How Not Understanding Nokia’s Vision May Impact the Developing World

Nokia’s historical approach to platform evolution and innovation is based on a long term vision and strategy, which clearly doesn’t resonate in the first world, but makes complete sense in and for the developing world. The key difference is timescale; Nokia innovates at the pace of a telephone network or infrastructure provider, looking at broader platform (technical) as well as sociological considerations for the markets it serves, especially in the developing world. What people are forgetting is that smart phones are not yet truly complete and self-contained devices. Especially with Apple’s platform, they’re designed as peripherals, dependent on traditional desktop platforms (activation, OS updates, even backups) and connectivity / infrastructure (wifi for larger file updates) for operation. This will not work in societies where the mobile device itself needs to be completely self-contained, with it itself being the closest that those individuals will come to a computing device in any form. 

Having had the benefit of spending time with the individuals at Nokia that look at these considerations, I’ve seen how they truly get that a family living within a 6m2 hut with access to a charging station on at most a weekly basis will have distinctly different needs than your typical smart phone user. It’s this type of forward-thinking and vision that needs to be preserved, and Nokia’s understanding in this area is incredible to witness. They really get it - it’s the rest of us that don’t.

One could argue that devices coming out of China and countries in the Pacific Rim take these needs into consideration, but the reality is that while the price points are right, they’re emerging into markets and regions that are progressing and growing at a much more dramatic rate than rural areas, or developing nations. While it’s hard to truly understand the difference between the quality of life of a rural villager in China vs. one in India from where we sit, what we do know is that neither of them are likely to buy a $49 US smart phone that still requires a desktop computer to be effective, wifi to download large files, and daily or even biweekly charging.

Back to the issue of timescales - it will be a long time before an iPhone-class device, with the benefits and dependencies required of its ecosystem will be in the hands of individuals that use Nokia handsets in these developing markets today. And by that time, we should all hope that Nokia’s long term vision has persevered and they’re delivering even greater value in a much more meaningful and relevant way to these individuals. Perhaps the smart phone of the first world will barely resemble the one that best serves the rest.

Full disclosure: Nokia is a current client.