Two years later , Elops strategy panning out.

[Nabkawe5]

Mr. Elop was criticized a lot for his transition strategy that angered lots of fans and employees.

But what was Elop's strategy? well when you look at the WP8 portfolio you'll notice WP8 Lumia range is special.

Its the only range of products that directly competes with the Apple products range (sans the Ipads) .
But instead of repeating it self over and over like the Apple range does, Nokia elected to use a design language that is Pure. in every sense possible which doesn't just help Nokia financially as simple means cheaper production process. but it allows them be distinctive about it. and colorful too.

How does the Lumia WP8 portfolio competes with Apple in the hardware department
*Feel free to skip ahead this part if you're familiar with the hardware of the Lumia WP8 range.


[INFO]
Lumia 920
The flagship the Lumia 920 the Swiss army knife of WP8. dubbed a tank for its steady construction, heavy profile and its fighting spirit.
This 4g beast is colorful in a sea of black and white , has a world first OIS smartphone camera for steady videos/blur free daylight pictures, amazing low light performance, its the first ever to come with wireless charging built in, and its 4.5" HD/LCD high refresh rate display has all that amazing Nokia adjustments for sunlight readability, also a world's first it has Supersensitive touch so you could use fingernails/gloves and keys to interact with the screen
the fact that Verizon still wants a variation of this phone 5 months after launch should tell you something about how well received this phone is.

Lumia 820
Then there is the Lumia 820 which boosts a smaller screen 4.3'' with an AMOLED this time which looks great on WP because of the high refresh rate , a 480p res to keep things light while maintaining the same Processor/Ram/GPU/4g/supersensitive/Carl Zeiss as the 920, the 820 sports a smaller/lighter and thinner profile and while it lacks native wireless charging it can be added on via exchangeable covers which can also be 3d printed.
the 820 has two variations the 822/810.

Lumia720
last month the world got introduced to the amazing midrange Lumia 720 a phone that deserves the Pureview title yet it wasn't given to it as Nokia set the bar a little bit higher for that, this slim and light phone doesn't have 4g but in every other way its the fit younger brother of the Lumia 920 ,with a 1gb dual core processor 512mb ram and an IPS LCD 4.3" 480p display again with all the Nokia adjustments for outdoor use and sunlight readability and Supersensitive touch too , the big attention grabber however is the phone's cameras, the back one's carl Zeiss 6.7mp with a 1.9 aperture will guarantee amazing daylight pictures/ wider dynamic ranges and a great low light pictures (nearly bested the HTC One even without OIS), the FFC uses BSI its the same tech behind the 920 and the 720 back camera which is again a first for FFCs. 720 also sports a big 2000mah battery and the ability to wirelessly charge through clip on covers.

Lumia 620
Then comes the Lumia 620 , a fully featured Entry level device with Front Facing Camera, and NFC a 3.8'' screen a great double toned back exchangeable shell (Waterproof shells soon too), I haven't heard a bad review about this one , its a great back up device and is expected to do really well with young customers.

Lumia 520
Finally in that awesome range of devices we have the newly born Lumia 520 , the best entry smartphone ever packing a 4" screen with super sensitive touch and a 1gb dual core processor with 512mb of ram, 5mp camera with no FFC to cut cost a little bit, its designed to outshine and out class some major mid ranged and some times high end smartphones while being at a price point that is very reasonable. [/INFO]

Now that we know that every Lumia is differently innovative hardware wise while being fully featured phone on the other hand(unlike Apple's products) .

What happens when you hold a Lumia phone?
When you hold a Lumia phoneyou'll always know where all the buttons are , they're all the same , much like holding an Apple product.
But the differentiation becomes clear once you dig in.
You'll use all of Nokia exclusive apps/services/lenses (Sans Glam me for the 520*) without any noticeable lags to speak of, and the 720/620/520 lumias won't create a fragmented experience. you'll only have fewer apps opened at a time**

All Lumias down to the 520 enjoy great camera experiences both hardware and software wise through amazing lenses.(Smartshoot,Cinemagraph,Panorama,Glam me and Burton's Sequencer) + Microsoft's own Blink and Photosynth.

