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Excerpts
The Rise to the Top
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Nokia drew on its experience of setting up Nordic cellular networks (which were
more advanced than those used by Japan, the rest of Europe, and the US at that
time) to successfully adopt the GSM standard. The company was listed on the New
York Stock Exchange in 1994. Over the 1990s, Nokia became one of the most
successful mobile phone manufacturers in the world and began to enter
non-Scandinavian markets as well.
Nokia was also one of the first mobile manufacturers to realize the importance
of the design element in mobile phones and its phones were more aesthetically
designed than those of competitors. In 1998, Nokia overtook Motorola to become
the largest mobile manufacturer in the world...
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Designed for Innovation
Nokia was the first mobile phone manufacturer to realize in the late 1990s that
phones no longer played only a functional role; they were also becoming
fashion symbols.
Until Nokia began emphasizing the design aspect, mobile
phones were bulky, bricklike devices with an external antenna and a standard
keypad. Manufacturers emphasized functionality over aesthetic appeal.
Nokia
broke new ground in 1999, when it launched its 8200 handset on the catwalk
at a Paris fashion week...
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The Decline
In mid-2004, The Economist wrote, "When a firm
dominates its market, especially one that is driven by constant
technological advances, it risks becoming so fixated with trying to ward
off what it reckons to be its most powerful challenger that it leaves
itself vulnerable to attack from other directions."Analysts said this
statement accurately characterized what happened with Nokia.
In the early 2000s, Microsoft Corp (Microsoft) announced its decision to
enter the mobile phones market. The announcement set alarm bells ringing
in Nokia as Microsoft had the reputation of being an aggressive
competitor... |
Excerpts Contd...>>
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