Nokia's Fall From Grace

In the 90's and early 2000's Nokia was the cellphone company, not Apple or BlackBerry, or Samsung, but Finnish Nokia. So how and why did they have such a steep fall from grace? When Nokia got to the top of the cellphone world the became complacent and did not challenge themselves at all. Nokia had a belief that cellphones main component were the phone. It's clear that they did not see the rising trend of the smartphone. As a leading company in the industry they should have had the R&D to see this on the horizon. This brings to mind Zara and neglecting to update their IT systems. Zara is the leader in their retail category with minimal competitive pressure. However, they have still refused to update their technology and they still do not sell online in larger markets. Are Zara neglecting two huge factors in business. Even though updating their IT would definitely cause major changes in the make up of the company could it further their competitive advantage?

 Nokia is also stuck in the middle of the cellphone market. Being stuck in the middle is the worst place you could be as a business. You have no direction and cannot go anywhere. If Nokia wants to regain their reputation they need to focus on a particular market while developing another major market. Say if they focus on the regular phone market they should do a lot of R&D to ensure when they do come out with a competitive smartphone it can make a dent in the market.