Nokia 'sNew PC

It seems that Nokia have been less than impressed with Apple’s recent diversification. How dare they gate-crash their party - do they think they can just show up uninvited and start taking market share?

The mobile phone giant is reacting to the emergence of the iPhone with it’s own master plan to infiltrate the personal computing market. The ‘Booklet 3G netbook’ is their new Windows-based laptop that will offer both 3G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi. The company claims that the product’s unique selling point is its internal mobile broadband modem with a SIM card slot – essentially making it an extension of the user’s mobile phone.

It’ll be interesting to see how it fairs.  Nokia haven’t had a great history of product diversification (N-Gage anyone?) and moving into unchartered territory has unstuck many a reputable company in the past. For me, this presents the question as to whether diversification is always the right thing to do.

If a new competitor bursts onto the market and starts performing successfully – should you automatically go out and look for different revenue streams or should you knuckle down and start improving what you’re already good at? Microsoft are a company with a history of ‘innovation boobs’. The Zune perhaps being their most famous but also arguably the Xbox which has a 54% hardware failure rate. Just goes to show what happens when a company renowned for making software tries it’s hand at the hard stuff. It’s not their bread and butter.

Can anybody else remember any famous diversification disasters?