The Aestheticization of Mobile Design: A Historical Study of Nokia Phones, Study notes of Design history

Download The Aestheticization of Mobile Design: A Historical Study of Nokia Phones and more Study notes Design history in PDF only on Docsity! The Life and Death of Great Finnish Fashion Phones --- A Historical Periodization of Changing Aesthetics in Nokia Phone Design Abstract Visual aesthetics is an essential part of our interaction with digital devices, but the ways it has been accounted for in design have been largely overlooked in studies on digital devices. This article investigates the question of whether there is an aestheticization of mobile design, and if so how and why it is taking place, by doing a historical study of mobile phones focusing on the Nokia brand. Our study shows that aestheticization did exist in mobile design but it varied over time. This is visible in the quantitative analysis of the changing visual features of Nokia phones. We have done a periodization of its short history, dividing it into the Candy-bar, Changeable Colour, Form Experiment and Slate periods. The Form Experiment period stands out in terms of visual aesthetics, and saw an increased integration of fashion and mobile design. The study of fashion magazines provides further evidence of the connection to fashion institutions. The interviews with key persons in the company show that the orientation to fashion had much to do with customer segmentation and Nokia’s strategies. The phones became less relevant to fashion in the Slate period, and we see the ‘death’ of the aestheticization of Nokia phones. Key Words Mobile phones, Nokia, design history, periodization, aesthetics, fashion ***** Introduction Human culture has always been oriented towards the attractive. Philosopher George Santayana states that ‘the sense of beauty has a more important place in life than aesthetic theory has ever taken in philosophy’.1 It is argued, also by other scholars, that an orientation toward visual aesthetics is extending to many consumer products. Sociologist Mike Featherstone describes an ‘aestheticization of everyday life’ in postmodern society in the 20th century, referring to the blurry boundary between art and life – an attitude of turning life into a work of art and an emphasis on aesthetic enjoyment.2 This results in an increasing demand for ‘design’ in all consumer products. In product design, aesthetic factors are becoming an additional dimension of product attributes.3 The visual form is a way to impress consumers, as it provides sensory pleasure that affects the quality of our lives.4 Entering the 21st century, culture writer Virginia Postrel has frequently observed that this is an age of aesthetics where style is pervasive and is available in various products in different places. The most trivial things in daily life are becoming more important as people want them to be beautiful and expressive.5 Santayana’s, Featherstone’s and Postrel’s generalized interpretations inspire us to focus on the role of visual aesthetics in everyday objects, such as the ubiquitously available mobile phone. Since the way these scholars select empirical evidence is theory driven, in the sense that such examples are used to show the relevance of their interpretations, we suggest taking a closer look to fully understand the role of aesthetics in the design of everyday objects. We ask questions such as: Are we witnessing an aestheticization of everyday objects? And if so, how is this occurring. Our use of the term ‘aestheticization’ specifically refers to periodization is the rise and fall of visual aestheticization and fashion in mobile design.12 A second study of Nokia’s presence in fashion magazines provides evidence of the connection between phones and fashion. Lastly, following the historical method of periodization, and having the possibility to interview key persons, we studied the transitions between these periods in more detail. Periodization of Visual Aesthetics in Mobile Phones In order to unpack the overall trends in the visual appearance of Nokia phones over the two decades, we chose to do a historic periodization by looking at the visual features of these phones. Periodization as Method in Historical Studies As one of the basic methods for summarizing and structuring historical research, periodization refers to ‘the process of dividing the chronological narrative into separately labelled sequential time periods’.13 The method is not employed just to disconnect single historical facts, or simply to divide time into smaller parts, but in order to emphasize the key features and turning points of each period so that we can see the variations and evolutions. Periodization is often performed as a form of historical investigation, and the divisions are based on large amount of empirical material. Some periods may be defined by a body of ideas and practices and others by overarching political and social developments.14 There are only a few studies that structure the history of mobile phones and none of them focus on visual look. The most common