Battle of the brands. Will the Nokia brand name be Microsoft's next of Kin, or will there be a Halo effect?

Patents, distribution, manufacturing, design, a fantastic contact network? What exactly was the icing on the cake for Microsoft in buying Nokia's handset unit?

It could be the brand. In much of the developing world, the Nokia name remains a strong and trusted stamp of approval. While Steve Ballmer cannot even pronounce "Nokia" correctly, the brand name still means something to so many around the globe. Although Microsoft won't be using the Nokia logo on smartphones, it can use the brand on lower-end phones and could do some clever co-branding as it upgrades the developing world from dumb phones to smartphones.

Each year when branding consultancy Interbrand releases their list of the world's most valuable brand names, Nokia is consistently ranked among the best. While I always found the values they assigned to brand names rather random and a bit suspicious, even if their calculations are in the ballpark, Microsoft got one heck of a deal with the Nokia brand. Not long ago, back in 2009, Nokia was ranked as the world's fifth most valuable brand. That year Interbrand placed a value of $35 billion on the Nokia logo: so, throw out all the chairs and patents, buildings and pens, and Nokia would still be worth $35 billion according to Interbrand.

OK, that was 2009. Let's look at what's happening now. According to Interbrand's 2012 report, Nokia brand was the 19th most valuable brand on the planet, worth around $21 billion. This means someone has some explaining to do. How could Microsoft buy Nokia's handset unit for around one quarter of what the brand name is supposed to be worth? Either Interbrand or the Nokia board are way off on their numbers.

Brand building takes decades in most cases. I was quite certain that an Asian tech vendor would come along and take over Nokia's handset unit for the attraction to the logo in developing markets. But unless a counter offer comes a long within the next few months, Nokia is to be a Microsoft sub-brand, a sort of next of kin. Hopefully for Microsoft, there will be a halo effect.

From Interbrand:
http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/previous-years/best-global-brands-2009.aspx

Wedding Crashers. It's another Third-Man Commercial. The RC Cola comparison continued...

Because nothing sells like a violent party scene. Fortunately the staff always knows best. Yes, the fight to be the RC Cola in the mobile platform battle continues:

Tongue in cheek of the week: Are you waiting for the next hot thing to come along? Remember, mobile opportunities come in unexpected shapes and sizes.

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Mobile business development is a waiting game: a delicate balancing act in which timing is critical. Rarely do disruptions occur according to schedule, but when opportunity does come along, hop aboard and hold on tightly as you may be in for quite a ride. The handset business is all about change; there's no time to clown around.

So, it's time to get a move on. What are you waiting for? ROLL THE TAPE:

Insults are the sincerest form of flattery. And one of the surest indications of success. Why execs should shut up.

Mobile executives can say the meanest things about their competitors' products. But for those product managers on the receiving end of such pejoratives, I have good news for you: there tends to be a near 100% negative correlation to negative comments.

Yes, you know that you really hit a nerve when some top-level manager at a competing company dismisses your product as a nonstarter. And one of the absolute greatest leading indicators of success is when an executive mentions your impending failure during a quarterly results call. You should be so lucky to get that. (My advice is to humble it out on both ends.)

Here is a limited selection of some entertaining opinions, past and present. There are more, but let's start with the obvious. I'll call this list the top-ten failed failure forecasts. (Give it time.)

- Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, 2007: The iPhone has “no chance” of gaining significant market share.

- Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, 2011: You need to be a “computer scientist” to use an Android smartphone. (Android now has around 70% platform share, Windows Phone 3%.)

- Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, 2008: Apple's iPhone is a “niche” product.

- Nokia Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki, 2009: The iPhone has a “toy camera.”

- Apple's Tim Cook, Jan 2011: “We're not that worried about” Android tablets. (Apple had around 80% market share of tablets at the time.)

- Apple's Tim Cook: We're not worried about Amazon's Kindle.

