Nokia has been burned in the past for missing out on what they deemed "trends" than not moving quickly enough to get on board with the trend till it was too late. Two great examples from modern history was the flip phone and the touch screen. I can clearly remember Nokia being late to flip phone game and almost catching up when the craze had passed only to be replaced almost immediately by the touch screen. Which Nokia was just as late too, however this time the consumer stuck with the touch screen long enough for Nokia to catch up. What's the latest "trend" Nokia is missing out on? Phablets.
That's right love them or hate them phablets (any device with a screen 5 inch plus) are quickly becoming so common place in the mobile space that you barely even notice a 4.7 inch device anymore. Just a year ago this would have been considered "oversized" and "monstrous" but today it's the norm for a new smartphone. What's the biggest screen size Nokia makes right now? The Lumia 920 with it's 4.5 inch screen which is a full half inch smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S IV.
The demand for these large screen devices is not going away anytime soon. The device I am using right now has a 6 inch display and I am loving it. It takes about two or three days to get use to the screen size but once you are there is no turning back. Plus when you look at what people are using their devices for these days phone calls are on the bottom of the list. Most likely it's only a phone 10% of the time the other 90% it is used for stuff like games, texting, web browsing, social media, checking email, etc... These are all things that simply work better with a larger display and therefore it makes more sense for consumers to buy a phablet device now more than ever and this will not be a phase that dies out anytime soon.
I don't pretend to know what Nokia has in the works for the rest of this year however all upcoming devices are rumored to stay in the 4.5 inch and below size. My advice is that Nokia should make a device in the 5.3 inch range instead. Even if phablets turn out to be a trend (which they aren't) Nokia can not afford to be caught flatfooted again in this point in the game. Nokia needs to continue to make premium Windows Phone devices in all price ranges and sizes if they want to continue their comeback. This includes the "oversized" phablet market because believe me when I tell you Samsung will not be afraid to slap the Windows Phone 8 operating system on a Note II and take that profit right out from under Nokia.
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