periodization, strongly supported by the industry, focuses on the standardization of the radio technology. Fling observes that ‘in the industry, we often refer to these evolutions as “generations” or simply “G”, which refers to the maturity and capabilities of the actual cellular networks’.15 He proposes a new division of mobile history according to ‘mobile devices’ rather than the telecommunications network. He argues that it is the mobile device that changes everything and ‘packages all the current capabilities and standards into something people are willing to add to their lives’.16 Fling identified five periods: the Brick (1973–1988), Candy bar (1988–1998), Feature phone (1998–2008), Smart phone (2002–present) and Touch era (2007–present).17 Unfortunately, there is no consistent explanation for how he selected the periods. The brick and candy-bar periods are defined by form factors, whereas the smart and feature periods are defined by functional capabilities, and the touch era is defined by its interface. In all, this periodization is oriented around the features of mobile devices, but does not especially focus on the visual aesthetics. There have also been attempts to categorize mobile phone releases based on their form and colour, which is closely related to the question we ask. In an editorial on the ‘GSMArena’ website, the form and shape of all mobile phones in the world, between 2000 and 2010, are described. It graphically presents a variation in slimness, weight and screen size, as well as the percentage of the mobile phones that are in the form of clamshells, sliders, candy-bars and touchscreens for each year of the decade.18 Some materials focus on the aesthetical features of Nokia phones. For instance, an article from Nokia official website briefly introduces some key phones that have revolutionized the colour design of mobile phones.19 These materials provide some interesting details on specific form factors and an overview of the changing forms throughout the entire industry. However, these are not academic studies. It is not clear what methodologies the authors used for the collection and the selection. Identifying Visual Themes and Periods In order to establish a periodization of the visual aesthetics of Nokia design, we first need to acquire empirical materials, including pictures of the representative phones, information about them, as well as the release year for each phone. For practical reasons, we collected these materials online, since they are widely available on various online platforms, though of varying quality.20 In order to guarantee the validity of the materials, we combined four different sources into a single corpus. The first source is based on an official overview in the form of a picture that chronologically presents Nokia’s products, between 1982 and 2006, with images and names.21 It claims to include all phones, but we were uncertain if this was the case and what the selection criteria had been. The second source was the ‘Nokia Museum’ website that aims to build a virtual museum of Nokia phones and offers visitors information about the collections of these phones, as well as opportunities to add objects.22 The third source we used was the ‘GSMArena’ website where editors gather information on mobile phone releases, mainly from manufacturers’ websites. Some of the entries provide detailed information, since it is made available by the manufacturers, but some do not. Then the editors have had to resort to other sources such as message boards and phone vendors’ websites. 23 Fourth, we used the ‘Imei’ website, which helps users check the ‘Mobile Equipment Identity’, which is a unique number identifying a mobile phone. The website is managed by a team of contributors ‘who are passionate about mobile phones’ and ‘offer expert opinions and many other services related to mobile phones’.24 It has a large database of cover became a component of the mobile phone per se by replacing the old one. It works differently from contemporary cases that are attached to the phones. In all, the most important feature of this period is that mobile phones became more varied in colour. The ability to change cases was claimed to be a ‘game-changer’ in mobile design.31 But other important design variations were also emerging in the same period. In 2001, Nokia released a few clamshell phones, e.g. the models 8877 and 8887, on the Korean market.32 Even though it was only done on a small scale at that time, it pre-empted the radical increase in variety of visual aesthetics that would occur between 2003 and 2008. The ‘Form Experiment’ period denotes a time in the short history of mobile phone production that could be described as a much-hyped variation in mobile phone releases in combination with a visible orientation towards fashion. One significant feature during this period was the release of small experimental series with highly varied forms, including taco, circular keyboard, teardrop, mango, lipstick, zippo, twist or swivel (see Figure 1).33 This is what we call ‘experimental form’ (Figure 2). There