During the recent ‘All Things D’ conference in California, the Nokia chief executive officer, Stephen Elop was on the stage talking about the future of Nokia. He had said then that Symbian was a “slow moving platform” and that to keep up with iOS and Android, Nokia chose to go with Windows Phone 7.
Nokia had, in fact, earlier planned to go with MeeGo but it soon figured out that Windows Phone 7 would be more change friendly. Another important announcement was they would not do anything on Windows Phone 7 that other WP7 users wouldn’t be able to get. The hardware business will continue with Nokia.
Apart from the global level fire fighting, the company is making sure to fight back well on the Indian turf as well, where it has lost significant market share to some Chinese and Indian companies. In a bid to wrestle back its lost markets share, Nokia has recently launched two dual SIM phones, which constitutes about 40 per cent of the Indian market.
The new Nokia C2-00 has some innovative features such as booting in 30 seconds, option to insert the second SIM without switching off the phone, and 32GB expandable memory — all this, priced at less than Rs 3,000.
Nokia’s attempt to rebuild itself has solid reasons, the company used to virtually own the Indian market only some time ago. The problem, however, is not just the lack of multi SIM phones in their portfolio. Entry level users are asking for all the features at reduced prices, and they are easily getting it from Chinese and Indian handset providers as well.
Besides, the Finnish handset maker is also coming up with varied services, such as the recently launched Nokia Money service, to gain customers loyalty back.
The service will allow users to make payments through their Nokia phones. The e-wallet services from Nokia is available in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Chandigarh, Nasik and Pune and the other cities where operations will soon begin include Lucknow, Kanpur, Surat, Baroda, Rajkot, Kochi and Kozhikode.