Did Nokia make a mistake by going with Windows Phone?

Nokia Lumia 900 with Android 4.x?

Should Nokia have chosen Android over Windows Phone? Many think so, including one former Apple executive.

Things are getting rough for Nokia. Today, their stock hit the historic low of $2 a share before closing at $2.02.  That’s bad, very bad for a company who traded for over $40 a share just a few years ago. What’s more, the “no Windows Phone 8” for current devices, especially the high-profile Lumia line, is doing nothing to inspire confidence in the company, whose primary business is selling phones. See RIM.
Recently though, some people have been clamoring for Nokia’s heyday and stating that Nokia should have gone with Android instead of Windows Phone. Others think they abandoned Symbian way too early even though Nokia’s stock crashed below $10 back in 2009. News flash: Symbian was dragging the company down and their stock price reflected this years before they announced they were going with Windows Phone.
In an interview with Computing.co.uk, a former Apple executive named Jean-Louis Gassée (he left in 1990, before the company became interesting) threw Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and the Board under a bus noting that the company should have chosen Android, like he recommended, instead. Sour grapes?

For Gassée, Elop gets a lot of criticism because he pre-announced the Windows Phone deal months before they would have any devices to sell. In turn, everyone knew Symbian was dead and Nokia’s sales really tanked. This is referred to as the Osborne Effect which is why companies generally don’t pre-announce new wares while their current ones are still selling. But Gassée says this happened twice, since the Lumia line was just announced as not getting Windows Phone 8 creating a “double Osborne Effect” with no Symbian to fall back on and their Lumia line is predicted to flounder.

We actually agree with Gassée in the way this has played out for Nokia is far from ideal and it could have been handled much better both by Microsoft and Nokia, especially since the latter has much more to lose.
But the notion of Nokia going with Android seems crazy to us.
Would Nokia have created some fantastic Android phones? There is no doubt they would have developed some amazing Android hardware, especially with their flare for design.  But the profit margins are so slim for Android since OEMs are either being sued by Apple or they have to pay royalties to Microsoft for patents, that the payoff might not have been worth it. Nokia may have sold more phones but it’s not clear that being “just another Android-OEM” would be enough to save them.

Noka's stock going back 10 years. It cratered in March, 2009--way before the deal with Microsoft

Nokia’s position on this matter has always been clear: the Windows Phone base is small and therefore Nokia can dominate that field instead of playing catch up to HTC and Samsung using Android. And guess what? They’ve done it. We showed you yesterday how ‘Lumia’ trends higher even then ‘Windows Phone’ for Google searches and everyone knows the Finns own the Windows Phone playing field right now—even while having some high profile issues.

The larger question is not so much about Nokia surviving but about Windows Phone. Everyone seems to agree that Windows Phone is a sold mobile OS and that the double-punch of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 desktop (plus Surface) is a potentially killer combo not matched by Apple or Google.
If Nokia can survive the summer and Windows Phone 8 is a success, they stand to be the big mover in the field—something which Samsung and HTC cannot match, especially with their “divided attention” due to Android.  Seeking to be a leader with an OS versus just another player is a big difference in strategy. Is it risky? Definitely.  Again, Nokia’s stock is hovering just about $2 a share right now. But Microsoft won’t allow Nokia to be bought-out by any other third-party (nor will the Finnish government for that matter) and Redmond won’t allow them to go out of business. This is something that RIM can’t bet on—a guardian angel to inject capital into the company should things go really bad. Who would save Nokia if Android failed them--Google?


Going with Android would not have killed Nokia but it wouldn’t have made them a leader either. With Windows Phone, Nokia is making a bet but the potential reward years from now is considerable. That’s a different philosophy and one where we can see the appeal.
Nokia wants to define what a modern smartphone should be versus already being defined. That's the take away.

How to Design Your Social Media Strategy

Coz i am working as social media marketing executive i found this post by Mr.Kiran very useful

 How to Design Your Social Media Strategy

Social media is here for long, however very few organizations have harnessed its power.  If you are among that group which is yet to plunge into the world of social media, then it’s time. Designing a Social Media strategy is never an easy task for any business but it is not rocket science either.  This post will help you to design a social media strategy from scratch.


What are you looking for?


You should have the answer for this before embarking on a social media campaign. Starting a social media campaign without an objective is a total waste of time, money and other resources. Even though social media would not have the answer for all your business problems, it can provide you to resolve many issues in your business. This can be like improving your customer service, generating leads, Establishing thought leadership etc.
Listen First


Now that you set the objectives you wish to achieve through social media, the very next step is to know what is happening around you. This includes what is being said about your brand, your competitor, industry etc. Also you need to find out whether there are more positive or negative sentiments about your brand.  There are several tools available in the market to help you to start monitoring the social media conversations, including free tool like Google Alerts and premium apps like Radian6.


