Nokia, get your head out of your butt!!

I think we all have some nostalgia for Nokia.  Back in the day, they made the best phones.  I owned plenty of Nokia phones in my day and loved them.  But Like all of the other Pre-iPhone companies, they failed to innovate their products in a way that was meaningful to consumers.  Now Nokia feels that their saving grace is Windows Phone 8.  Why put your eggs in only one basket?

I used to buy into the whole Windows Phone 8 promise that Microsoft laid out.  I drank the “cool aid.”  I figured that Windows Phone 7 had some issues and that they would be corrected in Windows Phone 8.  I also thought that developers would jump on the bandwagon since there was a unified core OS.  Microsoft managed to screw this up like they do with many of their products.  Very few things that Microsoft promised have happened, so I switched to Android.  It has so far been a great decision.  I love my GS3 and my Nexus 7.  I think that Nokia should make the same decision except that they should also continue making Windows Phone 8 devices.

There is nothing wrong with continuing to make devices for WP8 but why limit yourself to a platform that, more than likely, isn’t going to stand the test of time.  I think that Nokia has a real chance at being competitive against the other Android manufacturers, ala Samsung. I think this way because they make the most beautiful device on the market.  I had a Lumia 920 and the hardware is FANTASTIC!!  The camera is amazing and the device is well built.  The only problem for me is that it is running WP8 and I feel that this is the same problem many other people have.

Nokia also makes many of their own services and they are good services that people like to use.  I found Nokia Music to be a better option to Pandora.  Nokia Drive is a really good turn-by-turn navigation system.  These are the kinds of services that Samsung wishes they had to offer.  Providing these services allows Nokia to have a competitive edge against their competitors while potentially also bringing in an additional source of revenue.  This is precisely what Google is doing. I really think the manufacturer that provides the best online services is going to win in the long run.  They may not replace Google’s services but they will be a reason to buy their phones.

Another reason to choose Android is that they can modify the OS in any way they see fit.  They can’t do this with WP8.  Despite what the tech pundits say, for the average person, this is a big deal.  I really like Touchwiz and I think that the modifications Samsung has made to Android is a large reason why they are so successful.

If I were an investor in Nokia, I would be a pretty pissed off person.  Nokia making an Android phone like the Lumia is a license to print money but yet Elop thinks differently.  He continues to say that Nokia will not make an Android phone but I think it’s a matter of time until they do.  They cannot continue to leave money on the table by being loyal to Microsoft who isn’t even close to the innovator that Google has become.  I personally would love a Nokia Android phone and would try to get my hands on one asap.