You'll have Nokia Music service that is free with no registrations with a Music+ option that goes as low as 4$ a month , along with cross-platform Xbox Music you'll get a combo that can eclipse Apple's music offerings.

You'll enjoy what WP8 brings in terms of inter connectivity with social networks and SkyDrive goodies like photo sharing/file sharing/cloud document editing/music streaming and videos. .

You'll have a people's hub and schedules that travel with your MS account. anywhere (W8,W8RT,XBOX,otherWP8s)

You'll be able to enjoy free Here location services on all of these devices regardless of the price point with all the offline voice guided navigation goodness, head turner Live sights (City lens) and useful Transit app. and with the hard push Elop is making to establish Nokia as the Here location service, Nokia/Here Maps are even on other platforms now to bring in even better POIs and amazing traffic data so your location experience will be simply Amazing.

All of those experiences will not share the same boring design , they'll be enjoyed in a variety of colors and will not share the same rigid pricing nor the over pricing.

This is Elop's plan for Nokia, to be an IOS/Androidish hybrid. a TRUE third ecosystem with truly innovative software/hardware that is distinctively Nokia.
Personally I think its a damn good one , it focuses on all ages unlike old people IOS or Collage and young kids Andorids.

was it a good plan ? sound off in the comments.
feel free to connect with me anytime @nabkawe5 .

*Nokia Lumia 520 I don't think Nokia can't just let the 520 use the back camera for the Glam me app , will know about that soon though.

** except in the case of power hungry games, but that’s hardly bad considering the price points can't really get you Androids that could run such games anyways. and the price points even for cheap Apple products are high enough to allow power hungry games to work.

Edit: Nokia teams explained Here City Lens won't work in the lumia 520 due to hardware limitations involving lack of compass.

 

[Nabkawe5]

Thought I'd be the first commenter ... rly:

 

[alaskanjackson]

I wish I was as succinct as you.

 

[Nabkawe5]

I'd say you should wish for having 6 hours of free time to write and rewrite (my weekend) , You should wish that you have the heart to delete all the extra things you think are important but would make for a longer read , then having the peace of mind of Bolding important text and insuring paragraphs were easy and pretty to look at .
I'm glad you had a good read.

 

[JustToClarify]

good read and you do make a point, however being special means nothing in this world without decent customer base...

 

[Trappiste]

The Lumia range does not compete with Apple specifically. L920 may do. Lumias compete with whatever is available at around their respective price points, that is, they compete against Androids. Besides, in most of Nokia's key markets, Apple is a non-player anyway, since iPhone is so ridiculously expensive.

 

[JustToClarify]

I think that WP8 philosophy is so much different to Android that it's not even comparable. Who likes Android will never like WP8 and vice versa. Not sure if that is good or not.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

Elop's strategy is to make Nokia profitable as it was half a decade ago. So far under his rule Nokia has gone from bad to worse. There really isn't anything Nokia hasn't sold off to get cash. Symbian gone, Meego gone, half their work force gone, factories sold, head quarters sold. So no, his strategy isn't to make Nokia 'special' IMO, it's to make it profitable, plain and simple.
If he wanted special, he wouldn't have killed off Meego.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

I think that WP8 philosophy is so much different to Android that it's not even comparable. Who likes Android will never like WP8 and vice versa. Not sure if that is good or not.

No that's not good at all. There are over a billion Android users. You'd WANT them to like Windows Phone so their next phone is not an Android. You can't ignore the Android user base, it's just too big.

 

[JustToClarify]

yeah but for some reason they thought that Apple user base is easier target...which doesn't seem to bode well, for now at least

iPeople are used to bug-free devices, which WP8 phones are not at this moment

 

[krishna6233]

year 2013 wil decide..

