A new interview with a high-ranking Nokia executive shows the company is either out of touch with the smartphone competition or just hitting the PR spin button a little too hard.
The company’s director of portfolio, product marketing and sales Niels Munksgaard took some time to speak to the website Pocket-lint.com. Here’s how he summed up the current state of Android and the iPhone, both of which, keep in mind, are doing pretty well.
“What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone. Also, many are not happy with the complexity of Android and the lack of security,” he said.
I’m not sure what research Munksgaard is referring to, but based on the number of kids I see on their iPhones every day on the subway I don’t think many are “fed up” with the Apple device.
I’ve been lucky enough to hang out with several Nokia executives over the year and they are as fun and boisterous as you would want out of successful Finnish businessmen.
But one of the things that I always notice is they appear to be disconnected with the US consumer and have a difficult time staying grounded.
Sure, part of it is needing to keep a strong opinions about your products but you can’t go too far off the reserve. In the interview, Munksgaard went on to say that young consumers want “to be on the cutting edge and try something new” to they “are turning to the Windows Phone platform.”
Again, I haven’t seen that reflected in Windows Phone’s sales numbers. That being said, Nokia has the opportunity to mold Windows Phone into something newer and bolder. It would not have that flexibility with Android. Choosing a nascent but brimming-with-potential OS may turn out to be a smart move, or it could backfire.
But to say that any segment of consumers is “fed up” with the iPhone is just crazy talk.
