Nokia Mobile missed wireless charging opportunity
|In the past 7 years since Nokia Mobile revived the Nokia brands, there have only been three devices with wireless charging. The first was the unique Nokia 8 Sirocco, or a device we thought would be the first Nokia 9. The second was the Nokia 9 PureView, which failed gloriously despite being the best device Nokia Mobile has offered so far. The last device to feature wireless charging was the Nokia XR20, which could be the most versatile Nokia smartphone yet if some of its hardware components (especially the processor) were a bit more up-to-date.
While there were some accessories made by RichGo that supported wireless charging and would be a good fit for the devices, these weren’t available globally or commercially available at all.
This brings me to why Nokia Mobile hates wireless charging when this feature could be a nice improvement to the portfolio. I was very disappointed when I saw that the Nokia XR21 shipped without this option, even though this device was supposed to be an improved version of the XR20.
I must say that I rarely used wireless charging when the Nokia XR20 was my main device. The reason is that the XR20 doesn’t support fast wireless charging and I haven’t upgraded my nightstand with IKEA’s wireless charging technology (for example). Also, my desk at home isn’t very big, so I don’t have much room for a wireless charging station. This could be one of the justifications for Nokia Mobile to avoid using Wireless charging. However, including it is justifying the average selling prices of that phones.
However, Nokia Mobile has a good ecosystem of products and accessories that support wireless charging, and it could do even better. For example, there is a Nokia Powerbank made by RichGo that supports wired and wireless charging. There is Nokia Clarity Earbuds Pro 2 that can be charged wirelessly, and finally there is the XR20 that supports wireless charging. However, this phone doesn’t support reverse charging, which makes it useless for refreshing the battery of a smartwatch or the Pro 2 Earbuds.
In my opinion, this is all untapped potential and thus a waste of resources. What Nokia Mobile couldn’t do before when Nokia 8 Sirocco was launched, it had potential to do now with XR20 or 21. The product managers should have developed a well-rounded story with protagonists like phones, accessories and technical data that would easily find readers.