- Apple's Phil Schiller, March 2013: “...Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old. Customers will have to wait to get an update.” Android is fragmented, unsafe, et cetera, et cetera.

- HTC Chief Marketing Officer, Benjamin Ho, March 2013: Samsung's Galaxy S 4 “is more of the same.” (Early indicators show that S 4 sales are much stronger than the S III, which in itself was one of the best-selling smartphones ever.)

- BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, March 2013: Apple's iPhone/iOS is “five years out of date.”

- And finally, here is some good news for Google's Chrome OS, criticism from Ballmer:
So, how silly will Mr. Ballmer's opinion look in five years from now?

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What's in store for Microsoft? The answer: lots of elbow room.

Nothing to see here folks. Nothing at all.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: If anyone has their own pics of crowded or empty Microsoft stores in other parts of the country they would like to share, please let me know. This Microsoft Store I visit could be an aberration.]

Sometimes you can't beat boots on the ground when doing research.

As a follow up to a Microsoft Store visit I wrote about last June (see "Windows Shopping," June 2012), I did some real-world stalking of the same store at an upscale suburban U.S. mall for approximately an hour and a half on a mundane, gray February evening. About eight months after its grand opening and with a few more news-worthy products to show off, it was worth checking to see if floor traffic had picked up.

It's somewhat sad to report that Microsoft's knowledgeable, friendly, and brightly-clad floor staffers still have so little to do and so few patrons to chat with. In fact, I noticed that there was not a single sale during all the time I was lurking inside and outside the store, not a single person touched one of the six Windows Phones displayed at the store's entrance and there was only a little more interest in the Surface tablet. (One person picked up a Surface.)

Again I will contrast this store's activity with the activity at the busy Apple store a few doors down. There was sincere interest, there was loud talking, and best of all for Apple, there was real retail cash flowing.

But wait, there is hope for Microsoft and their stores: there was a constant stream of youngsters playing with Xbox and Kinect. In fact, Microsoft would be wise to refocus the entire chain of Microsoft stores as "Kinect Xperience" stores. But then again, any company that would give the world the vomit-inducing "Windows 7 Launch Party" doesn't know much about marketing. Nor much about modern, Western human behavior for that matter.

I've seen this sort of thing before and I would bravely predict that Microsoft would begin shutting down their chain of emptiness over the coming two years if it weren't for the fact that the company has announced they plan on adding another 75 stores over the next three years to bring the total to more than 100. Yes, throwing good money after bad is what big, slow-moving companies do best. Nonetheless, as I said last June, for analysts the stores make a great apathy indicator and could be a taste of things to come. Microsoft and its value-chain partners would be wise to pay attention to this apathy and adjust. And so would investors.

So, what's in store for Microsoft? For now, it really looks like not much at all:



"ECHO, Echo, echo, echo, echo, echo, echo , echo, echo...


Well, then again, everybody does need some elbow room:

Is that an Apple I smell in your pocket? Move over brand names, brand logos, brand colors, brand slogans, and brand theme music. Here come brand scents.

Nissan will introduce an official brand smell.

VIA the BRAND CHANNEL >>

This might not be directly mobile related, but thinking someday we might be holding a "smell-e-phones" in our hands or watching smell-e-vision, it might be time for your company to start working on the official company odor.

For brand building, here's something pretty sweet: an official brand fragrance. Nissan will be introducing their official scent at an upcoming auto show, and the same scent will be used consistently across showrooms and all marketing venues.

So, does your company have its official brand scent yet? You might want to get to work before all the good smells are taken.

Another one for the senses. NTT's Frangrance Phone from 2008:

Nissan executive discusses appleaing to the senses.

Coming up for air. Report: Microsoft surface sales expected to fall far below company expectations.

STORY >>

Watch out for red herrings. Beware of excuses.

Reports are coming in from both Microsoft execs and suppliers that Surface sales are coming in far below expectations. In fact, some rumors have it that Surface volumes could be almost half of the company's original expectations going into the end of 2012.

