Nokia, once the dominant force in the mobile phone market, failed to heed warnings from its own internal team just seven years before the launch of the iPhone.
In 2007, a team of nine people presented an internal presentation that warned of the threat posed by Apple’s upcoming iPhone. The executive summary stated: “Apple iPhone is a serious high-end contender,” and that Nokia needed to develop touch UI to fight back.
The team also noted that the iPhone’s new user interface was “visually stunning and incredibly responsive” and could change the standards of superior user experience in the market. However, senior executives failed to listen, and Nokia eventually exited the smartphone business just seven years later.
It’s a cautionary tale of how even a dominant company can be caught off guard by innovation and disruption. The failure of Nokia to adapt to changing technology has been well-documented, but this revelation highlights just how clear the warnings were from within the company itself.
Source: https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/20/nine-people-in-nokia-recognized-the-huge-threat-posed-by-the-iphone