Why analysts need to shut up faster than London’s Nokia shop disaster
This morning’s Times reports Nokia will close its Regent Street store, because it’s somehow—and this is a massive (non) shock—failed to tempt people across the road from the Apple Store. Frankly, this is mind-boggling. How a shop stocking a bunch of fairly dated and dull phones never managed to grab people from an always busy store chocked full of exciting computers, music players, multimedia devices and software is beyond me.
I tell a lie—it really isn’t. But it is, apparently, beyond CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood, who remarks in the Times article: “There was no question that the store was trying to replicate what Apple had done and build up the brand rather than shift devices. The question is why that strategy has worked for one company and not for the other.”
And this is why I hate analysts. Ben, this is your job. Are you seriously questioning why Apple’s store is a huge success and Nokia’s isn’t? Apple got there first, Nokia is a shallow copy. Apple has loads of great kit, Nokia doesn’t. Apple has a brand associated with aspirational qualities, Nokia’s brand is primarily associated with cheap phones you chunk in the bin after a year.
It’s really quite simple—unless you’re an analyst.
Ha-ha, rant over!
The funny thing was that it wasn’t even the first Nokia store – there was one further down Regent Street years before the current one.
To which I should have added, prior to hitting send: “So really, Apple’s store is a copy of Nokia’s old one :)”
Surely the worst analyst is the one who suggested opening a new high-street presence in the first place? The majority of tech-savvy customers they are aiming to prise away from Apple are the sort who will be researching and more than likely buying online, with a much smaller percentage making a final purchase in a shop environment.
Quite apart from that, the one time I went in there they didn’t have any contract or even PAYG phones. At least if you go into the Apple store you can get a 3GS on contract. In the Nokia store your only option for the N95 I’d just got free on contract from 3 was to buy it outright.
For £449.