So, what are we hearing? The typical industry newspeak platitudes and the classic slow-start excuses: "there are component issues, supplier troubles, sales channel limitations, encouraging levels of early interest, it's really only meant to be an early adopter device, we're creating pent-up demand, steady as she goes..." Oh yes, supplies are limited so order now, max two per household, must be over 18 to order.

And just wait until the next version!

To be fair, Surface has only been on the market for two weeks, but as I speculated after release, Microsoft's Surface tablet was overpriced and under app'd at start. Given the risk to consumers, expect pricing trims and free accessory throw-ins.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer "We've had a modest start because Surface is only
available on our online retail sites and a few Microsoft stores in the United States."


Yes, you heard it right!
The product is so good that supplies are limited, so order NOW!!

Something Nubia. Can ZTE establish a hot new smartphone brand? Asian hardware influence is increasing no matter what.

Brands come & they go, and they're born & they grow.

Before there was LG, there was Goldstar. Back in the '70s and '80s, those who didn't want to spend the money on a Zenith-branded television set or a Technics-branded amplifier went to K-Mart to buy Goldstar-branded electronics. It was a downscale brand for the lower-end of the market. But back in the '90s, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, the LG brand was born from Lucky Goldstar. It went upscale. It went quality. And it worked.

So here comes the "Nubia" brand from ZTE. It's one vowel and one consonant away from the "Nokia" brand, but who's to say where inspiration comes from these days?

ZTE has been successful with some reasonably solid Android-based phones, and they've made some significant volumes with operator-branded devices, but now it looks like ZTE means business. Will the Nubia brand become a household name in Western Europe and North America. Is Nubia another Samsung or LG in the making? It could be.

The bigger trend here, however, is the on-going commoditization of smartphone hardware with Asia-based companies such as ZTE, Huawei, HTC, MediaTek, Foxconn, Compal, Xiaomi, Lenovo, TCL, and others growing their influence over the industry. If strong brand names can be built or bought by the same, more power to them, literally.

If Chinese and Taiwanese companies can build up big brand names, it's icing on the commoditization cake. There might soon be a nu sheriff in smartphone town.

The "Nubia" brand from ZTE. Will this be the hot, nu thing?

Lookout! Should we face the fact that privacy is dead?

STORY >>

Cool or ghoulish?

Let's face it: maintaining your privacy is an uphill battle. You name it, they know it. The where, the when. The how, the why.

So what's the next step? Is it to accept? Or except?

NOTE: An advertisement might precede the video below.
I'm not sure how targeted said ad will be.

Breaking news: Microsoft introduces esoteric product video!

Note to Microsoft: esoteric doesn't make up for lack of wow.

For Microsoft's sake, I really hope that there's more below the surface. At least I was hoping for something a bit more special. More amazing. More appealing. More, more, more.

But instead, this is what one would expect. A big Windows Phone with a splash of Apple inspiration. Where's the built-in Kinect? Where's the leap-frog effect?

Are BoGo’s back? Get ready for the smartphone two-fors.

Sure, I’m aging myself here, but I have to admit that I’m old enough to clearly remember the pre-smartphone days of the U.S. handset market. You know: the good ol’ days of RAZR’s and RIZR’s and KRZR’s and Stripes.

There were 53-hundreds and 6-oh-3-oh’s.
There were 83-hundreds and C-4-oh-no’s.

Yes, what wonderful days and what wonderful claims.
Sometimes products had numbers, sometimes they had weird-sounding names.

There was Cingular, Verizon and AT&T.
And there were other wireless operators that are now history.

You buy one feature phone now, and you get one for free.
Yes, everywhere in the U.S. was BoGo territory.

All mailboxes were stuffed with an offer or two.
We like you so much, so here’s what we’ll do:

Come in today and sign on this line,
then do it again as we had such a good time.

