MWC 2010 and Nokia: No love to be found

It certainly took guts to predict that Nokia would not be releasing any handsets during the Mobile World Congress 2010, the world’s largest mobile telephone show, and to then stand firm with this prediction despite rumours in the lead up to the show that the company had a range of promising new models ready for release.

Who would have taken such a risk, putting forward these predictions when all evidence pointed towards announcements relating to new ready to go models? The problem is that blind rumours have become a daily obsession within the media and blogosphere, creating more false information (often involuntary) then real, with corrections then only being released at the last moment..

So why did we predict this? Because we had pieces of information which indicated this would be the case, while also taking a wider look at Nokia’s global strategy to imagine that such a scenario was actually possible.

The worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer (and by far, with almost 40% market share) arriving at the worlds largest mobile telephone show without a single new handset to present. Who would have believed it?

Rumour doesn’t make fact
In reality, the fact that Nokia wouldn’t have a stand at this years show was something known for months. In addition to this, their mobile services strategy is getting pushed strongly, with Nokia certainly not hiding the fact that they are betting big on applications and services.

In addition to this, they are currently managing a large transition phase from the end of life proprietary Symbian system, to the open source Maemi and now MeeGo Symbian systems. The projects are at various stages of completion with the timing not necessarily being compatible with MWC 2010. It is difficult to display incomplete products without revealing the groups handsets strategies, as this will simply create frustration and negative comments from market watchers (at least in the press and on blogs).

Finally, besides the fact that the lack of a stand (and Nokia wasn’t the only one) can also be interpreted as a warning to organisers looking for too much money, it may also display that Nokia would rather be in control of their own product releases, instead of being forced to slap something together for this event which brings together more then 50000 people, essentially professionals, and 1300 exhibitors.

Remaining the master of their message
In this way, it appears that Nokia World, an event which generally takes place at the end of the third quarter (in 2010 this will be on the 14th and 15th of September in London) will be better adapted to the release of strategic information and announcements. The product launches will also not suffer from being drowned out by competing releases, allowing for a lot more press coverage for their products.

The strategy is no different then Apple’s with their regular keynote speeches, often leading to a large amount of buzz, focussed media attention and channelled consumer desires, all while releasing pieces of information before eventual releases.

A lot of observers were left scratching their heads by the visible absence of Nokia at MWC 2010, the semi-chaotic organisation of their press conferences and the fact that the company packed their bags half way through the show and left.

The lack of concrete announcements (hardware and software) also left a bad impression in Barcelona. We shouldn’t forget though that this kind of show, unlike CES, exposes strategies which will only become visible later in the year or even further out. We therefore shouldn’t draw too many hasty conclusions.