Former CEO of Angry Birds-Maker Rovio Hired To Revive Nokia's Phone Business (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Nokia really started to go downhill after it agreed to sell itself to Microsoft at the end of 2013, going all in with Windows Mobile. When that faltered, "Microsoft folded Nokia into its mobile business, maintaining the Finnish company's brand on feature phones, while offering up smartphones under the newly integrated Microsoft Lumia line," reports TechCrunch. In May of this year, Microsoft sold its feature phone business to Foxconn for $350 million. At around the same time, Nokia essentially licensed its brand to Finnish company HMD global Oy to create phones under the Nokia name, "which would be manufactured and distributed by Foxconn." Now, TechCrunch is reporting that Nokia has hired Pikka Rantala, the once CEO of Angry Birds creator Rovio, who stepped down in 2015 after a rough year with the mobile gaming company. He will be joining the company as Chief Marketing Officer.

Comments

Doesn't sound too promising

[Anonymous Coward]

OTOH it could've been a lot worse. They could've hired Stephen Elop.

Re:Doesn't sound too promising

[hcs_$reboot]

He's been chosen for his ability to innovate. Innovation is under-estimated nowadays.

Re:Doesn't sound too promising

[hcs_$reboot]

if you get in bed with Microsoft, you're going to get fucked!

Many people did that, but in exchange of a huge amount of money...

Re:Doesn't sound too promising

[mwvdlee]

LMFTFY

He's been chosen for his ability to milk a trademark. Milking a trademark is under-estimated nowadays.

BRING BACK SYMBIAN!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

BRING BACK SYMBIAN!!!

Re:BRING BACK SYMBIAN!!!

[LostMyBeaver]

Oh hell no!!!

Symbian may actually be the worst code base humanity had ever seen.

Symbian = What happens when you try to implement all the features of an operating system without actually writing a kernel or develop development tools... or even have a debugger.

Then there was the infamous clean-up stack which was Symbian's famous "revolutionary" method of implementing crash handling without actually implementing exceptions.

I have to agree that Series 60 UI wasn't too awful, and Nokia did implement some of the most amazing features ever in telephones, but let's be honest, Symbian was what killed Nokia. People claim it was Windows, but Apple simple just took their entire market because they developed an operating system that could attract developers. Developers tries Symbian and just left... it was the worse thing ever made.

Nokia was going downhill well before that

[ErikTheRed]

I've friends that worked for Nokia and from what I've heard they were in a death spiral well before Microsoft bought them out. Nasty internal politics, software development drama, no real plan for the smartphone revolution, etc.

I loved Nokia phones back in the day, but I'm not sure what they would bring to the table now. They can compete with all of the "Me-too!" Android vendors in East Asia, try to push out a new OS (good luck), or keep beating the Windows Mobile dead horse. Personally, I would *like* to see another mobile OS have some success, but that's a mind-blowingly difficult and expensive pursuit right now.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[omnichad]

no real plan for the smartphone revolution

Even if they had doubled down on simplicity, they'd have a marketshare and a chance.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[Kiuas]

no real plan for the smartphone revolution

While this is true, it almost wasn't the case. I happen to know that the R&D side of Nokia had a plan/prototype for a touch-screen operated phone at around the turn of the millenium. They however deemed it to be too expensive to be marketable as the touchscreen tech of the time was expensive and unreliable. Their only mistake was to scrap the project entirely, which left them permanently behind in the smart-phone race when it soon began.

Nokia was essentially lead by engineers, which led to them being overly focused on the devices and pushing out new iterations of those, rather than streamlining the selection and focusing on features and the OS more. Symbian was a mess partially because they had such a wide array of phones that it needed to run on that trying to develop a modern phone OS out of it that could have competed with the likes of Android and iOS would've required cutting down on the amount of new phones to be pushed out every year. And they didn't want that, because at the time they thought the diversity of selection was what was going to keep them in the lead.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[Anne Thwacks]

Elop was hired, to save the company, and he did a great job.

