In 2006, Nokia had almost 60% of the entire mobile phone market, an incalculable economic empire, with fabulous growth forecasts.
Everyone loved Nokia phones, inexhaustible battery, small, comfortable, useful for self-defense, the 3310 was elected the best weapon to survive a zombie apocalypse.
The future seemed rosy after decades of constant growth, then in 2007 Steve Jobs presented the iPhone, the first real smartphone in the world, but Nokia did not see the train that was about to overwhelm it.
Nokia’s reaction was cold, according to them, Apple’s product was too expensive, bulky and fragile, and could never have worried them.
The Finnish company had evaluated the competition based on what had been up to that point the pluses sought by the market for telephone products.
A mobile phone in the 90s and early 2000s had to be small, durable, reliable, easy to use and had to allow for a certain amount of customization; according to these parameters Nokia was right, the iPhone was not a serious rival.
What they did not realize was that the competition was moving from hardware quality to software quality, where Apple dominated and that the market would soon look for different qualities in mobile phones.
Not having realized this evolution of the market, they decided to continue undaunted in the production of traditional, robust, increasingly smaller and increasingly cheaper mobile phones.
The result was that in just two years the Nokia Empire was in ruins and the attempts to recover were in vain, because the gap accumulated in that short time was now unbridgeable.
It is worrying, but instructive to think how bad business decisions and antiquated marketing strategies literally destroyed the Finnish giant in a few months, after decades of constant growth.
Being constantly updated, following market trends and dynamics, is no longer an activity that can be done in your spare time, because today’s market does not wait for and does not respect anyone.