were already two models with experimental forms in 2002 and there was a continuing increase in the number of models having ‘experimental forms’ during 2003. The total number of models with these forms was 28, or about 13% of all models of this period (Figure 3). In 2004, the number of forms peaked at nine; after that, the number of forms decreased (Figure 2). The period is also distinguished by the devices displaying a visual orientation to fashion. Finally, it exhibits a large number of models with the various form factors. During the period, a total of 277 models were released, 44% of all the models in our corpus. We here present two iconic phones representing a dominant ‘manifest form’ from the period covered and an ‘experimental form’ that displays fashion features. In 2003, Nokia released the clamshell phone globally, drawing on the success of a few previous local attempts. The clamshell form consists of two sections connected end-to-end by a hinge. The hinge allows the phone to be folded, like a clamshell.34 In 2004, ten models had such a form, a drastic increase compared to previous years. During the period, 74 of the models were designed as clamshells, about 35% of the models released (Figure 3), making it one of the major manifest forms for Nokia phones during period. What distinguishes Nokia’s clamshell phones from others is that some of them have more experimental visual features, as they have integrated new materials. For instance, the 7200 model, considered the first GSM clamshell phone from Nokia, was released in 2003 and featured sensual fabric covers and detailed graphics.35 It looked like a small booklet, with a mixture of textile and leather on the cover. The textile covers had modern graphic patterns and three types of colour combinations: grey and blue, piano black, and brown and white.36 By incorporating soft material such as fabric, which is mostly used in garment making, the phone casts off the constraints of hard materials traditionally used for mobile production. In 2004, the 7280 model was released. It has a sophisticated and stylish look. The phone is shaped like a lipstick and has a high-gloss finish complemented with leather and mirror accents (Figure 4). The Nokia tag, made of fabric and attached to the edge of the phone like a garment tag, blurred the boundary between technical tool and clothing. The graphic patterns are composed of white and red lines on a black background. The patterns and colour features can be recognized as influenced by Art Deco or 1920s style. Notably this was an important trend in clothing fashion at that time. For instance, Emma Cook’s Spring/Summer 2004 collection was inspired by the 1920s’ prosperity and machinery.37 Chanel’s Spring/summer 2004 collection had ‘Twenties-style flapper dresses’.38 In sum, this period features a creative explosion in visual designs of Nokia phones. The experimental forms were dramatic, unique and short lived, and some of them showed visual connections to fashion trends. The ‘Slate’ period is defined by a decrease in both the total number of releases and the variety in visual expression. Between 2009 and 2013, the number of models released declined. In 2009, Nokia released 54 models but the number had shrunk to 23 by 2013. In total they released only 178 models, almost a hundred fewer than during the ‘form experiment’ period. More importantly, the number of manifest forms was reduced from six in 2009 to three in 2013. In 2009, the candy-bar phones with Xpress-on covers disappeared, and Nokia released the prevalent slate smart phone. These phones take the form of a flat thin slate rely on touchscreen technology to allow interaction. There were altogether 56 models with such a form, amounting to almost a third of all models in this period. In 2013, all the Nokia models were either in the candy-bar shape or in the slate form, except for a Qwerty-board model. Moreover, from 2011 to 2013, the number of slate phone models per year already exceeded that of candy-bars. The period saw the introduction of the slate-form, of which the Lumia 800 series is a good example. With this series, Nokia tried to bring colours to smart phones in this series, like they did for mobile phones in the 1990s. For instance, Lumia 820 is in the form of a square slate and is available in five colours. It is easy to change covers, just like with the Xpress-on covers invented at the end of the 1990s. The re-use of the changeable covers, which were called ‘exchangeable back covers’ or ‘exchangeable shells’ on the official website, picks’, which exhibit what the magazines consider to be fashionable objects. There were fourteen such occurrences, which shows that some Nokia phones were treated as fashionable objects by leading fashion gatekeepers. In all, we identify six occurrences of editorial images that include Nokia phones in the magazines, spread out evenly over time between 1994 and 1996. As for editorials, Nokia phones attracted continuous interest from these fashion magazines between 1997 and 2004. Because the magazines started writing about Nokia before