Long Read - Nokia’s next-gen phones offer more than just nostalgia

matteo.m

Hi everyone,

A long form article on HMD Global was published on Digital Trends yesterday afternoon. It features a few interviews with HMD Global's employees, including Pekka (Rantala) our CMO. I know it's long read, but in case you are interested to learn more about the team behind the new Nokia phones, then I think it's worth your time.

Let us know your thoughts.

Link here to the feature piece: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/exclusive-hmd-global-return-of-nokia/

neng

@matteo.m,

It's been quite a long article to go through, but yes as you said definitely worth a read    if one wants to know how HMD was formed and who are behind this successful partnership. 
My thought is clear; the leadership team is full of experienced and passionate people who look forward to bring next-generation of smartphones and feature phones that people can trust, just like the way old Nokia did. And I think HMD has clearly lived up to their fans' expectations and I hope they will continue to deliver and amaze people with their creations.

Keith

I read the article and thought it was good. I think it sums up HMD well. All the OS and extras are controlled by partners. Hence why when things are poor they don't get fixed in a timely manner if at all. KaiOS is a good example and the Java based Smart Feature Phone OS as found on the Nokia 3310 3g. Many flaws in these OS and not fixed. 

petrus

A really long article, but it was interesting reading. 

Kozina

Very interesting and long article,i enjoy reading it 😉

Rajath S Shetty

A really long read. But enjoyed reading it. Remembered Pekka Rantala saying some.of those exact words while he was at Bengaluru fan event. 
Glad to be reading this from a Nokia phone.

TabreezSuhan

Yes this it....

madbilly

Nice article, thanks for sharing it @matteo.m, please keep doing this.

Now, we all want to know HMD's biggest secret. Not what the next new phone is, but what the letters HMD really stand for! How many stars do I have to get before I will learn this secret?! .

matteo.m

madbilly said:

Nice article, thanks for sharing it @matteo.m, please keep doing this.

Now, we all want to know HMD's biggest secret. Not what the next new phone is, but what the letters HMD really stand for! How many stars do I have to get before I will learn this secret?! .

All the stars!!

neng

@madbilly, it's hard to guess what HMD might stand for, but could it be "Home Made Devices" as HMD Global is considered to be Home of Nokia Phones??? 
It might not be true, just trying to guess lol. 

Mick1965

Hyaline membrane disease (HMD), also called respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), is a condition that causes babies to need extra oxygen and help breathing. HMD is one of the most common problems seen in premature babies. The more premature the baby, the higher the risk and the more severe the HMD

madbilly

Thanks for the education @Mick1965, good to have the reminder that there are more important things in life

f82

I still have to read the article but I was thinking reading the comments that maybe what really is different nowdays is the indipendence from the hardware and software compared to the past. The choice of manufacturers feels really limited to build something really alternative from the hardware inside to the software running on it (o.s., apps, etc..), seems difficult if not impossible. 
The nostalgia factor may be ok for a while but I imagine the future will need more than newer edition of past models or refreshed modern versions every years.
In its last Symbian models, the competition was really high but those smartphones for example had their own unique things; the o.s. was unique while maybe felt less modern, the phones design was unique and some models were just great imho (N8, 603, 808, well even the Asha 503 was a good one); N8 had amoled filtered screens and a great camera module, 603 had 1000 nits brightness filtered lcd, the 808 had one of the most visibile screen in the sunlight enviroment until many years later and the whole camera module work into it, the Asha 503 was a good low end with a new design that just needed imho a more powerful hardware into it and (again) a web browser/document reader solution. 
Nowdays compared to the past everything feels similar on cpu, screens, designs.. hope this company will improve this situation but I don't see much space to be really different. It'd good to have custom cpu, custom o.s., custom screens, custom designs something like those years in which every companies had different phones out there. Maybe not as the main marketing road to not end up the same way of the past, but it'd be good to have "many roads" for different customers to choose different phones and not another linux based touchscreen plastic phone etc etc... 

madbilly

Hi @f82 you're right that smartphones these days feel much more homogenous than they did a few years ago. Unfortunately, although HMD say they want to be different the way they want to do it is by being more similar than anyone else! At least in terms of software, this Android One approach is the equivalent of buying a beige computer.

I have my fingers crossed that they will change their strategy on this, but unfortunately I think it will take some other changes in industry before they will do this.

Cheers

f82

madbilly said:

Hi @f82 you're right that smartphones these days feel much more homogenous than they did a few years ago. Unfortunately, although HMD say they want to be different the way they want to do it is by being more similar than anyone else! At least in terms of software, this Android One approach is the equivalent of buying a beige computer.

I have my fingers crossed that they will change their strategy on this, but unfortunately I think it will take some other changes in industry before they will do this.

Cheers

That's why since many years I lost interest in smartphones just like the desktop computers. I will wait a day in which the hardware itself will not depend on its o.s., on an app store dimension or the latest social app compatibility. I find feature phones to be, beside their own problems, more interesting even nowdays when there're only "few" models out there and mostly sharing the same specifications, compared to some years ago when there were so many different feature phones, brands and models on the market. A Nokia N8 for example wasn't even comparable to others more known smartphone, not for its camera module (only) but also as a whole different idea.

madbilly

I share your sentiment on the Nokia N8, it was awesome