Nokia's post-modern adventure

- roots form follows function etc - early segmentation - premium - fashion - classic - expression/active/games -entry

Nokia

Nokia's dominance of the mobile phone industry in the late 90s and the first few years of the twenty-first century, had its roots in usability and design. Nokia's Scandinavian design heritage and focus on the human aspects of technology made their phones the nicest and easiest to use. Nokia eclipsed both Swedish Ericsson, which shared a similar heritage and was steeped in the telecoms industry from the early days; and Motorola, which developed the ancestor to the mobile phone, the military Walkie-Talkie, as well as the World's first handportable.

The phone that most embodied Nokia's Scandinavian design heritage was the the Nokia 8110, the phone that featured in the Sci-Fi thriller, the Matrix. It was the a beautiful piece of modernist design. The 8110's gently curved shape fitted perfectly to the face. It's slider covered the keys when not in use and opening the slider answered a call. This phone was recognised at the time as a classic of Scandinavian design. It could have sat alongside Hans Wagner's 'Wishbone' chair from 1949 as a timeless example of beautiful design.

However, our definition of what a mobile is and what we use it for was changed as quickly as the technology. Unlike a chair, from the 1940s which is just as functional today, a mobile phone from 1996 cannot sit alongside modern devices. Nokia designers realised this and did not sit on their laurels. However, what came next was far from functionalism.

Nokia's marketing strategy was segmentation: a different phone for every sector of the market, from first time users to fashion conscious urbanites and status conscious executives.Segmentation needed a new approach to design. Postmodernism replaced Scandinavian modernism.

This strategy at its peak had seven different segments:[1]

Timeline

Premium

The first segment Nokia specifically targeted was the premium sector.

There are always certain objects which confer status on their owner. They have a desirability that outweighs mere utility. A Rolex watch or a Mont Blanc Pen do their jobs perfectly, but, you can tell the time just as well a with £20 Swatch, or write just as well with a much cheaper pen.

Nokia recognised that there was a market for a phone that would have a desirability beyond its utility. Motorola had been exploiting this market for some time by making some the smallest and lightest ever phones and attaching a huge premium for early adopters. Nokia added a new class of phone above their basic business phones, the Premium class handset.

The 8110 was a premium handset, but its desirability came from good design, it was a functional object that was pleasurable to use.  The phones that followed it were deliberately designed to have the qualities of a Rolex Watch, Mont Blanc, or a Porsche sports car. In so doing Nokia stepped outside their traditional design values of utility and humanity.  The driving factors were luxury beyond utility, craftsmanship and status beyond utility.

The first in this new series of phones was the 8810. Nokia's Chief Designer Frank Nuovo styled it to be the embodiment of the premium class phone. It had advanced features, including an infra red port, Nokia's famous menu system and an impressive 133 hours of standby time on the standard battery, but the point of the 8810 was desirability. The sliding chrome look case was nice to hold and the phone was easy to use. It was one the most desirable Christmas presents of 1998, but was something entirely different in design terms from the 8110.

It was the beginning of a new approach. There would be a phone for every sector of the market, from top directors to teenagers.

Nokia continued the premium line with the 8850, which replaced chrome look plastic with aluminium and the 8910 which had a similar look with a titanium case. The appeal of these phones in rapidly growing Asian markets was not lost.There was a gold version of 8850 designed specially for the Hong Kong market. Nokia may have had an eye to these markets with the choice of the 88 prefix in the model number.

The final incarnation of this line was the steel bodied slider phone, the Nokia 8800.  It took the analogy other luxury products to extremes. Journalists from East and West drooled over the precision craftsmanship, more familiar to luxury watchmakers,  reinforced scratch resistant glass and ball bearings used in the sports car industry.

Fashion

From the early 90s mobile phone makers had realised that the needs of business users and consumers were different.  Often, though, they made the cheapest possible business handset, devoid of features and sold it as a consumer phone. 

The success of aftermarket replacement mobile phone cases, with the possibility of customisation, inspired both Ericsson and Nokia to make official versions for the consumer market.  Nokia's 5110 introduced a new way of thinking about mobile phones.  In those days consumer phones were still about basic handsets in boring colours made as cheaply as possible.  Nokia turned the mobile phone into a fashion accessory.

The 5110 was still a very basic phone and was quickly superseded with smaller handsets also offering interchangeable fascias.  The Nokia 8210, launched towards the end of 1999 was a different beast altogether.  It was a consumer phone for the top end of the consumer market.  Although expensive the 8210 was eagerly snapped up by gadget obsessed young professionals, both male and female.  It was the first of a new bread of phone, a premium consumer phone.

The 8210 was a very similar product to the 8810, but its external appearance was significantly different, reflecting the different values of its intended users.  

Nokia developed a separate 'fashion' class of phones positioned well above basic consumer handsets, offering customised appearance and ringtones and the latest consumer features such as cameras, colour displays and built in FM radios.

Initially aimed at both men and women, the fashion line phones became more female oriented.  The brand image of the fashion phone centred around sophisticated urban professional women in their late twenties or early thirties.  Style became the most important selling factor and some of the forms and keyboard layouts were less than functional.

Nokia as with the premium phones developed the fashion line to extremes with phones such as the 7280 which resembled lipstick packaging.

Classic

With a separate premium line, Nokia developed their standard business phones in the 'Classic' line. These phones were no nonsense high performing business phones and much closer to the original roots of the brand.

Nokia cornered the business market in 1994 with the 2110, which became the most desirable GSM phone on the market. In 1998 Nokia launched a new business phone based on a similar chassis to the new consumer phone, the 5110, without interchangeable fascias, but with an infra red port and a calendar.

It wasn't all about work though, the 6110 package included Nokia's famous Snake game and a chameleon fascia which would change colour in different light.

Nokia refined this classic phones and eventually launched the 6310i which became one of the most well liked phones of all time, with users seeking out second-hand models well after production finished.

Entry and Expression

Nokia did not desert those looking for their first mobile or just looking for a basic phone. The 5110 phone also provided the starting point for Nokia's entry level phones. Like the classic line, these phones continued Nokia's successful no-nonsense formula, albeit with the possibility of interchangeable fascias.

Some of the best selling phones of all time came from Nokia's basic range.

To provide something different, but still near the entry level, Nokia introduced another class of phone, the 'Expression' range. Expression phones targeted a younger and less affluent consumer from the fashion range. Nevertheless, these customers wanted something different from the most basic offerings. Expression phones offered customisable fascias, keypads and ringtones. Like the fashion class phones, expression phones compromised usability for customisability.

Conclusion

Although, segmentation gave Nokia unparelled growth, it was ultlimately doomed. The technology was not mature enough. It was as if Nokia made a pocket watch to suit every sector of the market, and and someone invented the wristwatch.

It featured a slider and was significantly smaller than Nokia's other phones. However, a shiny chrome look plastic combined with black to give an more expensive look and feel.

The 8110 was Nokia's flagship phone for a time, however, it is in a rapidly moving industry you have to change to be ahead of the pack.

Nokia's designers saw the need for constant innovation as

Nokia's basic consumer phones 2010(1994), 1610(1996), 5110(1997), 3210 (1999), 3310 (2000)

References

1. New thinking, new potential; presentation by Juha Pinomaa, Director, Product Marketing, Nokia (2003)

Article by Steven Braggs, June 2012

 
   
Mobile phone history

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