the adverts and continued after they stopped, there seems to be no direct link between the two types of occurrences. These magazines displayed a prolonged interest in the company, though it waned and disappeared after 2007. As for adverts, they occur in two bursts. A major burst of 29 adverts occurred between 1997 and 2002. A smaller burst, consisting of nine adverts, occurred between 2004 and 2005. After 2007 the appearances ceased completely, both in terms of adverts and editorial material. We suggest that the two bursts reveal a link to the periods of visual aesthetics previously outlined (see Figure 2). The major burst (1997 to 2002) coincides with the Changeable Colour period (1998–2002). Thus, allowing colour variation seems to be an important way for Nokia to reach fashion-oriented customers, which also made them confident to reach those people. The small burst (2004–2005) occurred early in the Form Experiment period (2003–2008) when the hardware variation was at its peak. Interestingly, even though the phones in this period had explicit visual references to fashion, the company made less of an effort to reach fashionable customers than when the possibility to change colours was first introduced. After 2008, Nokia phones were no longer seen in the two magazines. Thus, Nokia phones in the Slate period were less relevant to fashion gatekeeping, and fashion customers were less relevant for Nokia. Since Nokia’s yearly catalogue presents a range of forms, we need to take a closer look at what models and forms appear in the magazines. Three out of four phones that appeared in editorial materials between 1994 and 1997 were candy-bar phones, echoing the key visual characteristic of the period (1992–1997) according to our periodization. A closer inspection of the adverts reveals a similar connection to how we have described the dominant visual features of the period. The first burst of adverts, between 1998 and 2002, focused on presenting the changeable covers. The models with this design appeared in 49% of the adverts. The number of occurrences reflects the importance of this visual aesthetics in the ‘Changeable Colour’ period. Specifically, the Nokia 5100 model with changeable case appeared ten times between 1998 and 1999, the most times that a single model appeared in the magazines during the time period. The second and smaller burst of adverts occurred between 2004 and 2007. The adverts presented a few dominant manifest forms, such as the 7200 clamshell phone with textile Xpress-on covers, and experimental forms such as the 7280 lipstick phone. The second study provides empirical support for the connection between Nokia phone design and fashion institutions. Nokia has released a wide range of manifest forms, and each period consists of a blend of these forms. In all, the relation between the analysis in the previous section (see Figure 1) and the analysis of fashion magazines makes visible the orientation toward colour variation from 1998 to 2002 and the importance of the form experimental phones between 2003 and 2007. It seems that the aestheticization of everyday things coincides with linking product design to fashion institutions. However, we still do not know why the relation to fashion occurred in these two periods and what made Nokia design its products in this way. These are the questions to be addressed in the following. Nokia Designers’ Viewpoints We interviewed some of the key persons who were involved in the design of Nokia’s phones during the Changeable Colour and Form Experiment periods. The interviews expand our understanding of the company’s intentions and orientation. In that sense they preserve the tacit knowledge, experiences and objectives of past events.42 The interviewees were selected by following the ‘snowball sampling’ method in which a participant recommended another person for us to interview.43 The interviewees were Tapani Jokinen, who joined the company in 1995 and was head of ‘mobile phones design portfolio planning’ from 2013 to 2014; Grace Boicel, who joined in 2001 and worked as head of ‘mobile phones colour and material design’ from 2013 to 2014; Tanja Fischer, design director from 1997 to 2007; Yanyan Ji, head of ‘marketing planning and strategy’ between 2005 and 2009; and Frank Nuovo, global vice president and chief of design from 1995 to 2006.44 Although this is a small number of people for such a large organization, considering their critical roles in the company they can be considered to have played an important role in design decisions. about very active lifestyle. Then there was a premium category, which was reflected very much in the luxury. Nokia’s large customer base was sorted into abstract segments: a non-luxurious phone and a luxury phone; phones for businessmen and phones for fashionable people; phones for expressive people and phones for sports lovers. Targeting fashionable people The variation in visual aesthetics during the Form Experiment period can be understood in terms of the emergence of this design system, and especially Nokia’s orientation toward