“Although Stephen Elop is waiting until a Feb. 11 investor meeting to fully outline the company’s new strategy, he offered a few tantalizing hints during Thursday’s earnings conference call,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD.
“Elop hinted at a change in the company’s strategy for the high-end, which has focused on the Symbian operating system with a planned shift to the mobile Linux-based Meego operating system,” Fried reports. “He didn’t give specifics, but did draw a distinction between the low and high-end of the markets, suggesting a dual-OS strategy may still be the plan.”
“Although Elop didn’t name any names, he did talk about the need for the company to ‘build or join a competitive ecosystem,’ suggesting that it might be open to shifting to a competing platform. And while he wouldn’t confirm such a move, he said that the company could pull off such a switch because of its strong brand and relationship with operators,” Fried reports. “Among the possibilities that have been suggested are Android and Windows Phone 7. The company has also cancelled or delayed plans for two U.S. smartphones, suggesting that a change may be afoot. ‘We made a decision to not proceed as people thought we would proceed,’ Elop said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Thank you, Mr. Obvious.
Fried reports, “Earlier in the day Nokia reported that December quarter profit fell 20 percent as the company ‘faced significant challenges’ and lower margins… ‘Clearly there is a pattern of disappointments in the United States,’ Elop said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve said before: Nokia should concentrate on their specialty — crap margin, low-end, mechanical-buttoned candy bar cellphones — hope they can coast along on emerging markets while they try to figure out what businesses to try next (kitchen appliances? floor wax? breakfast sausages?) before the money runs out.