 

[truthsforme]

What a great read. Let's engage in hypothetical real quick. If Nokia chose the android platform, from a cost perspective, wouldn't this be a tougher road for them? The way I see it, for android phones to match the slick experience of an iPhone, they need to be high spec devices, which cost more to make. It's like every 3 months we see HTC making another flagship device. I can imagine this costs them a lot, and yet they're still struggling. With windows phone, Nokia can make cheap devices that still replicate the same smooth iPhone experience therefore making it a better option, simply from a cost perspective. I love Elop's strategy, which he echoed in MWC. Create a flagship, halo device, then trickle down the technology into new cheaper devices. Given their financial situation, I think this is rather brilliant.

 

[nachikethas]

long live nokia

 

[Nabkawe5]

What a great read. Let's engage in hypothetical real quick. If Nokia chose the android platform, from a cost perspective, wouldn't this be a tougher road for them? The way I see it, for android phones to match the slick experience of an iPhone, they need to be high spec devices, which cost more to make. It's like every 3 months we see HTC making another flagship device. I can imagine this costs them a lot, and yet they're still struggling. With windows phone, Nokia can make cheap devices that still replicate the same smooth iPhone experience therefore making it a better option, simply from a cost perspective. I love Elop's strategy, which he echoed in MWC. Create a flagship, halo device, then trickle down the technology into new cheaper devices. Given their financial situation, I think this is rather brilliant.

your idea is identical to mine , but I have to agree with Just to Clarify

yeah but for some reason they thought that Apple user base is easier target...which doesn't seem to bode well, for now at least

iPeople are used to bug-free devices, which WP8 phones are not at this moment

the bugs in WP8 kind of set it back , lets hope comes April or May new Software will send them packing.

 

[JustToClarify]

year 2013 wil decide..

Huh..the first quarter is almost over and nothing happens, Nokia shares are in a constant fall, there aren't any new devices on the horizont that would change something etc.

If Nokia chose the android platform, from a cost perspective, wouldn't this be a tougher road for them? The way I see it, for android phones to match the slick experience of an iPhone, they need to be high spec devices, which cost more to make.

Not necessarily :

ODROID | Hardkernel

It's like every 3 months we see HTC making another flagship device. I can imagine this costs them a lot, and yet they're still struggling.

They're struggling for other reasons, huge marketing fails (Ultrapixels and in general focusing on their mediocre cameras) and bad software/aftermarket support. Also not many people find Sense useful. They mainly consider it bloatware.

With windows phone, Nokia can make cheap devices that still replicate the same smooth iPhone experience therefore making it a better option, simply from a cost perspective. I love Elop's strategy, which he echoed in MWC. Create a flagship, halo device, then trickle down the technology into new cheaper devices. Given their financial situation, I think this is rather brilliant.

Fast is not enough to call it smooth. It also has to be bug-free, which it is not. I am not sure what cost perspective are you thinking of, but I am very sure that Apple earns a lot more on a single device than Nokia, I'm actually not sure if they earn anything on lumias if we account for huge marketing costs, licenses they have to pay to MS etc. Majority of those costs they have covered by sales of Symbian&Asha phones...as strange as it is.

Trickle down what? 920 is still the only their device having OIS, super sensitive screen and some other peculiarities. Can you be more specific what they have trickled down?

 

[truthsforme]

Whether HTC is struggling for other reasons isn't the point. The point I'm trying to make is if they feel compelled to release a flagship every 3 months in hopes of reinvigorating their business, yet they still struggle, how would this be different for Nokia. Samsung's presence is what's forcing HTC to keep releasing flagship after flagship after flagship, surely this would be the same with Nokia who doesn't have a brand presence like Samsung with the galaxy brand.

How is the cost of choosing android different from the licensing cost of choosing windows phone? Nokia would have to pay microsoft royalties just like every other android vendor does, that counts as a cost. So android isn't free either. (I don't know how much it is that they would have to pay microsoft in royalties per android device sold though).

When I say "from a cost perspective," I mean the cost of making flagship devices. R&D costs, production costs, etc. They tend to be much greater than the cost for making cheaper devices. Currently, Apple has the largest profit margins in the smartphone industry. I'm not sure how it is that they achieved this because all their phones are flagship phones for the year they're released, but if someone else knows then I'll concede.

You're right, we haven't seen OIS in their cheaper devices, but they do have other technologies from the lumia 920 on their cheaper range. The 720 has pretty much the same screen as the 920, except for the size and resolution.

