HMD 'Scaling Back' in the US, Killing Nokia All Over Again (theverge.com) 10
An anonymous reader shares a report: HMD Global, the company best known for licensing the Nokia brand for new phones and tablets over the last decade, has announced that it will "scale back" its US operations, and appears to have stopped selling both HMD and Nokia devices entirely.
[...] Based in Finland, HMD was formed in 2016 in order to purchase the Nokia feature phone business from Microsoft, which had in turn bought the ailing brand in 2014. It also secured a license to use the Nokia name on smartphones and tablets, with a focus on affordable and midrange hardware.
[...] Based in Finland, HMD was formed in 2016 in order to purchase the Nokia feature phone business from Microsoft, which had in turn bought the ailing brand in 2014. It also secured a license to use the Nokia name on smartphones and tablets, with a focus on affordable and midrange hardware.
Completely Unsurprising... (Score:4, Interesting)
...Because they didn't do a lick of marketing.
I had a Nokia 6.2, 7.1, and 7.2 phone...and they were all fantastic. They included one management app, a few wallpapers, and a few custom ringtones...but after that, they were bone stock Android phones without all the extra gunk that Samsung adds. This is a blessing and a curse; I appreciate that they didn't attempt to reinvent the wheel, but they also had nothing notable to set them apart. The Lumia phones were at least visually unique and had solid cameras for their day, but while I appreciate Nokia showing some restraint with the shovelware, it also meant that they were slightly-cheaper Pixels.
They had a handful of other issues that make me completely unsurprised they didn't make meaningful inroads. First and foremost, they weren't sold through carriers. They were exclusively retail/aftermarket phones. I got mine at Microcenter, but that's because I made it a point to ignore any of the free-upgrade or installment-purchase offers from my carrier. Most people get their phones from the carrier; the absence of that option severely cut down their potential customer base.
AT&T also screwed over the handful of users who had them back in 2022 by mandating VoLTE, which the phones didn't support. In fairness, this also caused issues with a number of slightly-older Samsung flagships as well, but that didn't help, either.
Finally, it was ironic that most people's recollection of Nokia phones were that they were indestructible, the 7.x and 6.x phones I had scratched easily, and had screens that were more delicate than other contemporary phones at the time. To add insult to injury, there were far fewer choices for protective cases - they existed, sure, but they were almost never available retail; Otterbox only had options for a subset of Nokia phones, even for mail order.
So yeah, it's completely unsurprising that a revival of the Nokia brand didn't work out well.
Re: (Score:2)
They always seemed to offer the best value, but never the right frequencies for T-Mobile, so I never got one.
Just adding to things that probably didn't help them. Required a sophisticated buyer (not pushed through carriers) while also not great for the US network.
Don't worry. (Score:3)
You can't kill Nokia. They're indestructible.
Nokia is just another lesson in failure (Score:2)
Prior to iPhone coming out, I had Nokia phones. If you're a young person, you might be shocked at how phones were before the iPhone. There was no touch screen. You had to use the number pad to input letters. To spell "cat" you had to press
Re: (Score:2)
Prior to iPhone coming out, I had Nokia phones. If you're a young person, you might be shocked at how phones were before the iPhone. There was no touch screen....
So, I get what you're going for, but I would submit that there were more than a few missing steps here.
While the Nokia 3310 and similar models were the 'first phones' for many people, between about 2003 and 2007 there was a whole lot of 'feature phones', and they all had 'fun' names, like the "LG Chocolate" or the "Samsung Juke". They were frequently defined by a keyboard that allowed for full-blown texting beyond the T9-based input you're describing. Early iterations of smartphones, like Blackberry and man
Re: Nokia is just another lesson in failure (Score:2)
Just look at new markets (Score:2)
Tank fuselage, personal armors, locks...
There's plenty markets for people that know how to make indestructible gears.
HMD phones are good... (Score:3)
I have owned 3 HMD phones now (2 branded NOKIA and my current one that's just branded HMD) and they were/are great. (one of the NOKIAs died because it got slightly wet in a massive storm and the charging port died, the other one died because it landed on a piece of raised paving for blind people and the screen got smashed)
My current HMD is good, its getting updates, it runs all the apps I need it to, it works with my carrier no problems (including VoLTE emergency calls) and I can get a full day of battery life (mobile data etc) out of it no problems.
I am in Australia though (and all 3 were sold as prepaid phones for the network my carrier runs on) so experiences elsewhere may differ...
Not mentioned (Score:2)
>the Nokia feature phone business from Microsoft, which had in turn bought the ailing brand in 2014.
No mention that Microsoft sent executive Stephen Elop to dismantle Nokia as its CEO in 2010. Nor that in 2014 as part of the deal to acquire Nokia's phone business leaving the rest of the company to soldier on, Nokia insisted that Microsoft repossess him.