Nokia and their charger
There once was a time that you could go to any office in the world and be able to charge your Nokia phone. Every Nokia phone used the same charger. A small and insignificant thing, yet this small detail in the technical implementation was undoubtedly important in maintaining brand loyalty and the dominance of Nokia in the market place. Nokia built informal communities in workplaces that no other brand did. Communities that shared their chargers. I’ve not witnessed that with other brands.
Then something happened at Nokia. They changed the charger. The plug is now smaller. I presume this can only be down to the ever decreasing size of their phones. But my new Nokia N80 is bigger than my old Nokia that used the old charger. Bottom line? There are half a dozen old style chargers lying around in the office. There are no new ones around. I leave mine at home / it is broken, and combined with the risibly short battery life of the N80, I am stuffed. This will impact my purchasing decision when I change phones. I’ve been loyal to Nokia since I got my first mobile almost ten years ago. No more.
(As a postscript, I recently found myself with three other unlucky souls who owned a Nokia N80. Not one of us had a good thing to say about it. If you are in the market for a new phone, steer clear of the N80. Buy one at your peril!)