Nokia's failure will only drive it to succeed, says expert

Nokia’s epic decline in the smartphone sector will only fuel its determination to succeed - and possibly even see the troubled firm salvage its former title as the world’s largest smartphone maker, an expert has said.

Richard Smith, CTO of porting and wireless technologies provider Open Path Products, told T3: “Nokia are driven. Part of the problem was their lethargy. They were the big leader for a long time, and now if nothing else, fear is going to drive them.”

Smith claims the Finnish firm has been slow in reacting to market trends and its lack of innovation and drive is what's contributed to its downfall: “There’s a little joke doing the rounds in developer circles - supposedly taken from a leaked press release from a past Nokia president - that by the time Nokia had rolled out a product presentation, Samsung rolled out a new product.” Now the company, which is working closely with Microsoft to roll out its Windows 8-based devices, is placing all its focus on delievering a strong platform that will provide a solid foundation for new developments in applications.

Smith claims both Microsoft and Nokia are being aggressive in their attempt to lure back top developers to create app for the Windows 8 platform, with the news that Microsoft has announced an 80 per cent profit share for developers adding weight to his claims. Apple offers app developers a 30 per cent share. He said: “Microsoft and Nokia in particular are working very hard to get a viable third ecosystem, so they’re going to be pulling out all the tricks to try and lure all those guys back.” “Their biggest advantage is that they’ve still got a billion desktops out there and sometime over the course of the next year, we’re all going to be upgraded to Windows 8, so the ability to connect with 8 devices with your phone is going to be huge.” "Microsoft and Nokia are now pitching themselves to the underdogs. Their whole big thing was this is something beautifully different,

"Before, Apple were the innovators of the industry, now they’re the old grandfathers [other companies] are trying to knock off the pedestal. Ir's companies like Nokia and Microsoft who're trying to be disruptive innovative. Their whole advertising campaign says they're not an iPhone.

“A little messiness helps to drive the next best thing.”