Hic pereat gloria telephoni gestabilis

One of the most re-usable equipment are USB cables. Today I noticed, that one of those I use to charge my phone is an old Blackberry one. Quite meaningful symbol of the mobile phone landscape we have experienced for last couple of years: Blackberry cable plug in a generic low-end smartphone I use to keep my Polish SIM card active while I am enjoying expatriate phase of my life. The cable will never charge the genuine Blackberry device, this time is gone forever. Just naturally, an old Latin phrase popped in my head hic pereat gloria, which can be translated as thus perishes glory. To be more precise I asked Wikipedia and google.translate for some help. I added a little bit of my own Latin knowledge I acquired during theological and medical studies to create the final version of this post title. Hic pereat gloria telephoni gestabilis could be translated as Thus glory of the mobile phone perishes.

Intelligent mobile phones rule the world of personal digital device today and there are no viable challengers on the horizon yet. Unless something disruptively innovative arises, mobile will remain the leading platform of digital revolution. Vanishing glory of mobile phone relates not for the whole category, but for specific brands. Blackberry is not the only one nor the most iconic. Arguably the most famous former hero of mobile phone brands is Nokia. Once undisputable leader, winning in almost every subcategory of phones, became obsolete in less than five years. Interestingly, one of the factors contributing to Nokia’s fate was growing adaption of Blackberry devices. The idea of business mobile phone with functionality focused on corporate communication successfully eroded Nokia dominance in the sector. On the other hand, the growing number of low-priced devices from Asia producers, challenged Nokia’s attractiveness to lower market customers. Sure, we usually think Apple when analyzing decline of Finnish mobile dominator, but it was only a part of the picture. The direct blow, which stroke down Nokie from the top position came from Samsung excellent performance.

Before Nokia there were other champions who had gone almost out of the business. In the group of Asia producers, we’d been watching the progressing decline of brands like Sony or LG. They were replaced by Samsung. The latter brand, although praised as a leader of Eastern smartphones, is currently challenge by fresh wave of challengers. The new generation of Asian manufacturer includes Xiaomi, Huwawei, OPPO, and others. Samsung is, however, doing very well, being the most popular smartphone brand since 2012. When we look at the leaderboard Samsung has been selling globally the highest number of smartphones since 2012. If it defends its top position this year it will be the full decade of worldwide supremacy. Not bad at all. Still Nokia, with fourteen continuous years of leading remains the greatest player of all times. This piece of former glory stays with them for now.

The phones which ruled the world: Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry, and Nokia

It makes me think that quality dominance is not the most important foundation of the brand position in the sector. Very likely, Samsung will be a sales leader for few years more, still sharing the fame with Apple. iPhone manufacturer was never the leader of sales charts, although has consequently occupied solid position in top three. However, nobody will challenge the statement, that iPhone is well known and respected device. The glory of Apple is at least in par with Samsung and seems to be founded on quite different principles. In the fast-changing world it does not guarantee that this glory won’t fade, either. When we remember Motorola, Ericson, and Siemens we see brands which had been in top five for years, before they became forgotten. No strategy works forever. One day, looking at old Samsung or Apple devices one will say what I say now about Blackberry: Hic pereat gloria telephoni gestabilis.

Latin is a best fit language for statement like that. Once extremely popular tool for communication, true monopolist in scientific, medical, and political communication, gradually lost its charm and became obsolete. As a former human anatomy teacher, I saw the last stages of the language decline with Latin anatomy nomenclature replaced with English one all over the world. However, there is still the niche where the language can be rightfully applied – the nostalgia posts about the past heroes of humanity. This post is one of them.

Reference:

Annual phone sales by manufacturer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_phones#Annual_sales_by_manufacturer