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Can Nokia Save Itself?
Nerval's Lobster writes "When ex-Microsoft executive Stephen Elop took the reins of Nokia back in 2011, he memorably compared the Finnish phone-maker to a burning old platform in the North Sea. 'I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform,' he wrote in a widely circulated memo. 'And, we have more than one explosion — we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fueling a blazing fire around us.' Elop suggested competitors such as Apple and Google had 'poured flames on our market share,' with the damage accelerated by Nokia's failure to embrace big trends. His solution: abandon Nokia's homegrown operating systems, including Symbian, in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone. Nokia's Windows Phones managed to attract some significant buzz at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and early sales seemed solid. But now there are signs the situation could be deteriorating."
You can't 'fix' not having a clue how to save yourself. You can't 'fix' looking for other people's money to help you do the same things wrong some more. Nokia is a dead man walking like HP phones, Palm, Symbian and others. And make no mistake, Windows phones will once again be killed off by Microsoft soon with or without Nokia. MS has no stamina, and their credit, they quickly recognize the instances where they themselves have failed to promote something.
Whilst I was still working there, I thought we could save the company, even after the loss of Southwood, Copenhagen, and the Symbian developers.
Now that 9999 colleagues and I have been swept away - no.
Windows isn't working. It isn't beating the old Symbian phones and that will only change when the old Symbian models are ramped down.
Stephen was supposed to fix the software engineering issues. :o(
The more I use Android the more I LOVE my N9 the more I hate Nokia for killing it.
I know there is a lot of politics involved (not last the usual OSS community circle jerking) but the capabilities of that OS over anything else are amazing.
I think Nokia and the WP8 ecosystem will do well, and there are a few reasons.
First, they have the best device. Forget the OS -- the best camera, it's built solid (nokia solid), looks slick, wireless charging, and a very high PPI (even more than the iPhone 5).
Next, the Windows phone ecosystem is going to grow pretty rapidly when they release Windows 8. Right now only a handful of devs have the dev tools for WP8, but when the floodgates open and the new API that is shared between WP8 and Windows 8 (Windows RT), you'll see a lot of apps come around.
That said, keep in mind that while people think that the "apps" aren't there, there's over 100k apps now. It's not small potatoes, and they managed to do it faster than Android hit 100k apps as well.
The way I see it, I want MS/Nokia to succeed. They have a very good mobile OS (I'll be buying a 920 myself, specifically for build quality and camera), and having more competition is good for everybody.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Oh yeah, the talented Meego developers who spent 6 years to produce exactly one (1) phone. That's not talent worth crowing about.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
Also, that $1Billion is per year, not a one time offer.
Which is about equivalent to their annual cash from operations.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Standard answer. When the new CEO comes in and his first plan is to outsource the core business, the board to needs to fire him immediately. It's a signal that he's not up to the task of actually managing a complex business.
Keep in mind, it would likely be a European judge in this case.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Microsoft offered a very sweet deal? Really?
"This means that had Nokia not knifed Symbian and had sold the shortfall units at an average price of $200 they would have received an additional $9 billion in sales. Furthermore, assuming a margin of 33% for those units, Nokia received from Microsoft one third from of what she gave up for exclusivity." Source: http://www.asymco.com/2012/10/22/nokias-price-for-exclusivity/