Redes desarticuladas y cambio tecnológico: ascenso y ocaso de nokia como innovador en el mercado de teléfonos móviles

Abstract

This article proposes a possible analysis of the object ‘Mobile Operating System for smartphones’ and its influence on the performance of Nokia as a mobile phone manufacturer. The analysis of this case of study intends to provide tools to think of the phenomenon of innovation, proposing a complex approach towards technology as an economic and social phenomenon. From the perspective of the Actor- Network Theory (ANT), the human-non human networks of actors are analyzed, as well as the programs declared by Nokia and the anti-programs over which the company tried to oparate. The management of innovation is studied within Nokia through an approach towards micropolitics of innovation. After introducing industry characteristics and its technological developments, the Operating System (OS) Symbian and its role in the new paradigm are analyzed. The influence of Symbian Ltd. in Nokia and its setback in mobile phone innovation is discussed. The configurative properties of the object ‘Mobile Operating System’, and its impact on Nokia, are addressed as facilitating and developing tools to expand and reform human-non human actant networks. The relationships between hardware and software are studied, as well as the 'not random' links whitin different implied innovations. At last, it is concluded and elaborated over the importance of the object ‘Mobile Operating System’ in the configuration of the new networks between hybrid actors in the mobile phone industry.