Seven years ago when I entered graduation, my father handed me the first mobile phone of my life. It was not a really great phone in terms of the ones we see today. There wasn’t any camera, MP3 player, 3G etc. It was just a normal Nokia phone which could be used to do the basic functions like making a call, using the GPRS, sending an SMS etc. Since then a lot has changed in the world of Nokia as its market share in India plummeted from about 90% to 30-35% today. But nothing changed in my world of mobile phones until a week back.
Nokia built its reputation by always being ahead of its competition. Whether it was making personalized phones like the Nokia 1100 for India or connecting people in any way, Nokia was the name which was synonymous. It had become a generic name so much so that whenever people used to go to mobile shops, they would say “Please give me a Nokia” rather than saying “Please give me a phone.” That was then.