Join the conversation

So you have identified what has been said about you and the competition by customers and prospective customers. Before you start contributing towards the conversation, make sure that you have done enough research about the nature and characteristics of the influencers in your industry.  ALWAYS make sure that you are not directly broadcasting any marketing messages through your social media profiles as the prospective customers will have the impression that you are here to market your products and not to help them.
When you receive negative comments about your brand/company, don’t panic. You should think that the people who write negatives about you are the ones who care more about you. So you would have the opportunity to convert them as brand advocates if you carefully and properly deal with them.

Provide Value

Unless you provide a value through your conversations in social media it will be impossible to gain and maintain a good follower base.  Always try to help your followers with some kind of information or any other thing that add value to them. That will make them a loyal follower of you. You could even convert them into a customer, if you maintain this relation. Social media is all about building relationships.

Measure 

Without proper measurement your social media campaign is incomplete. There are several ways you can measure your social media efforts and the metric will depend upon the objectives you set earlier and your business goals. Social media campaign is a cycle so it doesn’t stop here. This is a contemplating stage. After identifying the area of improvement in your campaign, you can incorporate the changes and continue the process.

JELLY BEAN IS HERE!!!!!

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be available in a few weeks. Besides the brand new Nexus 7 tablet, the first devices to receive the latest Android update from Google will be the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and the XOOM. Following Google’s mind boggling Keynote announcement at Google I/O today, the Android team posted the platform highlights, recapping all of Jelly Bean’s new features. Here are a few we are particularly excited about.

Faster, Smoother, More Responsive
Due to the success of Google’s “Project Butter”, the latest version of Android is just like the saying goes “as smooth as butter”. Jelly Bean is the most responsive and impressive version of Android to date coming with triple buffered graphics, extended vsync timing and intuitive touch that boosts your CPU at the next touch event to make sure lag is minimal.

Enhanced Accessibility
Jelly Bean includes new API’s for accessibility features such as services that let you handle gestures and manage accessibility focus with on-screen navigation buttons. These can be handled by accessibility gestures, accessories, or other input methods. Applications that use the standard View components inherit support for these new features automatically without the need for developers to alter their code.

Support For International Users

Android 4.1 helps developers reach more users through support for bi-directional text. Apps can handle text editing in left to right or right to left scripts. Apps can also make sure of new included Arabic and Hebrew locales and fonts. If that isn’t enough, the platform now supports user-installable keymaps.

Expandable Notifications
Android 4.1 brings a major update to Android notifications. Apps can now display larger, richer notifications to users that can be expanded and collapsed with a pinch. Notifications support new types of content, including photos, have configurable priority, and can even include multiple actions assigned to them.

Resizeable App Widgets
Android 4.1 introduces improved App Widget functionality that can automatically resize, based on where the user drops them on the home screen, depending on the size, and the amount home screen real estate available. You can also supply separate landscape and portrait layouts for your widgets, which the system activates depending on your current screen rotation.

High Resolution Contact Photos
With Android 4.1, we cab finally store our contact photos at a whopping 720 x 720, allowing contact pictures to be truly beautiful. Apps can store and retrieve contact photos at that size or use any other size as needed.

Android Beam
Android Beam was introduced with ICS, but we haven’t seen a lot of uses for it. In Android 4.1, Android Beam makes it easier to share images, videos, or other payloads by leveraging Bluetooth for the data transfer. When the user triggers a transfer, Android Beam hands over from NFC to Bluetooth, making it easier to transfer and manage files between devices.

Smart App Updates
The latest feature of Google Play introduces a better way to receive application updates on your devices. When a developer publishes an app update, Google Play now only delivers the changes bits of the application rather then the entire APK. This makes app updates much lighter and easier on your network data. On average, a smart app update is about 1/3 the size of the full APK update.

Google Voice Search and Google Now
Google has drastically improved the default Voice Search functionality with Android 4.1. Dubbed Google Now, the new search functionality makes search much more visual such as displaying your results as cards for weather, navigation routes, sports scores, and more. This is much more than a virtual assistant.

These are only a few of the features that come with Jelly Bean. For a full feature listing including subscriptions, we suggest you check out the full Jelly Bean feature list to see what’s all under the hood. Just because this is a “dot” release doesn’t mean it isn’t major. This is more than just API enhancements. This is a major update.