What's wrong with Nokia in the US? Why does a company with around 40 per cent of the market elsewhere in the world struggle so hopelessly in the home of capitalism?

The market analyst Frost & Sullivan has its ideas, which it outlined in an essay entitled 'What Nokia Should Do', penned by the firm's mobile and wireless VP J. Gerry Purdy. This article was then posted to the MoMo industry group.

However, his arguments were picked apart by various MoMo members including Simon Rockman, the former Sony Ericsson and Moto man turned industry consultant.

We're delighted to re-publish edited versions of the two viewpoints below:

What Nokia Should Do: by J. Gerry Purdy, Frost & Sullivan

In North America, Nokia is in a difficult position. It has less then five per cent market share, a small percentage of the share it enjoys around the world. Why?

Some of the answers may surprise you.

I blame much of the poor performance in the US market on design principles. Nokia phones all use the same font on the display – the same font used in marketing literature. I don’t know why but the font is not attractive to many people in the US. It gives you an uncomfortable feel when you look at it without necessarily knowing why.

The Symbian OS, while very good technically, has a user interface style that seems foreign to those in the US. Its core design principles have a look and feel that is different from the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS and Android environments.

Symbian phones can do the same things but the orientation and presentation to the user is ‘different’ and doesn’t seem intuitive.

Nokia is making a concerted effort to succeed in the US. For example, it has done a good engineering job on the development of the E71x for the (North American) enterprise market. But when you hold it in your hand and use it, the E71x immediately feels ‘foreign’ and you get a sense that it is not going to be broadly adopted.

So, what should Nokia do? Here are some ideas:

Change the Identity: Use a more friendly font and have screens and keyboard designed to work in the US environment. Keys have to be rounded with domes and small separation from other keys. The entire look and feel needs to migrate into a set of design principles that are US centric.

Reorient the Ovi App Store: Migrate Ovi to be positioned as an on-device app store supported by a web portal instead of the other way around.

Use a Different Product Segmentation: Segment the market around user’s needs and price points instead of specific technical feature sets.

Develop a Maemo Line for the North American Market: It would be well-received in the US market but it would have to make sure the design principles focus on US needs not European.

Acquire Palm: Nokia might consider acquiring Palm and use WebOS for its smartphones as well as adapt WebOS to other Wireless Internet Devices (WID) and even to the Netbook.

....

And here's Simon Rockman's pithy reply

This article completely fails to understand the American market. Unless you've sat in sales meetings, as I have, with an American carrier you don't understand that phones are not ranged by what the consumer wants.

It's all about margin and ARPU. US consumers are the only ones in the world who choose their network first and phone second. Stop someone in the street (I do this regularly – I am the 'weirdo on the bus') and ask people about their phone.

A UK consumer will know makes and model numbers. A US consumer will call it a "Sprint or T-Mobile" phone.

Americans get the phones their carriers buy for them.

Arsing around with button shapes is way down the list of things to worry about. By "un-American" they mean they want to buy US products – Windows/Motorola/iPhone/Palm/Android. And not Nokia (which many Americans think is an oriental brand).

All countries exhibit national loyalty. It's why Siemens had great market share in German, Sagem in France, Sony Ericsson in Sweden. Shame we didn't rally round Sendo.

There is a rumour that all the great Apple Apps store revenue is really iPod Touch users and that outside of the US, aside from us geeks, the paid-for app penetration on iPhones is a bit pathetic. But then Apple don't split out iPhone/iPod ouch figures.

Nokia is the only major handset manufacturer that doesn't drop its pants in price negotiations with the US carriers.

That's the real story behind their market share. They keep their prices up in Europe because is there is consumer pull. The strategy fails in the US because the consumer has so little choice.

* Simon Rockman is currently organising an event looking at the market for older mobile users, called Mobile Phones for the Senior Market. Click here for more details.