On Saturday, I was at the hub for Electronics in Lagos, Computer Village. It was rowdy as usual and everyone was carelessly and hastily going about their businesses. If you aren’t careful, you will be shoved out of the way.
What was I doing at Computer Village? I went to buy a Nokia Torchlight phone for my mom. I was already frustrated with the much-disorganized mode of doing business in the village. It was exacerbated by the fact that I couldn’t get Nokia at the various stores I visited.
I checked slot, one of the popular phone retailers in the country, I was told that there are no Nokia phones because the sales team of Nokia was not around. Slot? I visited two or 3 other stores, and I got the same responses that there are no Nokia phones.
For me, it wasn’t a surprise because Nokia has been on a steady decline for a few years now because it ‘refused to innovate’ even though it is planning to unveil new android smartphones. I am waiting to see if this will help Nokia’s fortunes.
Unfortunately, Nokia is not different from Blackberry which is also trying to stay afloat in the face of competition from iPhone and Android-powered phones like Samsung, Infinix, and Tecno. Interestingly, many of the phones being sold at Computer Village are the Chinese phones. They are really making waves because they are inexpensive and also stylish.
I eventually got Nokia 105 in one of the stores for N9,800 after much running around. It is quite shocking that Nokia which was once the darling of everyone has become a pariah or recluse phone.
Questions:
Are Nokia Phones still existing? (this question may be quite extreme)
What actually happened to Nokia?
Will Nokia recover from this downward slide?
Notwithstanding these questions, and from what I gathered on Saturday, it seems Nigerians have abandoned Nokia for other brands thus prompting retailers to move on with the trend.
