Nokia made its most aggressive move to date in its bid to become a ‘mobile internet’ giant rather than primarily a device maker. Two weeks after it acquired web 2.0 content sharing start-up Twango, it has announced the beta launch of its own social networking service, Mosh. With the big name social networking sites like MySpace coming to mobile platforms via deals with operators, Nokia needs to accomplish two goals in this and its other mobile internet strategies ‘ steal a march on the famous internet offerings and brands, by promising a better experience on the mobile platform; and bypassing the cellcos with multi-platform applications that will position it for the evolving world of open access.
Mosh aims to provide the first social network offering that really bridges the gap between PC and mobile (despite Finland’s reported enthusiasm for the aggressive form of dancing with this name, the Nokia name actually stands for ‘mobilize and share’). Beta testers report that it does not currently look dissimilar to the MMS multimedia messaging technology, but it has several important differences, all of which relate to the broader Nokia strategy for mobile web. First, it is run on central Nokia servers, as are other PC/mobile internet services from the vendor, such as its widsets widgets platform and its forthcoming advertising system. This, claims the giant, delivers a superior user experience on the cellphone, by building on Nokia’s huge knowledge and R&D in this area and providing a high degree of quality of service. As a by-product, it also helps to keep the service in Nokia’s control rather than any operator’s, positioning it for open internet usage not just walled gardens.
Second, Mosh will have a far broader evolution path than MMS, which will not be held back by interoperability quarrels ‘ already Nokia plans to introduce some of the content types delivered by Twango, which currently supports a wider range of formats than major brands like Flickr, as well as open programming interfaces to encourage new developers. This means that Mosh will work on virtually any major mobile platform, and represents Nokia’s strongest move yet away from tying services to its own handsets (although its parallel aim is to make the N Series the strongest and most natural family of devices for running mobile web 2.0). Among other platforms, Mosh will support Apple Quicktime and so could work with iPhones.
Nokia claims a significant headstart over MySpace, FaceBook and others in delivering their popular user experience on a mobile platform, something most PC brands are still doing very inadequately. It needs to prove this advantage among real users, convince its Forum Nokia development community and leverage the hoped-for market lead rapidly, before the bigger names get their own mobile systems right ‘ which, given the huge investments in acquisitions, open access business models and R&D from companies like Google, should not take too long.
All of which proves that, while Nokia has been unique among device makers in recognizing its need and capability to become an internet player, this has now changed its competitive landscape almost overnight. Just as previous CEO Jorma Olilla realized with characteristic far-sightedness that software was the new battleground and Microsoft, not Motorola, the most important company to beat, so his successor Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has reinvented the Nokia strategy again, leaping early into the mobile internet war and the potential of creating a complete experience based on the N Series multimedia hardware and web services. As Mosh, Twango and widsets show, the Finnish company has defined its approach and pulled out its first weapons with remarkable speed, but it now has a huge amount of credibility to win, and the new arch-enemy has to be Google.