What should have been a day of pride for Nokia served only to remind the world how far the company has fallen. At last week's Lumia 1020 event in New York, it became clear that the company has no plans to change its ways—even if its stubbornness means sliding into irrelevance in the smartphone market. As Apple and Samsung duke it out for first place, Nokia is left fighting for the scraps along with BlackBerry and every other unlucky device maker in the smartphone game.
How did the number one phone maker in the world end up an also-ran? Simple: it bet the house on Windows Phone.
Nokia's mistakes
In 2011 Nokia and Microsoft established a strategic partnership in which the Finnish phone manufacturer agreed to make smartphones that ran on Microsoft's mobile operating system, while simultaneously phasing out Symbian. Earlier Windows phones from the likes of HTC and Samsung hadn't been all that impressive, but people were confident that Nokia—already beloved around the world for its durable and colorful handsets—could save the platform from obscurity.
The colorful Lumia 800 stood out when set against the ranks of bland-looking Android phones.
The Lumia 800, Nokia's first Windows Phone, was well-received abroad, and the U.S. public seemed excited at the idea of a Nokia smartphone that would work with U.S. carriers. But the first Windows Phone that Nokia brought stateside was the Lumia 710—a phone that lacked the polish and style of the 800 and was limited to one of the smaller nationwide mobile carriers (T-Mobile). The Lumia 900, which followed a year later, was a much better handset, but once again its distribution was limited to a single carrier (this time, AT&T).
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