fashionable customers, which led to the fashion phone series being developed. There are several reasons why the fashion orientation could drive the increasing variation. First, fashion concepts were employed, such as the idea of providing ‘collections’. In the fashion industry, this means designing a series of garments that are grouped into outfits or looks inspired by a common theme. Such collections are usually designed for a season or a particular occasion.46 Tanja Fischer, who was in charge of the fashion category, explains what this meant for mobile design: They design several products, group them, have something innovative, something more niche, just in terms of form factor. Do something that varies, like the lipstick phone, which has another two products, fold or candy-bar phone, that are products in daily use. Then the design and marketing of it, everything is brought together, through a theme, a design language, and story, so that you can create something that has an impact. In the fashion category, Nokia created three collections during the Form Experiment period. If a phone is considered to be part of a collection, it obviously needs to be complemented with something else, for example other phones or matching accessories. It makes the designer think about several products, rather than one single product. The form of each phone varies within a collection, usually including something classic, like candy-bar, as well as something bold and strange, like lipstick. For one collection of phones, the design, marketing and everything else are brought together. Second, trend books produced for the fashion industry were used to inspire mobile design. Fischer argued that all the fashion collections were inspired by trends presented in such documents. She gave some concrete examples, for instance, the art deco collection, comprising models such as 7270 and 7280, was inspired by 1920s style, which was one of the fashion trends in 2004. During the interview, Jokinen showed us design materials for some particular mobile phones, such as those in the Art Deco collection. It was launched in 2004, and included the models 7260, 7270 and 7280. Figure 6 is one example of these materials, showing the sources of inspiration for the collection, including 1920s photography, fashion icons and Hollywood movies. Those impulses were transformed into design language, as shown in Figure 7. The four concepts, ‘freedom, bold, seductive and geometric’, are identified by more concrete design keywords, which are reflected in graphic patterns and images. Fischer explains how they selected this theme for the collection: I remember when we were looking through the trend books at the time. There was a small side trend, which was the Art Deco. It was just in a footnote. It was very inspiring. I just felt it was very strong. But not too risky as a language, as a theme, for a collection. Because we still do black and white… so it was the perfect theme to choose for our fashion collection. The Art Deco theme was inspired by fashion trend books. They needed to consider the long- term trend in mobile design; hence they picked a side trend in the book instead of a main trend which might vanish quickly. The main colours for the selected theme, black and white, were able to make a strong visual statement without being too transient, like a fad. This reveals that Nokia designers study the fashion trend books and carefully select the trends that they can use. This also explains what we have already interpreted from Figure 2, that some Nokia phones had visual connections to the fashion trends in the same period. The interviews reveal that this similarity was not coincidental but was a result of the strategy within Nokia. Third, Nokia collaborated with ‘star fashion designers’ in designing mobile phones or mobile covers. In the fashion industry, garments are institutionalized into desirable and fashionable items. The star designer system is one of the key institutions for creating an aura around physical garments, and is something quite different from mobile design.47 Fischer stated that the first official fashion phone was the 8210 model, which was co-designed with the French fashion brand Kenzo. She commented ‘it was the first time Nokia had publicly stated that we are now making high fashion phones’. Kenzo is known for using bold colours and unique patterns in his designs.48 The candy-bar phone had a striking colour combination with red, white and black. Yanyan Ji, Head of Marketing Planning and Strategy between 2005 and 2009, introduced a special edition of model 7270, which was created in collaboration with Versace in Austria. It had the same functions as the standard version, but came with two removable covers made by the designer and a strap covered with Swarovski crystals. Ji explains why they wanted to do this: It’s very pioneering for us to create a mobile device as a fashion accessory. Nobody would consider us as a fashion company. We wanted to collaborate with established distinguished fashion designers, to use the equity of their positioning