“Nokia now finds itself standing on a ‘burning platform,’ according to CEO Stephen Elop. Other clichés might apply. ‘Sinking ship’ comes to mind.,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld.
“Apple and Google are winning because they have winning strategies,” Elgan writes. “Nokia is losing because it has a losing strategy. It’s as simple as that.”
“Nokia and Microsoft this week announced a sweeping new partnership that would replace the Symbian OS with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 as the software for Nokia’s smartphones,” Elgan writes, “Nokia’s stock price tanked, and hundreds of employees stormed out Friday in protest of the Microsoft deal. They no doubt suspect, rightly, that the deal will involve sweeping layoffs.”
Elgan writes, “My view is that Microsoft doesn’t matter. Although Windows Phone 7 is a way better operating system than Symbian, Nokia’s problem isn’t Symbian, and the solution isn’t Windows Phone 7.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Former Microsoftie Elop went with the devil he knew; a common mistake.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Cool Doc – competition . heehee
I don’t see why Nokia could not have produced BOTH WinMobile AS WELL AS Android phones. That way, their hedge their risks while seeing which strategy works best. A company as large as theirs could have copied with a dual platform inventory – after all, they already are geared up to producing large number of different models. That’s what I would have done.
“There is huge, unmet demand in the world for a phone that does nothing but make calls. Nobody cares what the OS is.”
Absolutely dead solid perfect observation. I’ve been a Mac fanboy since my first one in ’86, but I’d buy a phone that did nothing else but phone calls in a second, and I don’t care who builds it!!
And that’s why Apple should do it. Make an iPod that happens to be a contract-free mobile phone. Use the current iPod nano (with its multi-touch screen interface that is LIKE iOS but NOT iOS) as the baseline tech, and extend it as needed to provide “basic” mobile phone features.
It would not steal customers from the “real” iPhone, but it would steal customers from low-end Nokia and other “cheap” commodity phone makers.
@ MDN
“Former Microsoftie Elop went with the devil he knew; a common mistake.”
Not so sure that can be categorized as a mistake.
An interesting fact about Elop is that he owns no Nokia Stock, but 150,000 shares of… oh, yes, MSFT stock…
Why is Nokia toast?
Because Windows Phone 7 sucks and people don’t want it. There you go.
@rockfixer
That’s only $4m.
The article talks about the mess that is the Nokia web site. I concur. I went out of curiosity as I am looking for a plain cell phone to replace my aging RAZR. I used the compare feature to examine four Bluetooth flip phones side by side.
Some are measured in cm, others in inches. Weight is in grams or ounces. Talk time is in minutes or hours. Stand by time is in either 100s of minutes or days. They can’t even standardized on the style name: two are Fold, one is Flip. The last has no detailed info at all!
I might expect this confusion comparing phones from different vendors, but these are all Nokia phones on Nokia’s web site.
This company has no vision. A real turkey!
Keep in mind that Nokia would not be making this decision if they didn’t have the goal of being better off afterwards. The Symbian OS is far past its prime and Windows is a widely recognizable name in the world of technology. I can see where makes sense that Nokia would choose the platform over its current and aging one.
Now, does that mean that this decision will make Nokia a successful phone manufacturer and Windows a successful smartphone OS? Not sure. I can definitely say that I have not seen many people use Nokias in the past while and I have definitely not seen anyone use Windows Phones for a long while. Nokia is ditching their old mobile phone strategy in favor of a new and radically different one and so is Microsoft.
Whether or not the new and radically different strategies will result in a new and radically different smartphone market is something yet to be seen.