One, a struggling mobile manufacturer who has consistently and spectacularly failed to infiltrate the American smartphone market, the other, a mobile operating system still looking for a foothold in an OS market largely dominated by Android and iOS; two parties hoping their combined efforts can create a phone that the American public will want, two companies who’s images will be irrevocably tarnished in the mobile space should all this end in failure.
The truth of the matter is that Nokia, once a powerhouse in the mobile industry, is standing at a crossroads, having played its last and final card with the Lumia 900 (set for release April 8). Should this attempt follow suit with every previous flagship smartphone debacle we’ve witnessed over the past two years and, well, Nokia likely won’t be able to recover.
But along with Nokia, the fate of Microsoft’s Windows Phone likely hangs in the balance as well. While AT&T has dedicated itself to the Windows OS, it is truly the only carrier to have done so, and if the Lumia 900 is a flop look for AT&T to rethink its commitment and for every other carrier to simply stay away.
The good news in all of this, at least, is that as last ditch efforts go; Nokia, Microsoft, and AT&T are all taking this very seriously, dedicating significant advertising resources and working together to push the phone as hard as they can.
Of course the simple fact of the matter is that if the Lumia 900 isn’t a blockbuster, the flagship phone that Nokia has needed all these years, both the Finnish mobile manufacturer and the PC giant will be hard pressed to recover in the mobile sector, with Nokia fading into obscurity while Windows Phone likely becomes the pariah of the OS market.
While the fate of Nokia really isn’t in question, is it overstating things to say that this is a make or break scenario for Microsoft in the mobile market as well? Truth be told, Windows Phone is not seeing the adoption the Redmond Company had hoped for, as in American AT&T is really the only carrier to solidly back the OS. While both Verizon and Sprint carry Windows Phone devices, they only do so half-heartedly, and if the Lumia 900 is a flop it likely won’t endear itself anymore to these sceptical carriers.
In the end I have to say that while I’m not convinced a failure here would doom Window Phone, with Nokia’s well documented struggles over the past few years to remain relevant in the quickly changing mobile world, anything short of a homerun with the Lumia 900 will assuredly leave the Finnish company with a truly broken brand, a name synonymous with failure, one that carriers the world over will continue to shy away from.
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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.
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