I recently posted a fast snippet on what I think about the new Nokia E71 after watching a video created by my digital friend Guarav Mishra from India.
I thought he touched an interesting point. Nokia and other players should keep in mind APIs… watch the video he tells more about it

Guarav replied on what I shared on my radar and this gave me inspiration to write something more than just a comment. So here I am.
We are going mobile. I’m Italian and I’m not saying this because I’m now based in Finland, home country of Nokia. I often blog about the mobile world and its importance in marketing and PR.
This is not just a media-consumption era, it’s also a media-production era… If in 2008 you release a device with just 3MP camera (especially after pushing a 5MP in N95s..) it means that you have to think bigger. Also ‘E-Serie business people’ create content, and want tools to do it well! Guarav’s video is a great example. Another thing that Nokia should keep in mind is that Mac users need good pieces of software too and that the device I have in my hands is not my mobile phone, it’s my mobile office. So I need it to run as fast as I do… can’t spend time dealing with crashes and limited number of simultaneous connections…
The E71 is a good phone but it’s lacking where it shouldn’t. I’m a faithful Nokia customer and I was just expecting something more from the last E-serie release. Months ago, when I first heard about the specs of the upcoming E71 here in Finland I really hoped that it was a bad joke… I thought “Nothing special”. I really hoped that once released I would have changed my mind. Unfortunately it wasn’t a joke. Don’t get me wrong, I love Nokia. The only problem is that they could have done much more, but they didn’t.
To me it felt like a lousy competition to gain some market shares VS the iPhone. In his comment Guarav actually gave also good information about the E71 price compared to the iPhone. It made me think a bit, but considering the way I’m feeling now about the E71 at this point if I have to pay hundreds of euros for a device I start to be tempted to give a chance to Apple and get an iPhone, at least I’ll test something new/different. After years of purchasing Nokia, I would rather prefer to be here saying “Nokia released the best business on the market. They proved once again that they are the #1 when we are talking about the mobile industry”.

Let’s talk about strategy.
When I read this Nokia E71 ad I couldn’t help but thinking “Designed for the way we work”?… We ‘Who’? Nokia internals maybe..but not me…! Why didn’t Nokia ask its users what they wanted during the product development? (If they did, Nokia’s voice wasn’t loud enough). Why it’s so difficult for Nokia to stop by and comment when people are talking about it? Why not to join the conversation?
I honestly think that Nokia is a great brand. What makes me sit down and write post like this is also the passion I have for this brand, that’s why it would be nice if Nokia could / would join the conversation. Especially when we share constructive criticism. There are several different ways on how Nokia could move better in future product development, branding, marketing strategy… I actually would be more than happy to talk with Nokia about some of the ideas that we have at iTive.net.
I’m wondering what you my fellows think and especially what’s the take of some Suomi-Blogosphere mates like Hessu Jarvinen, Erkka Piirainen, Anne Rongas, Pasi Orn, Tuomo Turja, Saara Laaksonen, Antti Vilponen, Timo Rainio, Helge Keitel, Tuija Aalto (I could go on with the list but I’m sure I would end up leaving out some folks…so please feel free to forward the message to who you think might be interested in joining the conversation… )
How can Nokia do better?
Is Nokia over-pricing its devices?
What would you add to the “Nokia Wish List”?
AND… ‘Nokia’ if you are listening, it would be nice to hear your voice too in this conversation!
Andrea