 

[JustToClarify]

Whether HTC is struggling for other reasons isn't the point. The point I'm trying to make is if they feel compelled to release a flagship every 3 months in hopes of reinvigorating their business, yet they still struggle, how would this be different for Nokia. Samsung's presence is what's forcing HTC to keep releasing flagship after flagship after flagship, surely this would be the same with Nokia who doesn't have a brand presence like Samsung with the galaxy brand.

Nokia isn't HTC and would have other means to attract customers. Galaxy is a brand in 2013 but was not that much of a brand in 2011 when Nokia went WP route.

How is the cost of choosing android different from the licensing cost of choosing windows phone? Nokia would have to pay microsoft royalties just like every other android vendor does, that counts as a cost. So android isn't free either. (I don't know how much it is that they would have to pay microsoft in royalties per android device sold though).

Err from what I know Samsung pays $10 or so per device for those royalties, Nokia pays 5 times more per license...that's a significant difference.

When I say "from a cost perspective," I mean the cost of making flagship devices. R&D costs, production costs, etc. They tend to be much greater than the cost for making cheaper devices. Currently, Apple has the largest profit margins in the smartphone industry. I'm not sure how it is that they achieved this because all their phones are flagship phones for the year they're released, but if someone else knows then I'll concede.

Their phones do what people expect them to do and without fuss. They are not crippled with Android/WP bugs etc. unless you jailbreak it and install "suspicious" applications

You're right, we haven't seen OIS in their cheaper devices, but they do have other technologies from the lumia 920 on their cheaper range. The 720 has pretty much the same screen as the 920, except for the size and resolution.

Ye I forgot 720 and its screen, however not many people will find it that useful.

 

[truthsforme]

I agree that many people won't find the screen stuff useful, but they did what they must to keep the cost down. I understand that they can't always satisfy us spec-geeks to run a business. HTC is the perfect example of this.

I had no idea that Samsung only payed $10 in royalty fees. What about the other vendors who are struggling? Is it the same for them also? I'm asking because I really don't know and didn't find it in my quick 2min google search, lol.

By 2011 Samsung already laid the foundation for what galaxy is today. The galaxy sII was a pretty big deal, the biggest issues with it were the naming schemes for different providers (ie galaxy rocket). Nokia would've had to start from scratch just like they did with windows phone, except the software would look (visually) just like every other android phone out there, at least that's what Nokia argues. Let's not forget that the year of android was 2012 thanks to Samsung.

 

[Coreldan]

I think Samsung is just about the only one that makes any real money on Android (in addition to Google). That said, if Nokia had gone down the Android-road, I do think Nokia would've done pretty well just like it does in the WP-field. Naturally Nokia wouldn't have overthrown Samsung, but I feel Nokia could've been the only real competitor to Nokia in Android phones. That said, I'm happy Nokia didn't go that road.

Generally speaking I'm quite happy of Nokia going WP out of the options available, but it's no secret that we're still screaming for many features that should already be here. I would pretty much manage if we got the FM transmitters activated on our 920s.. The chip is capable, OS is not. Barring any major revolutions in smart phone industry (Jolla looks interesting to a point), my next phone is most likely gonna be Nokia WP as well. At this time I still can't realistically consider iPhone or Android for myself.

Naturally it's not all victory regardless, but that's not due to WP. I come from the city where Nokia's mobile phone business started: Salo, Finland. The local factory has been discontinued and some 2000 jobs lost from my city (in a city of 25000 thats pretty much), including my job More cuts are incoming too, but as said, this isn't something I put on Elop or the new WP strategy, but it sucks regardless. Besides, our factory made the best quality phones on earth

 

[HaibaneReki]

Trickle down what? 920 is still the only their device having OIS, super sensitive screen and some other peculiarities. Can you be more specific what they have trickled down?

Actually, except 620 all of them have Super Sensitive touch ^_^ and as for the OIS, we don't want people to keep complaining about the phone's weight all the time, do we? Even the 620 with it's 5MP takes gorgeous pictures.