Nokia goes green with iPhone-envy

Joseph Jaffe posted on a video done by a Nokia employee as he wanders down the queue for an iPhone, attempting to point out the advantages of Nokia's N95 phone. Joseph liked it a lot:

"Really love this very smart piece that Karl Long (who actually works at Nokia) created to pay tribute to the imbeciles who wasted 1-2 days of their lives to buy a phone.

As I watched the video, I couldn't help but wonder how many people were duped influenced by the iPhone advertising."

On the one hand, as a sausage guy, I was interested to learn of the areas where the N95 is superior. But, overall, the Nokia guy comes across as a geek who is royally pissed off that people aren't queueing up for his phone. He desperately and unsuccessfully tries to persuade the prospective iPhone punters of his feature-packed N95.

But he (like the most famous iPhone hater, Laura Ries) misses the mark by by trying to analyse the iPhone feature by feature. "Look, the iPhone has a 2 megapixel camera, we've got 5 megapixels. Na, na, na, na, na)." But I don't think people are buying the iPhone like that. They fall in love with it as a single, whole, drop-dead gorgeous piece of design. And they are expecting a superior user experience from the Mac operating system and iLife software.

If I were Nokia, I'd avoid trying to persuade iPhone fans to buy a N95 instead, as this is a losing battle. Instead, they'd be better off targeting the anti-iPodders and Apple-haters, who think being cool means NOT having an iPhone. These people may buy into Nokia's feature-based advantages.

As for Jospeph's comments, I think he's the imbecile in this case. The people who got an iPhone were not idiots who "wasted" their time, they were smart fans who happily queued up. Most brands (including Nokia) would kill for this sort of loyalty. Second, its just daft to think the same people were "duped" by the iPhone adverts. What sold people was all the free PR that the product generated. The iPhone did all the talking for itself.

And early reports I read via John at Brand Autopsy suggest the hype was justified. According to a recent study, 90% of iPhone buyers were extremely/very satisfied and 85% will recommend the iPhone to a friend. And some other killer data that John points out. First, 30% of iPhone buyers are first-time Apple customers. What a recruitment tool! And, most impressively, of the  50% of iPhone buyers who switched cellphone carriers and paid to do this, they paid on average...wait for it... $167 to make the switch. This, in a market where most people are deal hunting. Wow. No wonder the Nokia geek-guy is jealous.

Comments

[themolk]

I just wanna get me one... but I have conditions...

http://themolks.com/template_permalink.asp?id=355

Apple have done a great job. The guy pushing the Nokia just comes across as an idiot. Let's face it, Nokia are/were the king... but Apple absolutely trumped them on this one...

[Nick]

I think the battle of words between the two is a great example of brand guys too close to their product, so that they cannot look at it from a consumer point of view. It is like the car companies getting excited because their car does 0-60 in 9.2 seconds and their competitor takes 9.4; maybe an impressive technical achievement but; a) how often does the average consumer get to go from 0-60 in a straight line, dry empty road, no police or cameras etc and b) for most people 9.2 and 9.4 are effectively the same thing.

I think the point about Iphone is exactly what you say; it's the whole thing that excites people. my guess is that iphone users are probably more likely than average to use many features, but even so a lot won't use all the features anyway; certainly the bulk of mobile phones have far more features and capabilities than their owners ever use so it can't be the long (dull) list that turns them on can it?

Also i suspect there is more than a bit of green eyed monster in there too- not too long ago Nokia pretty well owned the cool style area of phones- not because they were so great in truth but because no-one else was even close on the look and feel. Now they have been caught up with by several competitors (Samsung, Sony ericson especially) and the iphone is one more body blow as it appears to be ahead of them in this territory.

I agree- i would love to have a brand that loved me so much that they would pay for the right to carry me around, as well as paying to purchase me!

[Andy James]

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