I had the opportunity to attend Nokia's event in San Francisco yesterday. Stephen Elop (EVP Devices & Services), Jo Harlow, Vesa Jutila and Valerie Buckingham among other executives answered questions. See the press event here. High level take away: they released a series of colorful, large & bright screened devices with INSANE camera capabilities at a wide range of price points.

Their Achilles heal is still apps – or lack thereof. They've made progress. They have 245,000 apps today (compared to Apple's 1M plus) and they are adding 500/day. They are doing well with the 100 most popular apps (think eBay, Facebook, Instagram, etc.). 

Here are a few things that matter to you:

1) More and more consumers will buy these phones. Nokia phones – despite the lack of apps – will become increasingly difficult for consumers to ignore. They have large screens. They are finger-friendly with large icons. They are "glance friendly" – with live content on the homescreen page. They have INSANE photo/video capabilities that can make any of us look like professionals. They are price competitive. I had total phone envy yesterday as I sat there with my small-screened phone. 

2) Your larger competitors will start to build native apps for the Windows family of phones. Many of your focus on iOS and Android today.  (See research) Watch your traffic and device adoption among your customer base. It may not be time yet, but you shouldn't ignore them flat out. 

3) These phones will enable new kinds of experiences based on their home screen format and camera/photo/video/sound capabilities. Someone in your company should own one. Play with it. Imagine what might be possible.