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Nokia made too many phones

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Re: Nokia made too many phones

#141

Post by laurencerowe »

Analemma_ wrote: post #133
robocat wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The actual phone's usability and software were a complete afterthought. Yet it seems that Nokia phones were loved for their UI. Keypad UIs are hard to create - and competitors certainly had some toxically useless UIs. Somebody at Nokia got something right somewhere along the way? Maybe the engineers? After all presumably the engineers were eating their dogfood.

> Yet it seems that Nokia phones were loved for their UI. I think you're suffering from a kind of observation bias specific to forums like HN, which have a disproportionate number of people with a chip on their shoulder about defunct tech products and companies. The people who liked Nokia's UI are loud and visible about it, especially when it lets them gripe about Microsoft/Apple/whatever, while the people who didn't…

As I remember it, it was the classic Nokia UI that was loved in comparison to the plethora of awkward intermediate UIs that were attempted by Nokia and others until iPhone/Android emerged. It really did feel like phones were getting worse for a few years for negligible benefits.

Re: Nokia made too many phones

#142

Post by lamp_book »

lou1306 wrote: post #42
diggan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course the implication with these fashion devices was that they were almost disposable, and you'd buy a new one for the next season. This would be great for Nokia's business. Unfortunately their design department seemed consumed by becoming a fashion brand and forgot that they're still a technology company. Everyone knows what happened next. Maybe Nokia was simply too early for the vision, or the execution was s…

I don't really think that the average iPhone user (at least in Europe) gets a new device every season. Actually the opposite is true: Apple does gives you the opportunity to stick to your old device, if you want. iOS 15 still gets updates and can run on an iPhone 6S.

I switched to Apple specifically because Androids I owned aged quickly and badly. Some people can’t drop the kool aid drinking caricature view on iPhone users they hold.

Re: Nokia made too many phones

#143

Post by LeoPanthera »

A company makes one successful product and never moves on: Should have made more products.

A company makes lots of different types of product, constantly iterating and experimenting with wild ideas: Should have made fewer products.

You can't win, I guess.

Re: Nokia made too many phones

#146

Post by roneythomas6 »

ssivark wrote: post #49

I’m very suspicious of some post-hoc generalization that rhymes a little too conveniently with modern fads. Nokia made great phones during the mid/late 2000s. The N9 was a piece of beauty that continued to have a more cohesive and thought out experience than Android (and even iOS, in some ways) well into the mid 2010s. It was simply a joy to use. Why Nokia then fell apart might have a little something to do with Step…

By the time Nokia N9 came out Android was the dominant smartphone OS. Nokia even cancelled releasing N9 in select markets due to this. Not to mention the api’s were severely lacking compared to Android. Maybe if they released it in 2008-2009, there might have been a chance. So the choice was either to go Android or Windows and Microsoft paid them 1billion to be stay Windows Phone exclusive.

Re: Nokia made too many phones

#147

Post by monknomo »

indymike wrote: post #120
robocat wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The actual phone's usability and software were a complete afterthought. Yet it seems that Nokia phones were loved for their UI. Keypad UIs are hard to create - and competitors certainly had some toxically useless UIs. Somebody at Nokia got something right somewhere along the way? Maybe the engineers? After all presumably the engineers were eating their dogfood.

> Yet it seems that Nokia phones were loved for their UI. Keypad UIs are hard to create - and competitors certainly had some toxically useless UIs. Yes, for making calls, texting, taking pictures and changing settings, Nokia phones were really nice. The whole games (Java) and apps (WAP) side wasn't the greatest. To be fair, no one had a decent game and app experience until the iPhone and G1 (Android) hit.

snake was fine

Re: Nokia made too many phones

#149

Post by wvenable »

jll29 wrote: post #94
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or by Microsoft. Nokia never understood the less-is-more thing that Apple are so good at. Hundreds of phones and an overcomplicated OS wuth political and technical problems - Symbian - were the result, not the cause, of a company that lacked focus and direction.

It's interesting that Microsoft never succeeded with a smartphone, given that their other hardware products enjoy a decent reputation (keyboards, mice, tablets); I suspect it's because of the software side - stuck with the desktop metaphor and windows, which makes no sense on smartphones.

At the time, Microsoft's software development was a bit of mess. But Windows Phone didn't have a desktop metaphor. Recently I had the opportunity to try one that was sitting in desk for a few years and it was pretty interesting and snappy. But they redesigned their mobile OS so many times, had no good developer experience, and came in late enough that it was all doomed.

Re: Nokia made too many phones

#150

Post by TulliusCicero »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #110
serial_dev wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure they are that similar. There were so many significantly different Nokia phones at one point. I'm talking about after 3310, like 3220, 6600, 7610, 3660, 7600, each design is unique. Apple has like two models (small and larger) at a time, and you can get them in a couple of different colors. The big design revolution is that they add rose gold or purple or whatever color each year so that the few people wh…

Apple has 8 different phones you can buy right now counting all the max/plus models (SE, 13, 14, 15, 15 pro). If you add in the storage differences it is 24 unique circuit boards/phone internals, and colors bring it to over 100 different unique products. From an inventory and logistics perspective, that's actually pretty wild!

Yeah, but they only release like 4 or so new models a year, excluding storage/color differences, which are relatively trivial, despite making many billions of dollars.

Apple made almost $200B from iPhone in 2023, for example; per model, even including the older ones, that's an insane revenue per model. Not sure I can think of any other product at that level.

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