Nokia and the mobile user experience

By Marty Carroll

It seems that the launch of the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has caused quite a stir.Should we be surprised? Probably not. While everyone has been swooning over the iPhone since it came to market 18 months or so ago we can’t forget that a huge proportion of the population were introduced to the mobile phone by Nokia and effectively grew up with the Nokia user interface. For years Nokia essentially dictated the paradigm for the mobile user experience. People find comfort in the familiar and this is particularly evident with customer experiences.

Yesterday’s novelty becomes today’s standard and the touch screen interface is no exception; the iPhone’s point of differentiation has essentially disappeared. Combining the touch interface with the very familiar Nokia UI and very competitive pricing could be a winner – although there are rumours that Apple is to debut an iPhone more in keeping with the frugal times we live in.

So, bizarrely, it could be the case that, while everyone was debating the eventual winner of the iPhone versus Google Android wrangle, the world’s largest mobile manufacturer can almost surreptitiously steal the show!