So did you get yourself a new Nokia Lumia Windows Phone yet? No?  Don’t worry – about 99.9% of Earth’s population didn’t get it either.  In fact, when’s the last time you remember ever seeing a Windows-based mobile anything selling like hotcakes?  This fact is reflected by Microsoft’s (MSFT) 2011 minute 2.2% share of the mobile platform market.  Android (GOOG) was the smartphone market leader in the first quarter of 2012, with a 59% share, and Apple (AAPL) followed with 23%. Symbian software from Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), the Finnish handset maker Microsoft teamed up with last year to create new smartphones running Windows, trailed in third place with a 6.8% slice.

The fact of the matter is that Nokia  is entering its death spiral. It’s running out of cash, it’s running out of time, and it’s running out of options. A year ago, incoming CEO Stephen Elop made a brave decision to break with the past. He ditched Nokia’s Symbian operating system and decided to focus all of the company’s high-end development on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. At the time, it looked like a risky but potentially high-yielding bet.

As Microsoft recently unveiled its new Windows 8 Nokia Phone set to hit the market this fall, some might assume that the execs over at Microsoft Mobile are frantically developing a contingency plan just in case Nokia does go belly up.  According to Al Hilwa, researcher at IDC, “Microsoft needs a healthy Nokia.  One can argue there are other hardware makers working on Windows Phone, but if Nokia goes down it will make the other hardware makers feel, ‘Windows Phone isn’t a platform we want to absorb.’ Everyone is watching how Nokia does.”

But didn’t someone say if we haven’t learned from our history, we are doomed to repeat it?  Sure, the Windows phones are pretty, but for some reason or another they seem to be lacking a certain ‘coolness’ about them.  Perhaps it’s just my generation, but I have yet to meet anyone brag about their PC or Windows mobile device, but an Apple one or even an Android based one?  Fans for these products are everywhere and they’re not afraid to show it!

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who had just come from Microsoft, must have known that choosing Windows was always going to be a gamble, even a moonshot. But in the tech business, if you’re not aiming for the moon, what’s the point?

But the moonshot missed its target. Now Nokia is crashing into the sea. The company’s line of Lumia phones—gorgeous though they are—aren’t selling. Last quarter Nokia shipped just 2 million of them. That ranks as strong for Nokia—and it’s heartening that the U.S., which has historically been a tough market for the company, was one of the better regions for Lumia—but it is nowhere near the blockbuster Nokia needed.

Now, for the second time this year, Nokia has reduced its earnings guidance, citing “competitive industry dynamics.” That’s code for, We’re getting whipped. The company announced that it is laying of 10,000 employees across the globe, shutting down factories, and divesting itself of Vertu, its luxury mobile phone business. That firm garishly outfitted Nokia’s devices in diamonds and pearls and then sold them at a high-markup. Nowadays, however you tart them up, people just don’t want Nokia’s phones anymore.

So…how do you sell a mobile platform that no one seems to want for a mobile device that no one is buying?  If you got an idea (or #blyDEA in this instance) be sure to share it with me on twitter @BlythecoLLC.  Also, we’re counting down the days to this summer’s biggest professional networking event.  Every time you share your #blyDEA with us on Twitter, you become eligible to win your own blog-vertisement!  Good luck!

The post #blyDEA No. 37 – Stop Making Windows-Based Mobile Phones! appeared first on Think, The Blytheco Blog.

Over the past 2 decades, many American companies have chosen to move their manufacturing practices abroad to countries like China, or Mexico, where the cost of labor is or at least was significantly lower.  Recently, however, something has changed and offshore manufacturing costs have begun to rise, particularly in China.  This leaves the window open for the United States who has recently seen a decrease in labor costs given the past influx of manufacturing plants popping up abroad.  In addition to high labor costs most companies have also chosen to manufacture abroad because of U.S. tax policy.

So why have manufacturing costs increased abroad? Experts speculate that maintaining an extremely long supply chain and inventory pipeline along with intellectual property theft have driven costs up, making it easier for companies to return.  In May of 2009, AlixPartners LLP, a consulting firm based in Southfield, Michigan, released its AlixPartners 2009 Manufacturing-Outsourcing Cost Index, which shows a significant change in the aggregate Low-Cost Country (LCC) manufacturing rankings within just the first six months of 2009, as Mexico surpassed both China and India for the components studied. Outsourcing has become “a whole new ball game” according to Stephen Maurer, a managing director with AlixPartners.

With new tariffs, taxes, and employee salary and benefits laws that took effect January 1, 2009, many OEMs have had second and even third thoughts about keeping manufacturing in China. China, which was once the cheapest place to manufacture has fallen to third place behind India, and Mexico which is now number one due to lenient tax laws and still-low labor costs.

Hy-Lite Blocks, a division of US Block Windows, recently moved it molding operations back from China to its company headquarters in Pensacola, Florida.  Company president, Roger Murphy, thinks that the move will improve the company’s bottom line.  “About 60 to 70 percent of the blocks we sold came from China,” says Murphy. “[This involved] a long, complex supply chain, and complicated inventory planning and forecasting, and as oil got more expensive, so did shipping costs, effectively eradicating any cost savings that we were realizing.”

Cutting manufacturing and other ERP costs could allow you to devote more time and resources to developing a better customer relationship strategy.  Where does your business manufacture its goods?

The post Made in America: US Manufacturers Return From China appeared first on Think, The Blytheco Blog.