in the fashion and design side. She argues that the reason for Nokia’s collaboration with fashion brands was to piggyback on their status in the fashion world, which would influence how people see Nokia phones. Nokia began to be more passive, following the trends other competitors had initiated, instead of creating trends themselves. From Figure 2, we can see that there were no models in experimental forms in 2008, and there was only one model of this type of form in 2009. After 2009, the phones tended to have a slate form. According to our interviewees, the touchscreen technology exerted great influence on mobile design at Nokia. First, in mobile design, the disappearance of physical keys was a key reason for the decreasing variation in forms, as Fischer explains: Before, the keys took a lot of space, so you could either keep it folded to make it more compact, or have it on a candy-bar, or create a really wacky interface, like we did on the lipstick phone… So it was really the ability to get rid of the keys that changes everything, and that happens with touchscreens. Now you don’t want to add many keys again. A mobile phone used to have a keypad, which had a strong impact on hardware design. It is the same as the touchscreen today. The current technology of a touchscreen, which is the core part of a smart phone, restricts the form factor, as the square screen covers almost an entire side of a phone. Second, it was also due to a change of strategy within the company. Boicel explains Nokia’s shifting focus in recent years: We think there’s an interest in making a strong statement to make a brand. Because brand is what people buy into. At the moment, the market is flooded. In 2012, I know that there were probably five thousand android phones released a year. So how do people navigate through that and how do they find the value of the brand they are looking for? It’s not that easy. When they look for something, they all look the same. That’s why Nokia started to focus on the brand, and help people navigate to the products. Doing that with what we know best, that is, through not only colour but also material and craftsmanship, is the drive behind it. She argues that Nokia was at the phase of building a strong statement to build a brand in smart phones. The flooding of the smart-phone market drove Nokia to reconsider the visual identity for the brand, as most smart phones on the market look similar. Thus they decided to reduce the number of categories and focus on a few products that could create brand recognition. To achieve this goal, Nokia chose to work with colour, which was seen as ‘what they know best’ since the 1990s. This effort was visible in both Lumia and Asha lines where Nokia started to offer more colours. Ten models among these lines had changeable covers, which was invented in 1998, but these were very few compared to the whole range of phones during the period. The strategy did not prevent its fate of ‘death’, when Nokia’s phone business was officially sold to Microsoft in 2014.49 Another reason for not experimenting with shapes was that the slate shape defines what a smart phone is at this time. As Nuovo says: ‘the display is dominantly square, which influences the format a lot, the entertainment, the standardization of user interface, it defines everybody into a square’. Altogether, the touchscreen technology has played an important role in undermining the category system established in the late 1990s. The designers combined all their learning into a strategy aiming for customer segmentation and high visual variation, however they seem to have misjudged the stability of the industry. When the Form Experiment period came to an end in 2009, new touchscreen technology in the Slate period changed the trend in visual appearance. The mobile device went from a mobile phone that was about to stabilize in terms of technology to a device that supported Internet services. The design team may have correctly understood consumer needs and desires but balanced them poorly with technical innovation. In this sense, the aestheticization of everyday things seems to be more dominant when the level of technical innovation is relatively low, such as in fabric manufacturing, and becomes more complex when it merges with technical areas in flux. Conclusion   In this article we have investigated whether there is an aestheticization of everyday objects by examining the short history of visual expressions of a common and intimate gadgets in our everyday life, the mobile phone. Having closely inspected the history of changing visual aesthetics we do not see a continuous trend towards increased attention to design or beautification. Thus, what previous scholars have discussed as an aestheticization of everyday life is not a continuous trend, but something that varies over time. Our study shows that there is indeed an increased aestheticization of mobile phones during most of the periods, but also somewhat of a decrease at the end. Such variations are visible in our quantitative analysis of the product releases. We see that in the