Nokia Tapping Consumers For Innovation

At Nokia's Beta Labs site, Nokia.com/betalabs, the slogan is Shaping the Future Together, a perfect description of the co-creation side of Open Innovation.  I'm surprised I hadn't heard about the beehive of consumer-driven innovation activity taking place there, until reading a Businessweek article, How Nokia Users Drive Innovation.

I'm an Open Innovation nut, so I'm biased, but it's a great article, and it spotlights the apparent great success Nokia is having since launching it's Beta Labs just over a year ago with the goal of letting its user community test the latest smartphone software.  Beta Labs' debut application, Sports Tracker, has been downloaded more than a million times. It's original intent was to enable runners and cyclists to use their Nokia smartphone's global positioning capability to record workout data like speed and distance ... and also to plot routes.  But consumers used Sports Tracker in a myriad of ways its designers had not intended - for sports like paragliding and hot-air ballooning - and offered feedback that led Nokia to make various improvements and innovations.  The article notes that reader feeback spurred Nokia to add the capability to create online groups where community members share pictures and details of their favorite workout routes.

In the 'Application Spotlight' right now is an app called Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta, which includes a feature called 'Walk', for pedestrian navigation, in addition to 'Drive', for car navigation, multimedia city guides, satellite maps and other "innovative features".  The applications claims maps of more than 150 countries and 15-plus million points of interest.  The 'world in your pocket', according to Nokia.  And since this and other mobile applications are in beta, they are in a constant flux of testing and feedback and improvement.  When they reach ready stage, they're officially launched, with normal customer/tech support.

The Beta Labs blog, which tooted a celebratory horn over the site's one year anniversary two weeks ago, notes four significant things:  1) 18 beta applications launched;  2) huge usage growth (1 million pageviews, 200,000 downloads and thousands of comments per month already);  3) a vibrant user community, experimenting with apps, sharing thoughts, helping each other;  4) early signs of a massive culture change within Nokia, towards co-creation and a beta culture.

I'll definitely be adding my voice to this community, with my new Nokia N95 acting as playground.  I might've missed it, but I'm surprised there wasn't some type of invitation or information that enticed me to check out the vibrant innovation community at Nokia.com.  There is a noticeable disconnect with U.S. consumers ... and Nokia knows this.  A vast majority of their consumer base and engaged community is based in Europe and other parts of the world.  North America is the big prize, the only market, that the Finnish handset and smartphone maker has yet to dominate.  But I sense a number of efforts on the radar screen to change this.  My recent post Nokia and Spike Lee Want YourCGC  highlights another Nokia effort, at NokiaProductions.com, where consumers are being asked to submit video, audio and digital pictures for possible inclusion in a short-feature Spike Lee film. Bottom line, it looks like consumers have more and more options in 2008 to become 'co-creators' with some of the biggest and most creative companies on the planet. It's about time! 

Comments

[Yogesh Kadam]

Hi Team,

I happened to read about "Nokia Innovation", wanted to know more about it as to how may I send my innovation to the team and at which mail id or where do i post it to.

Awaiting for positive response.

Thank you

Yogesh