Nokia N9 Second Coming

Nokia N9 Signs of a Second Coming

In the hiatus since our last blog, many events have occured as expected.

Despite all the hype, millions of marketing dollars and the
vindictive efforts by Elop to kill-off the first commercially viable and technically successful open source mobile phone operating system, Meego Harmattan 1.2 and starving Nokia to near death in the process, the jury is now out and it is clear that the burning platform that Stephen Elop stood on in 2011 was Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system and not Nokia’s Symbian or Meego.

The Mango platform, also known as Windows Phone 7.5 continues to burn as the total world market share in quarter 3 of 2011 was only 1.5%.

To put this in perspective, this is less market share than what BADA mobile phone has managed to achieve in the same time period.

BADA who? That’s right. BADA who.

The numbers are not much better in Q1 2012 after the impregnation of Nokia smartphones with Windows Phone 7.5, only reaching 2% of all total mobile phone operating system in US, the backyard of Windows.

That is how dire the commercial future for Windows Phone 7.x is at the moment.

Coupled with the fact that the expected release of Windows Phone 8 (aka Apollo) in Q2/3 of 2012 which is not backward compatible with any of the Lumia handsets from Nokia or any other Windows Phone 7.x handsets, there really is no future for Windows Phone 7.x any longer, or Windows Phone for that matter.

Shockingly, the Lumia 900 handset which runs on Windows Phone 7.5 has not even been release for sale in the UK as of early May 2012.

This means that the Lumia 900 would be obsolete even before it is sold in the UK without any hope of future updates for end-users.

What is even worst is that the development tools for applications, the life-blood of any “ecosystem”, will also no longer be supported for Windows Phone 7.5 and 7.0.

To compound the problem even further, Samsung has confirmed amongst many others that they will be releasing Windows Phone 8 handsets latest by October 2012. Many others are likely to follow. This gives the Lumia handsets a 5 months lifespan at the most, including the Lumia 900.

Hence, the Lumia 900 is a Windows Phone 7.5 “superphone” that is effectively dead on arrival in the US and UK markets. And this is the phone
that is supposed to reverse the 1.3 Billion loss for Nokia in first 3 months of 2012.

It does not look like this is going to happen and Nokia shareholders
should expect another downgrade of their shares to junk status by
Moody’s rating agency. It is already junk in the books of Standard and Poor’s and Fitch rating agencies.

It is clear why.

Microsoft’s business model is a purely investor-centred one. Matters not if the millions of users of Windows based desktop or mobile devices are left in the cold as a result of their endless cycles of “upgrades” which are not backward compatible.

Everytime Microsoft kills one version of their operating system in order to promote the next one, users are left standing with the stark choice of pay and pay more in order to continue to have access to what is essentially the user’s own private digital property (documents, digital memories, applications, digital entertainment, etc) or face digital extinction.

Of course, the process of digital extinction by Microsoft is a slow one. First, there is no longer any incremental Service Pack updates. Then there will be no security patches. Then, applications will no longer run and neither will new versions of the same application.

Finally you will lose all access to all your data, that is if the thousands of hackers don’t get to your windows-based device first from the un-patched security holes.

This process has begun for Windows Phone 7.x Smartphones with the recent announcement that Windows mobile phones pre 7.5 will no longer be able to download or even buy applications from the Windows Phone Marketplace!

The same fate will likely follow for Lumia 900 owners in about 1 years time after Windows Phone 8 is released. Who would want to buy phones like this?

Is there any wonder why there is no interest in Windows-based mobile devices in the whole wide world?

Is there any wonder why there was such an outcry from ordinary people when Elop tried to kill off the Nokia N9 Meego Harmattan 1.2?

Of course not.

Which brings us nicely to the main part of this article.

There have been a few signs that there will be a second coming of the Nokia N9. This is wholly expected as it is the only smartphone that has the ability to reverse the precipitous decline and impending implosion of Nokia as a corporation due to the Microsoft-centric policies of Stephen Elop.

It has worldwide acclaim and continued sustained consumer interest worldwide (over 12 million hits at GSMArena alone) despite almost zero marketing efforts and all of Elop’s efforts to make sure that it doesn’t see the light of day.

The Nokia N9 continues to gather awards more than a year after the proclamation of its death by Elop, the latest being the prestigious Design and Art Direction Yellow Pencil Award for interactive design in April 2012.

“the coveted ‘yellow pencil’ is ‘recognised the world over as a symbol of true creative achievement”

Need we say more?

Although Stephen Elop has refused to release the full data of the sales of all it’s Windows Phone 7.5, Symbian and Meego Harmattan 1.2 handsets for the examination of users and investors alike, there is emerging data to suggest that the Nokia N9 sold at least as many handsets, if not more than all the Lumia phones combined.

This is in spite of the active Stephen Elop enforced blanket ban of the N9 from the biggest and most active smartphone markets in the world like USA, UK, Germany, Canada, etc.

When one takes into account that the N9 is still the most expensive premium Nokia phone, has the highest profit per device and has essentially no marketing effort, is still the most irrationally loved smartphone device in the world, it is clear where the salvation for Nokia as a company, and for investors in terms of the value of their shares, lies.

Nokia shares are now trading at a 15 year low, worth only Euro 2.39 on the 4th of May.

The Nokia board of directors needs to remember that Nokia is not just another OEM manufacturer for mobile phones.

Up to early 2011, Nokia and its products represented a way of life which hundreds of millions of end users believed in and so did the investors.

The 300 million loyal Nokia customers whom had shared the same corporate vision of Nokia prior to the Windows Phone takeover and now left in the cold are also in need of this second coming.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the voices and prayers of many will be answered as this article suggests. The same needs to happen for UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, India and all the other major smartphone markets in the world.

Enjoy the impending release of the Nokia N9 P.R 1.3 upgrade expected in the end of May 2012, the 3rd firmware upgrade for the Nokia N9 in less than 1 year!!!

This is the same “customers first” attitude and action of Nokia past that had made it the most successful and most loved mobile phone company in the world. Sadly,this is no longer the case.

Still, the best may yet to come for the Nokia N9.

Enjoy your N9!

Buy Meego, Leave Elop.

MeegoMan