Innovation & Maturity, Industry Fuel
For the last year or so, there have been talks on the internet about the lack of innovation, when it comes to Nokia’s S60 devices. Looking at the N95 as a model and all the new things it brought to the table especially in that small footprint, there’s a sense of steadiness, almost as if the Finnish maker put together the N95 and decided to take a long nap. People are complaining, worrying, yawning and some have already crossed off Nokia saying that it’s already too late for them to wake up, that they’ve been beat by many other makers in their own S60 empire, like Samsung and its Innov8.
As much as I am irritated by Nokia’s strategy, since as an early adopter I NEED something new every one or two months, I have to say that I not only understand but also am 100% behind Nokia in this. See, the whole issue is related to the difference between Innovation and Maturity, or what I like to call the 2 industry fuels.
Like it or not, there’s a great gap between the time when a technology is first released and the time it is ready for mass-market customer adoption. If a phone maker was to release new features every 3 or even 6 months, we would find ourselves with a lot of cutting-edge crap that hasn’t been polished to be used efficiently, and this is why maturity is as important (if not more important) than innovation.
2006 and 2007 were the Innovation years in Nokia’s calendar: the N91, N93 and N95 were all almost visionnary products with a lot of things to prove. They were also very flawed products with early adopters shouting their hearts out at each and every aspect of them.
2008 has been the Maturity year: just take a look at all the nice products that have been announced this year. Yes, they don’t bring anything groundbreaking and special, but they do stand on their own in an utmost perfect way: the N79 and N85, for example, are a good sign of the software and hardware improvements that have occurred since the N95. Their pricing is also a proof of how the technology has evolved from being an expensive early-adopter exclusivity, to an affordable almost mass-market availability. I will repeat it over and over again: there’s nothing you can fault these 2 handsets at, and this is why I am EXTREMELY excited about them and am annoyed that I don’t have the means to buy any of them.
How about 2009? Well, since the N85 and N79, as well as the E66 and E71, are the best Nokia can do with today’s technology, then this technology is now fully mature. So 2009 will be the Innovation year again. It’ll be axed a lot on screens (touchscreens, VGA resolutions, OLED) and location-based services but also on processors and imaging as well as a few other surprise aspects that we’re far from thinking about.
I have high hopes in 2009 and expect (notice the use of “expect” and not “wish”) not to be let down. I realize that we had to go through this stage of steadiness in order to fully develop the existing features and hence make room for newer ones.
Do you agree with me? If yes, please, link to this article each time you see someone moaning about the lack of innovation in Nokia’s headquarters. If not, what are the reasons that make you think it’s already too late for Nokia?
I also believe that Nokia will surprise us all in 2009, and keep many of us quiet for a while.
It is not that I agree with you – it is that both you and me know it’s true. That’s when i8510 etc. become boring. Nokia has some cool stuff coming up.. Like tomorrow etc.. Hehe
It could be a complete shift in strategic thinking… rather than release hardware that is rough and ready, could Nokia now be taking their time, refining the device before launch? It’s possible I guess.
Part of reason for the unrest that some of us feel is not that there has been a lack of innovation, but that Nokia have actually gone backwards at times in the last couple of years.
Lets hope that for a change we get to see logical forward movement of the features itself.
I guess its asking too much… but one needs to bring in ‘point and shoot’ camera processing technology, optical zoom, VGA screens, HDTV compatibility, HD recording… But before all of that… lets please have next gen batteries and wider adoption of bioplastic.
Time to make the smartphones, smarter and greener!
I sure hope 2009 will be an innovative year. I like @Aditya’s ideas of innovation meaning greener phones with better batteries, not just 1000MP cameras. With the touch interfaces coming out from Nokia as well as other manufacturers, more 3G from the carriers, and the rising expectations even from NorMobs, I think everyone is expecting ‘09 to be a great year for mobile innovation!
Exciting times!
What can a mobile do more than N96 does?:-)
horia, I could go on forever about other devices that outperform the N96, even some it meant to replace. But the reason for unrest isn’t the N96, but its slight difference from the N95 8gb. I’ve done my fair share, or more, of ranting and raving about my dissatisfaction with Nokia.
But you really need to listen to the spirit of the article. It speaks of the maturation of technology, or the sunset of 3rd Edition. Its absolutely the final chapter, as 5th Edition and Maemo5 will be the landscape for Nokia’s next innovations. I agree. They’d have wasted time and money creating more innovative hardware for 3rd Edition.
I really like you post – mainly because I have been thinking along the same lines.
I see the “Nokia is boring/falling behind/napping” complaints as a manifestation of a clash between the kind of innovation early adopters crave for, and the kind of innovation Nokia is doing to make money.
Early adopters want radical innovation: new UI’s, new OS, new hardware etc.
Basically since releasing the original N95, Nokia has been leveraging their platform (S60 OS + hardware) to create a variety of devices targeted at different needs and customer segments. By combining modular and incremental innovation, Nokia has been able to achieve this variety and thus cash in on the investment in platform R&D.
This is what smart companies do to make money and like you, I do not for a minute think this implies Nokia is not cooking up something new…
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Nokia really needs to innovate on email apps. Even the email app at beta labs sucks. Too slow and doesnt render HTML. Blackberry and iPhone beat Nokia hands down as far as email interface is concerned.
@christaexport; I tried to be the devil’s advocate:-)
[...] a nutshell, she is considering the cycle of innovation that Nokia are going through and whether this year was a dormant, or ‘maturing’ year. If 2007 [...]
Nokia has always been strong on the hardware side, so I don’t worry about that. Their handsets are feature-packed and by far the most durable on the market.
But a few months ago one of you at symbianguru pleaded Nokia to do more on the Software side. And I agree. Although S60 is finding its way more and more into mainstream handsets, its usability still lags behind S40. I still need far more key strokes for the same actions on S60 compared to S40. And the overall speed is still not as good as with S40 phones.
To speed up innovation, I also want to see more cool software stuff like the betalabs guys are bringing us.
Apple has shown how innovation can be propelled with a good SDK and an even better application store. Nokia has to make sure that it is as easy and attractive as possible to help them spur innovation and get the most out of these great handsets.
Nokias open source plans for S60 could help open up more APIs and make developing for S60 even more interesting.