Nokia Puts Hardware First, Software SecondNokia Puts Hardware First, Software Second

Nokia's fortunes have been heading in the wrong direction in recent years. It seems that Nokia focuses on the hardware and the software gets the sort end of the stick. That may be at least one of the reasons they are struggling, and a big one at that.Nokia still has a ton of market share, but it is in a class of devices that are on the way out. Even though Symbian devices technically meet the criteria of a smartphone, it isn't viewed as that way by the vast majority of consumers. Right or wrong, they treat it as a feature phone. Few install apps and that is at least in part because they have no application store that makes anywhere near the impression on consumer's minds that Apple's App Store does or Google's Android Market. If you aren't building a smartphone today that will rival the capabilities and ecosystem of the iPhone or Android, you are headed in the wrong direction.

When Nokia does release a phone, it may be sub optimal compared to what it could be if the software and hardware teams worked closely with each other. According to a former Nokia software engineer, they don't says Daring Fireball.

It is odd that Nokia has hardware and software so split. Apple, Palm and RIM are all vertically integrated, doing both the software and hardware in house, just like Nokia. Overall, those three do a pretty good job matching the platform with the device. Market leader IBM made the same mistake nearly thirty years ago thinking the hardware was king and the operating system was just window dressing. Microsoft proved that to be wrong and modern day successful smartphone makers just continue to reiterate the point.

Besides their OS needing a major reboot to be competitive, Nokia needs to build the best hardware around that platform rather than building whatever hardware they want and shoehorning the OS on there. Will their new CEO Stephen Elop be up to the challenge? CEO's that come in and try to change companies steeped in tradition have mixed results. If Nokia doesn't turn around though, they will find themselves marginalized in just a few years.