Nokia continues to drag behind in the US market

First off let me start by saying I love Nokia. I love their handsets. My favorite phone ever that I owned was a Nokia (on Cingular network) 4 years ago.When I think about that phone I  still *sigh* and get happy. The reason is because they always get it right with their phones. The OS never crashes. The technology is always reliable. The handsets always look stylish and contemporary. Basically, the full package.

However, there is a whole other side to Nokia and its relationship (almost non-existent ) with carriers in the US which makes me very unhappy. Buying an unlocked Nokia smartphone in some ways is still a risky move. I got an unlocked Nokia smartphone 2 years ago and it was a disaster. The phone never lived up to its capacity – not because of anything that was wrong with it but because there was no support in setting up any of the data side of the phone’s features. I struggled with it for 6 months before giving up. Even tech- saavy friends had a hard time helping me out.

And therein lies the problem…

Maybe Americans have gotten too comfortable with a carrier-handset relationship but I have to admit that it is nice to have someone to talk to when you need assistance with your phone. That’s not to say that carriers are perfect by any means in providing servicing for handsets but at least they attempt to help. It certainly beats going at it on your own.  

Nokia has always had great success selling unlocked handsets direct to consumers in Europe, Asia and even Africa. It is apparent they like to sell direct to consumers but this strategy is not helping them penetrate the US market. They don’t want to deal with the red tape that goes with getting close to a carrier so they say ‘we wanted to get to the USA market faster so we decided to sell handsets direct to consumers.’ (This refers to the recent launch of N96, N85, and N79).

What this tells me is that they didn’t attempt hard enough (or make it a top priority) to make it happen. Nokia is good at making handsets but they are not good at selling their phones in America. 

My advice to Nokia execs is this: If you really wants to penetrate the US market and develop a product following for those great devices then you need to build a strong relationship with a carrier and work hard to get those handsets into mass market.

I’m not just saying this from the wireless industry perspective… I speak from the heart when I say that I will jump for joy the day when I have a choice to pick from several high-end Nokia smartphones that are available and fully supported by a carrier.