Mark Bridge writes:
The phenomenon of ‘apocalypse sex’ is often seen in movies, comedy shows and advertisements. The end of the world’s just around the corner so… hey… what the heck?
I reckon it shares the same emotional basis as being ‘demob happy’ or having that ‘end of term feeling’ at school.
And that feeling seems to be in plentiful supply at Nokia HQ in Espoo.
In recent weeks there’s been an almost-overwhelming diversity of announcements from Nokia. Today we’ve been told about Invent With Nokia, a new scheme that encourages people to offer ideas for new products and services. If your idea gets patented, Nokia will pay you for it. (Curiously, this is the same Nokia that’s making staff redundant and then paying them to start new businesses).
We’ve had the Ovi brand put to sleep in favour of the bigger Nokia brand. Symbian’s being passed to Accenture. There’ve been leaked images of the MeeGo-powered N9. We have ‘watch this space’ hints. There’s a budget smartphone for the USA. 3D maps. You get the picture. All that’s missing is being allowed to play your copy of Sandinista! by The Clash as part of the social studies lesson.
It feels more like a clearance sale than a strategy.
I appreciate that Nokia wants to clear the (burning) decks before settling down with Microsoft... but this apparent frenzy of activity doesn’t look like an ordered transition to me. I can’t help but wonder how many of these recent announcements have been pinned to the school noticeboard by the students who’ll be leaving at the end of term.
Apocalypse? Nokialypse? Apocanokialypse?
Come on, Nokia - stop messing around. The world isn’t ending, just changing. Let’s get on with the important stuff.