Gizmodo: Nokia doomed?
By Ria Sharma

Gadget and technology blog Gizmodo is well known for its integrity and in your face honesty.  Started in 2002, it gets more than 100 million page views a month.  As you can imagine, a Gizmodo review results in a product selling better or not.  As a thought leader, Gizmodo’s views are echoed by other tech websites and blogs.

Gizmodo is part of Gawker media which is widely regarded as the most powerful blog group in USA.

While the Nokia N97 has got mainly positive reviews in India,  Gizmodo is harsher.

A Gizmodo article titled “Nokia N97 Review: Nokia Is Doomed’ is less charitable to the latest Nokia smart phone.  While Gizmodo praises the hardware, faster processor, better screen, apps and other features,  it does not hold back in giving its views on the shortcomings.

The Gizmodo review reads in part:

“
The N97 is Nokia's attempt to stand tall in an unfamiliar, hostile world populated by the iPhone, Pre and Android the only way it knows how: by throwing the kitchen sink at them. If this is it, they're doomed.

Okay, maybe you don't think that's true, the doomed part: Nokia is the number one cellphone maker in the world—they sold 468 million phones last year and still own 41.2 percent of the smartphone market. But in the context of Symbian's sliding marketshare—Symbian was on 56.9 percent of smartphones at the beginning of 2008, now it's on 49.3 percent, while the iPhone has doubled its marketshare to 10.8 percent and RIM's grown to 19.9 percent—the N97 indeed spells a certain kind of doom for Nokia, if it's the best the number one cellphone marker in the world can really do.
“

(Techgoss had published the following story on June 23, 2009)

Nokia Phone winners mostly men
By Ria Sharma

Nokia dominates the Indian phone market.  Last week, it launched a contest via 5 leading Indian blogs where readers could get a chance to win ten N97 phones.  Each phone is valued at approximately Rs. 35,000. Nokia wanted to promote its new model.  The respected Indian blogs ‘engaged’ their readers with a coveted prize.  The readers won a great mobile phone. 

A win win situation for Nokia, blogs and 10 readers.

The results of the Nokia competition held last week are out.  And there are 9 male winners and 1 female winner. 

The 9 male winners are Kshitij Raina, Sandeep, Mir Tanwir, Arun Goyal, Manish Aggarwal, Kabir, Arun Muthuvel, Vinit Nair and Brijesh S Babu.

The sole female winner was Pratima Abhishek Jaiswal.

Was Nokia pitching the new phone to a male audience via the blogs? Are tech and phone blogs read mainly by men? Or do mainly men participate in such competitions? 

Nokia will be studying the results closely.

Quite separately to the Nokia competition,  a survey conducted by Dr Larry Neale and Associate Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett from the Queensland University of Technology and released this week reveals that the popularity of a Facebook application would largely depend on whether you are male or female, and if it meets the criteria of being "cool".

According to Professor Russell-Bennett, the success of social networking applications lies in the fact where women were able to express themselves and men enjoyed the thrill of social competition.

Makes sense, does it not?

(Techgoss had run the following story on June 17, 2009)

Nokia phone contest: May change prizes offered
By Techgirl

Nokia is the dominant phone company in India.  It had the foresight and business acumen to see the potential in India much before its rivals.  And Nokia does produce quality phones. But Nokia is facing bitter competition and is losing some market share across the globe. Nokia India has launched a contest for its new phone N97, but its fine print is scaring many.

Perhaps, one of Nokia’s biggest mistakes was not to promote its own smart phone the way Apple has. The Apple iPhone has sold like hot cakes and made billions for the company at Nokia’s cost.

Nokia’s latest smart phone is the N97 and it can do everything that its rivals from Apple, RIM and Palm can.  Like the Apple online stores, Nokia now has its own Ovi Store.

Nokia, to promote its N97, has teamed up with 5 respected Indians blogs and websites to promote the new phone.  Techtree.com, Thinkdigit.com,  Fonearena.com,  Labnol.org and Brajeshwar.com have been given 2 N97 phones each (approx cost Rs. 35K per phone) and asked to place a Nokia widget on their sites where readers can answer simple questions at 8 am every day and get a chance to win a phone.

The Nokia contest to win 10 N97 phones (2 for each blog) is spread over 5 days (June 15 – June 19).  Every day a new question is posted at 8 am on the Nokia widget on the participating blog.  The first 10 people who get the answers right get the Nokia prizes.

Only hitch?  The Nokia server feeding the widget and question on the participating blog did not work at 8 am today.  Everyone was left twiddling their thumbs.  Some participants who had primed themselves before 8 am lost their advantage as they could not send the answer to the Nokia computers.

What is interesting is how Nokia cannot get itself to name its rivals Apple and Palm in its widget. Logon to the Nokia website searchforn.com which lists the competition rules and scroll down to the participating blogs.  Navigate to any of the participating blogs to find the Nokia widget.

The Nokia widget asks for your name, telephone number, email and answer to their daily question.  It also asks you for your current device.  Out pop out the possible phones you can have.  The Nokia widget lists hundreds of its own models, and towards the end lists the brand names (and no model details) of 11 of its rivals including Sony, Ericson, Motorola, Philips and even Blackberry.  But Nokia cannot even get itself to ask the competitors if they use an Apple phone.

Cute, Nokia, very cute.  But as this is an advertisement, we understand your paranoid fear of accidentally promoting Apple.

If you click on the *Conditions apply of the contest, you will see that Nokia is covering its bases by saying you may not even get an N97.  And whatever Nokia gives you has to be collected from Gurgaon, Haryana.  How do you expect people from South to collect their prize from North India.?

The Nokia terms and conditions at their competition site include

“
The Organiser reserves the right to substitute or replace the prize from time to time without prior notice.

The onus will lie on the winner to collect the award from Nokia India, 5th Floor, Tower 9A, Cyber Greens, Cyber City, Gurgaon.
“

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com