GLOBAL – We have the benefit of sitting right in the middle of Nokia’s communications department. And, no joke, it’s a really communicative department, such that we get a good heads up on a lot of announcements, or what are the hot topics of the moment, or if there are any tidbits that you folks would find interesting.
Today is no different. Through the departmental grapevine, I heard some news about the sales of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in the first quarter of this year. And, as you all know, we keep pushing the 5800, since we were predicting it would be big.
And we were right. Not to tease you anymore, this is what I found out.
Surprising even our number guys
One thing I have learned from working in this industry is that Nokia is usually very good at estimating how many devices it will sell per quarter, even now in these interesting times.
Well, it so happens that the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has sold over 2.6 million units in the first quarter. We humbly admit that this amount is beyond our own expectations. And, as we have been trumpeting all along, the 5800 seems to be doing really well when paired up with Comes With Music, especially in Singapore and Australia (alas, we were not able to get any numbers on that).
Toot-tooting our horn here, of course. But the company is pointing this out as an indicator of how well our “new” solutions-driven strategy is working.
Not resting on our laurels
While the feeling is good, let us continue this thought.
Nokia is, historically, a device company. But, we recognized long ago that it was more than hardware that people needed. As George Linardos (from the Ovi Store) said to me, what’s a radio without the programming? Same with mobile phones, what are phones without the services?
Nokia is no longer moving towards being an “internet company,” it’s past that milestone. The past few years has shown a deep rearrangement of our attitude in what we build, how we build, and what we want to achieve, more in line with how leading Internet services companies should think and act.
I think the new attitude is to understand that we are a “solutions company,” bringing amazing hardware and services together and “connecting people.” The funny thing is that we’ve always thought this way (that’s my own observation, mind you). It’s good to see the company go through a questioning and realignment process and find itself back at its core, but updated, refreshed, and more confident in itself.
Ok, enough of patting ourselves on the back. What do you folks think the sales of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic mean?