Nokia Taunts Apple with New "Open to Anything" Ads

Nokia appears to have gotten its dander up over all the attention the iPhone is getting compared to its new N95. Over the weekend, New Nokia "Open To Anything" ads appeared in New York.. The basic argument: the best devices (i.e., Nokia's) have are open and have no limits while Apple's iPhones do.

It's a very civilized ad, and that may be its weakness in actually getting attention. After all, do most consumers care about "openness" when the vast majority only make calls on their phones? And as far as being taunting goes, I don't think this riposte goes nearly far enough to be regarded as taunting. Perhaps the best example of a truly aggressive tuant was immortalized in Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine" upon IBM's introduction of its Series 1 minicomputer. Data General created a ad consisting of a picture of a Data General Nova minicomputer and a bold headline that read:

They Say IBM's Entry Into Minicomputers Will Legitimize The Market. The Bastards Say, Welcome"

Too bad that ad never actually ran. But in today's Halo-inspired trash talking society where as many as 65% of US phone users still never do anything but make calls on their phones, that 30-year-old ad might have garnered more consumer attention than Nokia's appeal to embrace downloadable software openness. Or here's a radical idea: maybe Nokia could makes its phones easier to use.

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Apple, iPhone, Nokia, N95