Club Nokia

Last updated
Club Nokia
Developer(s) Nokia
Initial release1997
Type Mobile consumer internet portal and loyalty programme
Website ClubNokia

Club Nokia was a mobile internet digital distribution portal, [1] operated by Nokia to provide special offers, paid-for ringtones, picture messages and game content directly to members. [2] [3] [4] [5] Following resistance from its mobile operator customers, Nokia partially closed the service and the brand became solely a consumer service and loyalty portal. [6] [7]

Contents

History

Club Nokia was originally launched in 1997 to provide detailed product information and support about Nokia products. [4] [8] In 1999 Club Nokia was developed into an integral multi-channel personalised service accessible by WAP, SMS or the World Wide Web, spawning a new industry for the provision of mobile content. [9] Consumers could join Club Nokia after buying a new Nokia device. [10] To download content, users were required to purchase credits obtained from authorised Nokia dealerships. [11] [12] Content included additional game levels for e.g. Space Impact . [13] [14] The picture messaging service was launched in Finland in December 1999. [15] [16] In 2000, Amazon partnered with Nokia to enable purchasing of books from Amazon's catalogue via Club Nokia with WAP enabled mobile phones. [17]

In August 2000, Nokia signed a deal with music publisher EMI to provide EMI-owned songs as ringtones, available from the Club Nokia website or by sending an SMS message. [18] [19] [20] [21] By November 2001, over 10 million consumers were subscribed to Club Nokia, and the enterprise was forecast to yield €1 billion in revenue by 2004. [8] However, the EMI deal proved controversial as it placed Nokia in direct competition with the mobile operators' own branded portals, who relied on the booming ringtones market for revenue and were wary of Nokia gaining a mobile content monopoly through Club Nokia as Microsoft had done in computing software. [3] [22] [23] Nokia argued customers used the carriers' mobile data to download content, but network operators remained resistant. [8] [24] [25] As a result, Nokia announced in September 2004 that the service for selling ringtones would close down, never having become the commercial success it was forecast to be, and Club Nokia became solely a customer service, loyalty and news portal. [8] [6] [7] [26] [27] On the back of investments made into Club Nokia, Nokia launched a new service Preminet to its operators, designed to distribute certified Java- and Symbian-based mobile software to make cell-phone applications easier to buy, sell, and distribute. [8]

In late 2007 the Club Nokia service was rebranded "My Nokia". [28] Nokia launched a new direct-to-consumer service in 2006 called Nokia Content Discoverer. [29] The term "Club Nokia" was since re-used as the name of a concert venue in Los Angeles, which has now been renamed The Novo by Microsoft. [1]

See also

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References

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  2. ↑ "Club Nokia". Nokia - archived from the original. 26 January 2004. Archived from the original on 2004-01-26. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  3. 1 2 "The fight for digital dominance". Print Edition:Special Report. The Economist. 2002-11-21. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  4. 1 2 Doz, Yves; Wilson, Keeley (26 January 2018). Ringtone: Exploring the Rise and Fall of Nokia in Mobile Phones. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780192524751 . Retrieved 23 October 2018– via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Vesa, Jarkko (1 January 2005). Mobile Services in the Networked Economy. Idea Group Inc (IGI). ISBN   9781591405795 . Retrieved 23 October 2018– via Google Books.
  6. 1 2 Lucy Sherriff (2004-09-20). "Nokia exits ringtones". The Register. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  7. 1 2 Wireless Watch (2004-10-29). "Nokia makes play for mobile content". The Register. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
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  10. ↑ "Nokia 3330 - ny lågpristelefon från Nokia" . Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Aftonbladet it: mobilt". wwwc.aftonbladet.se. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
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  13. ↑ "Mobiltest: Nokia 5510". 27 November 2001. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  14. ↑ PC Advisor (2001-07-04). "Nokia 3330". The Register. Retrieved 23 October 2018.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  15. ↑ "www.nokia.com".[ dead link ]
  16. ↑ Hakkarainen, Ari (10 September 2010). Behind the Screen: Nokia's success story in an industry of navel-gazing executives and crazy frogs. Klaava Media. ISBN   9789525901030 . Retrieved 23 October 2018– via Google Books.
  17. ↑ "Mobile shopping with Amazon UK". BBC News. 2000-02-23. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  18. ↑ Hyland, Anne (31 August 2000). "EMI and Nokia call up any number of tunes". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  19. ↑ Wearden, Graeme (2000-08-31). "News Burst: Nokia mobile phones to sing EMI hits". ZDNet. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
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  21. ↑ "EMI Music Publishing and Nokia bring pop music to mobile phones". Nokia press release - archived from original source. 2000-08-30. Archived from the original on 2001-12-02. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  22. ↑ "The Sounds and the Business of Mobile Music Ben Aslinger / Bentley College - Flow". www.flowjournal.org. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  23. ↑ Buster Kantrow (2001-05-23). "'Club Nokia' Service Could Put Firm In Awkward Position With Operators". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  24. ↑ "DRM jumble makes move toward clarity: Nokia takes step with Microsoft deal - RCR Wireless News". www.rcrwireless.com. 30 November 1999. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  25. ↑ "Vodafone backs Nokia's OVI". The UK Mobile Report. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  26. ↑ "Club Nokia remonttiin" . Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  27. ↑ "Nokia - Club Nokia - Find products". 13 June 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-06-13. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  28. ↑ GSMONLINE.PL. "My Nokia zastąpiła Club Nokia" . Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  29. ↑ RCR Wireless (2006-10-23). "Nokia goes direct to consumers with Cartoon Network content". RCR Wireless. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
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