In the same way that the captain of the Titanic "did a great job"?

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[ilguido]

no real plan for the smartphone revolution

Still more of a plan than what Microsoft (or Elop) had, probably.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[DrXym]

Yes Nokia was screwed but there was a sane way out of their predicament - dump Symbian, dump side projects like Meego, rationalise their divisions and adopt Android. Nokia would have kept their devs happy with a Symbian / QT layer, would have kept customers happy by offering a platform with apps, and have still the control to craft the hardware and software experience that matched their corporate ambitions.

Instead they pissed off the devs, pissed off the users, demoralised their workforce and chose to bet the farm on a lame duck OS called Windows Phone. While Windows Phone did get better in time, it never approached a fraction of the popularity of Android.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[DrXym]

Elop did have a choice. Android was a far, far, far more suitable choice for a phone OS.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[unixisc]

Yeah, and since Nokia is such a major name, it could have made some inroads into the market now held almost exclusively by Samsung Galaxy. OTOH, other names like Sony(-Ericsson) haven't done so well: Chinese knock-offs like Xiaomi have stolen the market, and are on the rise

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[Uecker]

I disagree. They should just have executed their previous plan which was excellent: Push Meego and keep Symbian alive. Transition Symbian developer to Qt and then to Meego with Qt. Meego was very good and obviously ready (they released the N9 in the same year after anouncing the switch to Windows phone). I still consider the N9 a much better phone than my current Android phone. And people tend to forget: Android wasn't nearly as big as today. At that time Nokias was still the biggest smartphone vendor and had faster growing smartphone sales than all other vendors. Of course, after Nokia imploded Android quickly filled the void.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[DrXym]

Meego would have flopped as surely as webOS, Blackberry, FirefoxOS, Tizen and Windows Phone did. It's no good to throw a phone OS out there if there are no decent 3rd party apps for it.

Re:Nokia was going downhill well before that

[Uecker]

The N9 came with a nice initial set of third party apps and Meego had a lot of developer interest. And the QT-strategy of moving developers from Symbian to Meego could have worked. At this time the competition (iPhone and Android) wasn't nearly as big.

nokia already going downhill before M$

[sittingnut]

"Nokia really started to go downhill after it agreed to sell itself to Microsoft at the end of 2013, ..."
while there is no doubt that being owned by microsoft worsened the problems, nokia was well downhill when it sold itself. in fact it had few other options left at that point.

Re:nokia already going downhill before M$

[Anonymous Coward]

Are we still trying to pretend Elop wasn't a trojan horse from Microsoft?
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/07/the-sun-tzu-of-nokisoftian-microkia-mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-whose-the-baddest-of-them-all-waterloo.html

He did this:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/.a/6a00e0097e337c8833017743174241970d-pi

He did this by claiming the TOP SELLING, FASTEST GROWING phone OS was dying, and that it would be dead ended, and switched to Microsoft's OS. And that was the effect. The Microsoft phone OS had no market, no apps, and no features and was unfinished. The license agreements meant that Nokia was locked in a suicide mission with a failed OS vendor.

He received $17.5 million reward from Microsoft:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/.a/6a00e0097e337c8833017743174241970d-pi

Re:nokia already going downhill before M$

[Darinbob]

He caught a cold, so I had to shoot him.

Re:nokia already going downhill before M$

[Uecker]

Nokia was the largest smartphone vendor with with faster growing sales than everybody else. Not saying they didn't have trouble: There was competition entering the market, and they were in an internal state of disarray, but they had lots of options: The best one would have been to just bring a few Meego phones to market just as planned and transition Symbian developers to Meego via QT. I owned a N9 and it was really good and Android still wasn't really big at that time (and even today is still not as good as Meego was in my opinion). Ofcourse, adopting Android would also have been far better than switching to Windows phone.

