Nokia is too afraid to let go of Symbian

Last week I wrote about the amazing potential of Nokia's new partnership with Microsoft Phone 7. As I wrote, "Take a look at what happens when you mix the two. Nokia, the failing company with a huge market share + Microsoft Phone 7, the new interesting platform that lacks an audience."

But apparently, that was not really a strategy after all. It was just management gobbledegook.

Today I read this over at Nokia's QT blog:

At the Nokia press conference our CEO, Stephen Elop, also addressed Symbian. We will continue to invest in the development of Symbian and continue to release devices based on Symbian. He reiterated that we will ship a large number of Symbian devices over the next couple years. 150 million is the current prediction, in addition to the millions of existing Qt-enabled phones already on the market.

So Nokia, I guess your whole Windows Phone 7 strategy was indeed just another Powerpoint presentation. In reality, Nokia has no strategy, no vision for the future. It is just let us try Windows Phone 7, and also keep doing whatever it is we are already doing, and maybe we will win the lottery.

Sorry Nokia, companies with no vision or clear strategy always lose. So does companies who tries to hold all the cards, regardless of how poor they might seem.

It's like when you ask clueless companies to define their target market. They will say, it's for young women, but also the ones in their 50s. And men can use it too. It's for the hip city girl, who are always partying. But it also for shy women, who just wants to relax in the garden.

It's crap! Nobody wants to follow a brand that has no idea who they are. And in Nokia's case, nobody is going to develop apps for a company who doesn't know what platform they should focus on.

I'm sorry Nokia. You are stuck in quicksand. And even though you just got a brilliant idea for how to get unstuck, you decided to double back because you are too afraid to let go of the sand.

I think that Windows Phone 7 has a huge amount of potential. Nokia is nuts to keep working on Symbian.