Managing the Nation

Nokia to its rivals: "Be Ware of Us"

According to the article "A New Message from Nokia" Nokia has finally launched its 770 Internet Tablet, which is a $539 pocket-size computer that allows users to surf the Web from the palm of their hands via Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth connection through a nearby mobile phone. The new innovation from Nokia has met tremendously high demands reacting positively to previous expectations.

As to analyze organizational strengths and weaknesses of Nokia after launching its new innovation, I will criticize this article by referring to Barney's framework.

1. The Question of Value: This question could be answered by referring to the definition of performance presented in Barney's Framework: "A firm's resources and capabilities are valuable if, and only if, they reduce a firm's costs or increase its revenues compared to what would to what have been the case if this firm did not possess those resources" relating this issue to the article we find that it certainly increased Nokia's revenue as eager customers snatched every single unit in the markets and orders are placed for 3 following weeks. "Overall, Nokia's multimedia products group, which includes the 770, saw fourth-quarter sales rise 59% from a year earlier, to $2.4 billion".

2. The Question of Rareness: Up to this point all Nokia's rivals are still working hard to attach MP3 players besides live digital TV phones. While Nokia had successfully left this open end circle to move and attain 100% new market's shares by introducing its new 770 Internet Tablet.

3. The Question of Imitability: It depends how Nokia will manages its competitive advantage. An important point to stat, Nokia had prolifically used Linux software and ignored others like Microsoft Windows for mobiles (previously used by Motorola). Since Linux is an open source software programmers could freely download, implement and reengineer software and distributing it with barely mentioned costs. So the question here, would the next step Nokia is going for is to Patent its software?

4. The Question of Organization: I believe Nokia is lucratively shifting rapidly between software, for example they shifted from simple programs to Symbian Software to the Linux operating system. Moreover Nokia is the largest mobile company in the world in terms of market cap, and the question here, would they effectively market their new complementary products to lower shifting costs between their customers?

In conclusion this company has met Barney's framework in a positive manner, although this product is highly criticized among analysts, I believe if Nokia aggressively maintained its competitive advantage then the 770 Internet Tablet will become one this century's fads.

posted by Managing_the_Nation @ 4:33 AM