Om Malik, Nokia, and The Long View

Om Malik is talking long view. So is Nokia. Om recently got to check out Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet and spend some time with it. He’s impressed. But he’s more impressed with what he describes as Nokia’s long view. Apparently the N810 is the third in a series of devices Nokia is working on (the first being the N770, then the N800).

North American product releases tend to be driven by competitive urgency — ship now, lest someone else scoop us with theirs. But Nokia’s N810 launch is one step in a longer plan. My impression of Vanjoki’s presentation was that this long view is at the core of Nokia’s strategy. And it’s driven by two key assumptions: That the handset will be the world’s Internet platform, and that it will be open.

Well worth a read, especially if you’re interested in the big differences in the European and US markets and how that affect what the consumer sees in mobile devices these days. I find it fascinating that we are starting to track the success of new device releases almost as if they were new movie releases, with the numbers of the first few days after release becoming some sort of important standard. All that ever proves is which PR machine is more successful in creating hype beforehand.