Makes sense

[110010001000]

The marketing of the Angry Birds movie was amazing. He would make a good Marketing guy. He knows how to spend money on it.

Re:Makes sense

[Anonymous Coward]

Usually, Satan is like this: "you know you want it. it won't hurt. you can have it. it'll be okay. why not enjoy yourself??"

I find it curious that a religion would define its characterization of evil as a guy trying to get you to enjoy yourself.

Re:Makes sense

[Kiuas]

I find it curious that a religion would define its characterization of evil as a guy trying to get you to enjoy yourself.

To quote a movie:

Satan: Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow. Ahaha. And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He's laughin' His sick, fuckin' ass off! He's a tight-ass! He's a SADIST! He's an absentee landlord! Worship that? NEVER!
Kevin Lomax: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven", is that it?
Satan: Why not? I'm here on the ground with my nose in it since the whole thing began. I've nurtured every sensation man's been inspired to have. I cared about what he wanted and I never judged him. Why? Because I never rejected him. In spite of all his imperfections, I'm a fan of man! I'm a humanist. Maybe the last humanist.

Angry Birds' exCEO?

[Tuqui]

There is an misunderstand they wanted Angry Ballmer exCEO. from they beloved MS.

Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[Anonymous Coward]

When did everyone decide that Nokia=Phone. It's a massive company with tens of thousands of employees, making LTE, optical networks, etc.. etc...
The company didn't sell itself to Microsoft, it sold it's handset business.

Re: Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[jgfenix]

In the past more than 80% of the profit came from "devices and services".

Re: Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[Zontar The Mindless]

"Devices" can mean lots of things.

Re:Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[Darinbob]

The networks division branched off and joined with Siemens networks division to become Nokia-Siemens. The main Nokia at that point was phones and research, though it's a bit confusing since they had gone with a grid based org chart.

Oh yea, Nokian tires, but they branched off a long time ago.

Re: Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[Shatrat]

How about routers, switches, 4G and now 5G wireless base stations, FTTH network and customer prem equipment, optical transport and switching equipment, DSL and POTS equipment, and software to manage all of the above. There is also revenue from professional services installing and maintaining all of the above. Nokia also earns quite a bit of royalties on patents they have accumulated over the years.

Re:Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[unixisc]

One of their first products I recall was their sleek monitors, back in the day....

Re: Nokia doesn't(didn't) just make phones

[erikscott]

Do you still sell forestry equipment? Because that was some badass stuff.

They had one

[jgfenix]

It was to standardize the development in Qt and use Symbian foor feature phones and Maemo (then Meego) for smartphones. Yes, there was infighting (the Symbian section wasn't thrilled) but I thought it was a good plan.

Re:They had one

[Rexdude]

and Maemo (then Meego)

You've got it backwards, it was called Maemo initially, then renamed to Meego. Jolla, a Finnish company started by ex Nokia engineers, developed Meego further into their own Sailfish OS, which uses a gesture based UI and can run Android apps.
Now they've partnered with Indian electronics company Intex to launch the Intex Aqua Fish, running Sailfish OS 2.0. I bought it recently for the local equivalent of about $75, and it's a pretty slick device.

Angry Lumia

[sengork]

Finally we'll be able to play Angry Lumia game where one crushes obstacles with a Nokia phone. Oh wait this won't work with Windows Mobile phones, I am thinking Symbian and older...

That's embarrassing

[hcs_$reboot]

His name is Pekka Rantala, not Pikka...

Re:That's embarrassing

[Oswald McWeany]

Also, his middle name is Chu. Not many people know that.

Pikka Chu Rantala.

At least get his name right!

[uvajed_ekil]

The former Rovio CEO is named Pekka Rantala, not Pikka Rantala. Despite being of one quarter Finnish descent I speak no Finnish, though I do understand that Pekka is not an uncommon given name for a Finn.

Angry Birds and Nokia

[bayankaran]

Alrighty then...angry birds dude reviving Nokia is like Donald Trump making America great again.

