My first Nokia phone was the 6160. I remember sitting in a restaurant and the server looks at my Nokia and says, “That’s a cell phone?? It’s so small!”. The only other phone that ever got a response like that was my iPhone.

But Nokia has lost touch with the formula that made them such a success (quality and style). Here’s a letter that a good friend of mine recently wrote to Nokia Customer Care.

Dear Nokia customer care,

Please find attached a picture of my 6300. It just met it’s demise when it met my patio at full force after yet another reboot as I tried in vane to merely answer a call. That pretty well sums up what I think of Nokia’s new product line, their standard OS and Symbian. Oh and did I mention the “customer service”? (note the quotes)

I purchased a new shiny 6300 in Singapore almost a year ago to replace my aging 6230i and was initially impressed with it’s looks and features; I could even cope with the lousy battery life. However it soon started randomly rebooting during calls, when receiving SMS and almost without fail, every time I accessed the web. It would hum, vibrate (sometimes until the battery was removed) and always white screen, before returning to “normal”. Even yesterday after yet another firmware upgrade, it rebooted 4 times in a row as I tried to search for a word using google – imagine my friends amusement as their 4 year old Nokia’s, Sony’s etc still respond instantly, get decent battery life and never reboot when they are tired of having to actually do something useful.

So several months ago I took it to Nokia “customer care” in Chatswood (yes that’s in Australia) who kindly informed me that I needed to take it back to Singapore so Nokia could take a look at it there, as it did not have an international warranty. Excuse me but which century is this? Sure I’ll jump on a plane and fly to Singapore for what – A firmware upgrade? HELLO wake-up call, people travel around quite a lot these days. International business and travel require international warranties. These are offered by every company worth their salt these days and many that aren’t. Why not Nokia?

Which brings me onto my current phone, an E61i. On paper this phone sounds like a dream, in reality to use it is to know the true meaning of suffering. Symbian…. How long do you have to wait before hitting a key has any effect? I usually start mine up each am (I figured out early on that a reboot a day saves the lives of those unfortunate enough to be around when me or a colleague is experiencing Nokia rage – a very common site unfortunately), then I go for a cup of tea, come back and it may be just about ready to use. Navigating through the features is so slow and illogical that I have reverted back to my 6310i unless I absolutely need mobile mail.

So Nokia, here ends my relationship with you and your once fine products. I remember when your phones were instantaneous and way ahead of the competition. Now look…. Unfortunately it is time for me to accept defeat and join all my colleagues who ditched their E61i’s and brought iPhones. Long live Apple!

Incidentally I don’t expect a response to this but it would be nice to know someone is there and possibly even cares about why Nokia is so out of touch with once loyal customers and is driving them away. If you would like a chance to redeem yourselves and give me a working product, feel free to contact me at the above e-mail address.