Candy-bar period, 96% of models were candy-bar phones; in the Changeable Colour period, the models with changeable cases amount to more than half of the total models in the period. The Form Experiment period has both the greatest variety in forms and the largest number of models. The models with experimental forms was about 13% of all models in this period which contains the most interesting designs in the history of Nokia phones. In the Slate period, much fewer models were released than during the Form Experiment period. More importantly, the phones with experimental forms disappeared and the number of manifest forms fell from six in 2009 to three in 2013. Thus, we see an increase and a decline of the aestheticization trend for Nokia phones. Even in the Slate period, aesthetic considerations must have been taken into account in designing any single product, but what we are emphasizing here is a holistic view of the aesthetic trends among the periods. 9 For instance, B. Fling, Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps, O’Reilly Media, 2009. 10 M. L. Djelic and A. Ainamo, ‘The Telecom Industry as Cultural Industry? The Transposition of Fashion Logics into the Field of Mobile Telephony’, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 23, pp 45-80. 11 S. C. Hollander, K. M. Rassuli, D. G. Brian Jones, and L. F. Dix, ‘Periodization in Marketing History’, Journal of Macro-marketing, Vol. 25, pp32-41. 12 J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Vintage; Reissue edition, 1992 13 S. C. Hollander, K. M. Rassuli, D. G. Brian Jones, and L. F. Dix, ‘Periodization in Marketing History’. 14 D. Blackbourn, ‘The Horologe of Time’: Periodization in History, PMLA, Vol. 127. No. 2, pp 301-7. 15 B. Fling, Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps, O’Reilly Media, 2009. p3 16 Fling, op. cit., p4 17 Fling, 2009. 18 ‘Mobile phone evolution: Story of shapes and sizes’, July 15th, 2010. http://www.gsmarena.com/mobile_phone_evolution-review-493p3.php. Accessed 6 Jan. 2015 19 A. Fraser, ‘A Colourful Story of Nokia Phones’, 2013 http://lumiaconversations.microsoft.com/2013/09/17/a-colourful-history-of-nokia-phones/ Accessed 20 Jan. 2015 20 The study was carried out at a time when Nokia was restructuring internally. Unfortunately, we did not have access to the company archives. 21 http://www.newlaunches.com/entry_images/1107/12/nokia_timeline.php, Accessed 10 June 2014 22 http://nokiamuseum.info/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2015 23 http://www.gsmarena.com/faq.php3. Accessed 23 Aug. 2014 24 http://www.imei.info/about/. Accessed 10 Sep 201. 25 M. Q. Patton, Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, SAGE Publications, 2002 26 See explanation in the Oxford dictionary, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/model. Accessed 20 August 2014. 27 N. Linge, ‘Preserving Mobile Phone History’, http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/preservinghistory.php. Accessed 10 Oct. 2014 28 Fling, 2009. 29 http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/1998/09/23/pcs98-xpress-on-seasonal- covers-designed-for-nokia-5100-digital-series-available-for-first-time-in-limited-edition. Accessed 24 Oct. 2014 30 ‘PCS'98: Xpress-On Seasonal Covers Designed for Nokia 5100 Digital Series Available for First Time in Limited Edition’, Sep. 18th 1998, http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press- releases/1998/09/23/pcs98-xpress-on-seasonal-covers-designed-for-nokia-5100-digital-series- available-for-first-time-in-limited-edition. Accessed 24 Oct. 2014 31 A. Kurkijärvi, ‘The colourful story of mobile phone customization in pictures’, Mar. 20th, 2013, http://lumiaconversations.microsoft.com/2013/03/20/the-colourful-story-of-mobile- phone-customisation-in-pictures/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2014 32 http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2001/03/27/nokia-enters-the-korean- market-with-two-new-cdma-phones. Accessed 24 Oct. 2014 33 The names Swivel and Zippo could be found in Nokia’s official website; Circular keyboard, Mango, Teardrop are named by us for similar shaped phones; Lipstick is a name given by media, such as seen in CNET and GSMarena. 34 http://www.gsmarena.com/glossary.php3?term=clamshell. Accessed 24 Oct. 2014 35 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6260-review-17.php. Accessed 10 Nov. 2014 36 ‘Nokia 7200: Hold it. Feel it. Unfold it’. http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2003/10/28/nokia-7200-hold-it-feel-it- unfold-it. Accessed 26 Oct. 2014 37 http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2004/ready-to-wear/emma-cook, Accessed 10 Apr. 2014. 38 http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2004/couture/chanel. Accessed 10 Apr. 2014. 39 For instance, Asha 305 has ‘exchangeable back cover’, see http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phone/asha305/specifications/, Lumia 820 has ‘exchangeable shell’, see http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phone/lumia820/specifications/. Accessed 16 June, 2014