Re:Angry Birds and Nokia

[ausekilis]

On one hand, you've got a simulation that throws birds through wood planks, bricks, and ice blocks. On the other you've got phones that were once able to withstand over 1000 pounds of force (I once drove over a nokia phone in an attempt to break it) and can survive 40 foot drops onto concrete without issue. This kinda sounds like a match made in heaven.

Now they just need to develop a phone that splits into 5 lesser phones, a homing phone, and a phone that drops lesser bomb phones. Someone said wars will be fought with technology. Bet they didn't see "Angry Birds Munitions" coming.

Bring 1100 back

[kamathln]

Just bring 1100 back.

Only upgrades required

1) Compatibility with newer SIM cards and current networks.
2) Increase memory capacity.

And we will blow your minds with the sales figures.

And the n900

[kamathln]

Also bring back the N900, Just upgrade specs to current standards

Re: And the n900

[Anonymous Coward]

For the love of God yes!
I will buy a phone if it has
- physical keyboard
- root access to underlying os (not just a chroot)
- FULL linux, as in access to the init system and an open package manager

Bonus:
- the "phone" is actually just installed packages
- the radio driver has a published api for custom dialing apps

Best of luck

[roc97007]

I wish him the best of luck. Nokia got the royal shaft during their "partnership" with Microsoft, and it would be really nice to see them succeed again.

Re:The truth about the riots and BLM

[Zontar The Mindless]

Mismoderation Alert: Should be +1, Funny, as no-one linking to something like that instead of an actual website could possibly be serious.

Re:NEWS FBI won't tell you

[Zontar The Mindless]

Then USE ANOTHER FUCKING DISTRO already. There's more than one, you know.

Geeeeeez.

Common it's /. here: Think Linux!

[DrYak]

Oh, common, you forgot to jump on the (full GNU-) Linux bandwagon:

BRING BACK MEEGO/MEAMO/SAILFISH OS.

Nokia has already spent tons of money to finance the R&D behing the platform, back when it was called Meego/Maemo.
They spent money on severance package when they let said R&D team go, that helped them to bootstrap Jolla and rebrand the platform as Sailfish OS.

Nokia has already financed a good successor for their Symbian platform.

Jolla is good at making a nice OS (their Sailfish OS interface rocks, and it *does* support Android apps, one of the major ecosystems on the market - unlike Microsoft's piece of poo*).
Jolla isn't very good at organising hardware themselves (see Jolla Tablet fiasco, see shortage Jolla C phone shortages), and are looking to license to 3rd party hardware manufacturer (see Intex, Turing phone, upcoming official port of SFOS on Fairphone 2, etc.)

Nokia could find a nice solution together with Jolla to get a nice/newer/better OS (and common, anything is better than stay with Microsoft or beating the Symbian dead horse), that would be a nice answer to competitor Samsung's interest in using their Tizen platform (their own full GNU/Linux platform with MeeGo ancestry) on smartphones.

----

*: well at least their abandoned Android-App-on-Windows project gave us WSL, so we shouldn't be complaining that much.

Re:Common it's /. here: Think Linux!

[unixisc]

Given that record, Nokia is probably best off just letting Oy & Foxconn manufacture phones under its brand name, and collecting a license for each phone sold under that brand. Their cost zero, but they get the license sales.

Angry birds eh?

[Torp]

So they'll make the phones as frustrating to use as possible so you can then make them usable by buying level skips from their store?

Lenovo and Motorola

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

Right now the Motorola phones that Lenovo is selling were designed before Lenovo took over and are pretty damn good phones for the price:

Moto X Pure Editoin
Moto G Third Edition
Moto E

I'm sure that will change eventually but the current line-up provides pretty good bang for the buck.

Re:NEWS FBI won't tell you

[Zontar The Mindless]

Nobody's exposed anything, other than the fact that you're a raving nutbag.