Well, that was quick. Motorola's
Destination Q, a "pop-up" store devoted to the
Q on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, has slipped the surly bonds of this mortal plane, moving on to the great EV-DO network in the sky. Moto's calling Destination Q's run "successful," though we don't know exactly what parameters define success here -- yes, they managed to increase the Q's visibility to inescapable proportions in and around downtown Chicago, but as we found out in our visit, the store paled in comparison to Nokia's
permanent location down the street. So what's next for Motorola's retail presence? They're not telling us much, but they say they're "actively evaluating and developing" the pop-up concept further; personally, we're hoping a Destination
MAXX might lie in Chicago's future.
[Thanks,
zedwards]
posted Aug 3rd 2006 4:12PM
what the heck were "you" "they" "we" saying?
"what the heck were 'you' 'they' 'we' saying?"
they were saying "what's next,". really, what IS next, moto? after the razr and all its cousins and inbred relations die, what's going to happen? moto's managed to squeeze out three phone series that just won't die (the star-tac, vxxx, and razr), so what's going to happen after the razr finally gives up the ghost?
What about Destination K or Destination Z???
#1 Teo
I agree, that board looks ripe for some creative graffiti!
You said, "This phone sucks!"
They said, "This thing is way too slow!"
We said, "We know."
How long were they up for? A month? Daaamn. The thing is, MOTO has one phone to market: these thin, vowel-lacking concoctions that are very poopular. The thing is, they all look the same - no matter how different they are.
Nokia on the other hand, has TONS of phones with many different looks, feels and levels or operability. This is why they are #1.
Mixing it up with y'all ...
(2) The SCPL is next. Last night, I got the first hands-on peek at the MOTOFONE, the first of *12* possible SCPL models. Check it out on our blog, Gearlog; hopefully these guys here will link my post once I get photos up.
(6) But Nokia isn't number one in North America. They're number FOUR. Uno, dos, tres, EL QUATRO MI AMIGO. Or, north of the border, ILS SONT LE QUATRIEME. ;) So clearly Nokia's strategy isn't working so well in the Western Hemisphere.
Sascha,
True, Nokia is number four in the US but I don't know if you can put that on their marketing strategy. At least not up until this point. Nokia as a company seems to put a much larger emphasis on the rest of the world (travelling internationally, upon naked observation it seems that Nokia handsets outnumber everyone else combined).
But I think a much more significant reason for their domestic market share is due to their reluctance, and sometimes downright refusal, to compromise their product for the sake of the carrier, especially on the CDMA side. Look at Motorola...it was just announced that Sprint will be carrying the RAZR, meaning that all four of the Big Carrier will have the same handset. But in order to do that, Motorola had to tweak the handset specifically for each carrier. Nokia tends to not do that. And even when they do (ie E62 in the US vs E61 everywhere else in the world) it tends to be viewed negatively.
I'm not saying one philosophy is better than the other. It's just what each company has decided to do.