My Two Cents: Goodbye Nokia
Last week Nokia were purchased by Microsoft for something in the region of $5 billion (shocking how vague the figures are when the number is THAT big). For me this was a momentous occasion, as since 1999 I have owned nothing but Nokia’s, save for 18 months on an iPhone, which I traded in for another Nokia. I’m a big Nokia fan and the news that there will be no more Nokia mobiles (at least until 2016) is a massive disappointment.
A lot more has been said far more eloquently by others, however it would be remiss of me not feel a moments sadness of the passing of a company whose products I appreciated so much that they were the sole companies graduate scheme that I applied for. They were innovators, from Xpress on covers to 41 megapixel cameras to awesome QWERTY keyboards… if you look at the specs the iPhone of today is the Nokia of 5 years ago. That’s how good they were. Had they chosen Android over Windows Phone, or stuck with the award winning Meego phone, who knows how different things would be now?
Sadly, somewhere in the last 5 years, Nokia lost its identity, and it’s a shame that rather than go find it, the people in charge decided to sell what they had left to Microsoft, who will remove the name and make billions off of all the patents that those pioneers of mobile technology innovated. There does appear to be plenty of rumours that Nokia will rise again using Sailfish or Android …Nokia Phoenix maybe…(and there’s even a Newkia), but for now all I have is the hope that Nokia will return one day to again live in my pocket.