy — making a few models and pricing them high — despite the iPhone’s runaway success, eWeek reports.
Instead, Nokia is likely to create a wide “portfolio” of Windows Phone handsets at a range of prices to appeal to a wider market. Arguably it’s business as usual, and a very similar strategy to how companies such as Samsung approach Android.
With Nokia climbing into bed with Microsoft, pushing Symbian on to the cold, splintery floorboards to lick its wounds (and only a vague mention of Windows Mobile features trickling down) these strategies align quite nicely. Microsoft and Google push out the mobile operating system; device manufacturers create the hardware. Nokia can add its own software flourishes to ensure Windows Mobile delivers a good user experience on its handsets.
If Nokia does want to beat the pants off both Apple and Google, it could have done worse than picking a friend in Microsoft. There’s a company very good at hating both. It can be hard to keep track of exactly who likes who, who’s being sued, who is hurling insults (unless it’s Steve Ballmer, who is pretty hard to ignore no matter how hard you try) but it’s a fairly safe bet that you won’t see Micrapple or Googrosoft before hell freezes over and stalactites form on Steve’s sweat patches.
Elop is more cautious when it comes to tablets, acknowledging in all but name the dominance of the iPad. “Only one of them is doing really well… I don’t want to be the 201st tablet on the market that you can’t tell from all of the others,” he said.
As for the “onslaught” of cheap Chinese handsets, Elop is confident that Nokia’s quality will prevail, concluding, “There’s only one Nokia.”