Bring a sister, a friend, a father, a mother.
Two years and a day for one, then the other.

And of course we’re eager to seal the deal,
so we give you some hardware and call it a steal.

Two handsets that could be identical twins,
and we’ll be happy to tell you that it’s you who win-wins.

No, your kindness doesn’t go unrewarded:
two commoditized phones, and you thought you could never afford it.

And so it was about half a decade ago.
My gosh, how the two-fer offers did flow.

But now the smartphone age is now upon us,
and those double-up deals don’t seem quite numerous or plush.


But wait... are BoGos making a comeback?

I admit that I have no real solid stats to back this up, but using eyeball evidence, it really seems to me that the buy-one-get-one offers have dried up quite a bit as operators began pushing higher-end smartphones. I do remember BlackBerry BoGo deals and perhaps a few for Windows Mobile devices. But as the smartphone market exploded, solid two-for offers for Apple and Android phones seemed non-existent.

But now, suddenly, I’ve been seeing more BoGo smartphone deals from American operators. For example, here is one from Sprint. And here was a two-for iPhone offer from Best Buy.

To me, BoGo deals are a solid signal of market commoditization. It’s happening a second time.

QR codes are getting big. Literally. They are going you-can-see-them-from-space large.

BLUE MARBLE PAGES >>

QR codes and its mobile barcode cousins are popping up all over the place these days: on billboards and cereal boxes, on soda cans and window displays. And now it seems that the use of QR codes has gone through the roof. Or at least on it.

A public relations firm called Phillips & Company has introduced service they call "Blue Marble" by which they will QR-code enable the rooftop of a building. So, as you can see from the picture below, a ginormous QR code is printed onto the top of building.

Why in the world would you want a huge QR code on the top of your building? The idea seems to be that you can maximize your company's exposure on map services offering satellite images, such as Google Earth and Google Maps. Consumers who happen to come across the QR code while using Google Earth using a PC could then take a snapshot of the code.

The starting cost for the service is $8500, plus some recurring service fees. I think it's fair to say that the cost is through the roof too. For $25, couldn't they hire some kids to spray paint the company's URL up there?

Note: don't try this at home. Patent is pending.

Assessment: neutral to silly.

4G nation. Or notion. As “4G” has become a near meaningless term, will American lawmakers pick up where standardization bodies have left off?

Senators look into defining “4G.” STORY >>

4G, or not 4G, that is the deception.

So, can anything be done about generation inflation?

The term 4G has been vague from the beginning. But it’s been getting vaguer, especially in America, where every major operator has hung out a “4G” shingle. Given the lack of clarity, can the U.S. Congress be more consistent than the ITU in defining 4G?

ITU originally pointed to LTE Advanced (and above) and IEEE's 802.16m as two technologies that would meet the criteria of 4G. So at first, not even LTE (as opposed to LTE-A) was considered a 4G technology by the ITU, although most within the mobile industry did consider LTE to be the start of fourth generation wireless services.

But the definition and requirements for 4G were further redefined --and diluted-- by ITU late 2010. Suddenly not only did LTE meet ITU's requirements for 4G, but so did HSPA+, a 3.9G technology. Anyway, some operators who had been offering 3.9G services figured it was fair to round up anyway, so 3.9 became 4.0.

Given the rather meaningless 4G term, it’s somewhat encouraging to see several members of the United States Senate proposing the establishment of a firm definition of 4G mobile services. (I wasn't aware that a similar proposal was made in the U.S. House of Representatives this past June.)

So, as 4G has become a moving target, there has been consumer confusion and even, I think it’s fair to say, some deception. How does one operator’s 4G compare to another’s? How can LTE-A be 4G if HSPA+ is 4G?

It’s time to start talking numbers: like real download and uplink bandwidth. Perhaps Congress can make 4G the exclusive club it was intended to be. Otherwise the generation gap will only get worse.

America's largest 3.9G 4G network