Reports of Nokia’s “decision” to sell its headquarters has saddened its diehard followers. Though it was evident that Nokia was not doing well, this was too much for those who still swear by the Finnish company.

Unfortunately, Nokia doesn’t seem to be doing it right. It had a series of fiascos during the launch of its Windows PureView phone. In India, while the lower end phones are facing stiff competition from companies like GFive and other grey market phones, its higher end phones have not been able to do much to counter the likes of Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG.

The marketing and distribution too seem to be having problems, at least in the case of high-end phones. Calls to three top retailers for its 808 PureView elicited negative response. It ranged from a straight “We don’t have it,” to “We tried everywhere, couldn’t get it. Can you call tomorrow? I will source from the main dealer”.

The call to the fourth top retailer was successful. It was not the high price of the phone that was an issue. All the retailers had ready stocks of Samsung Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S3 and HTC’s high-end phones. The retailers said Nokia PureView had no visibility. One of them was surprised that someone was asking for a PureView. “How did you come to know about the phone?” was his question.

When Nokia announced the Windows Phone version of the PureView, many felt that it was priced too high. They also knew that the next version of the Windows Mobile was due and the Windows PureView could not be updated.

Nokia has great phones - both in the low-end and high-end versions. Looks like it has to reach out to the potential customers more and provide better visibility to its devices.

dinakaran.rengachary@thehindu.co.in

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