“The kind of person who wants to use a bad telephone does not exist“

The Helsingin Sanomat probably had its best traffic week ever after the above article made the tech blog rounds. In it, Lauri Malkavaara reprints the letter she wrote to Nokia back in 2008, adding some backstory to what happened after she sent it.

This insight raises a bit of a paradox for me when considering the fate of Nokia as a consumer telephone company. Either they really believed that their products were better than iPhone and would remain dominant as the market grew; or, upon realizing the threat of the iPhone, they were completely unable to mount a timely response. In other words, which is worse: that they never saw the end coming, or that they knew the end was coming and could do nothing to save themselves? I’m not sure.

Based on the article, it would seem Nokia saw themselves as the latter, for what it’s worth. Then again, history will probably be given a few revisions as Nokia and Windows transition custody of the phones their awkward relationship birthed. Give the article a read and decide which side of the paradox you think Nokia falls on.