Hi all
This is my attempt at a bit of fun for the weekend. Some at Nokia are rather stunned at this Microsoft alliance. So for those, a little song you may sing with friends over beers tonight in the bars:
Microsoft
(to the tune of 'Waterloo' by Abba)
My, my, To Microsoft Nokia did surrender
Oh yeah, and phones have met their destiny in quite a similar way
The marketing book on the shelf
Was always repeating itself
Microsoft - I was defeated, you won the war
Microsoft - Promise to use you for ever more
Microsoft - Couldn't reboot if I wanted to
Microsoft - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Microsoft - Finally changing my OS too
My, my, I tried to hold you back but you were smaller
Oh yeah, and now it seems my Symbian is giving up the fight
But how could I have any hope
My boss is a guy named Elop
Microsoft - you got the OS, you're in the core
Microsoft - Phones are now delayed to Quarter 4
Microsoft - Crashes are just what we love in you
Microsoft - Customer service and kindness too
Microsoft - Finally eating the doggie-doo
So how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Microsoft - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Microsoft - Share prices crash when I am with you
Microsoft - Finally facing my Waterloo
RIM-RIM-RIM-RIM Waterloo
Sending my CV to Waterloo
Oh, no? Waterloo!
Cold-as-in-Canada Waterloo
Feel free to use at will
Original humor by Tomi T Ahonen/HatRat. Opinions are those of author. No microsofts or nokias were killed in the making of this joke.
Tomi,
Too funny! They should have bought T-Mobile instead
of partnering with MS.
Posted by: Paul | February 11, 2011 at 06:43 PM
> Microsoft - Finally facing my Waterloo
So will RIM be the big winner after all? ;-)
Posted by: alex | February 11, 2011 at 07:07 PM
LOL!
Nice one, Tomi!
Posted by: Mark | February 11, 2011 at 07:12 PM
tomi, haha, this reveals your identity. You should go back to finland, stop this sorry stuff, go to aavanto. Lets have a beer and pick the right fight. Life is tough, and it continues. If the communities dominate the brands, nothing to worry, right. Kamoon, tomi,what? U promised to write the success, this is not it?
Posted by: brightside | February 11, 2011 at 07:26 PM
@alex the only big winner so far seems to be Apple since they're raking in billions of $$$ while other phone manufacturers are picking up the leftovers.
As for Nokia & burning platform, check out the price of NOK to see what the real dive looks like. Stock is down and the trend will continue.
Nokia's on the same path as Nortel was. They too partnered with MS and died few years later. Same will happen to Nokia.
RIP Nokia.
Posted by: Mike Bell | February 11, 2011 at 07:38 PM
Tomi, you are a real poet and I believe Sony-BMG or EMI Music have to hire you as their lyrics writer.
But, honestly, as I perceive it and no one emphasized it for some reason, US mass media have waged a true information war against Nokia for several years running. They were not able to put up with the fact that the best IT company of our time is Finnish- a European one, not a US firm. They have done their best to make it fall. The best innovative company in the world shouldn't be located outside of US,- from the US' point of view.
I believe that the Finnish government ought to meddle into this mess so it goes about national economical independence. The Finnish police and national security must investigate the ways Me. Enlop acted and whether it was his sincere vision of solving the situation or, probably, he acted as a Trojan horse to undermine the biggest European business. I do not think that it will be a witch-hunt, but decent people have to be able to defend themselves when they are attacked by greedy predators.
It's up to the Finnish government to investigate and scrutinize the whole case with this "deal".
Judging by hundreds of comments I have read on various sites concerning this marriage of convenience, I've realized that Nokia has already lost its huge customer-base. It is a direct road to banrupcy
Posted by: Vitaly | February 11, 2011 at 07:54 PM
And if we stated practising in literary skills, I will paste a quote from the blog of Brian S Hall, where he said the following:
-Only this rescue comes at a steep price. Symbian will be killed off. Meego is likely never to see the light of day. Nokia will adopt Windows Phone 7. And in return -- Nokia gets nothing. They have not been acquired. They are not receiving cash from Microsoft. Microsoft can offer Windows Phone to *any* OEM/handset maker. Zero percent of Nokia's software expertise is to be used.
This is worse than an acquisition. Nokia did not even fight. They accepted their role as eunuch to Microsoft. And early this morning, had their balls cut off.
http://brianshall.com/content/why-nokia-staff-should-feel-betrayed
If Nokia faces bankruptcy, its being and eunuch to Microsoft with the balls cut off does not seem to be a better fate. Any way the business seems butchered.
Once again, I call for the immediate attention from the Finnish authorities to take the situation under control. It is NOt an interference into the private business- it is a matter of the state security.
Posted by: Vitaly | February 11, 2011 at 08:14 PM
Thank you all!
Its late my time. I'll come back for personal thanks as well.
Cheers
(BTW am old enough to remember that Eurovision song contest and Abba winning it and remembering it was the first time for me, that my fave song won.. Ah, the women were sooooo hot! but yeah, Waterloo!)
Tomi Ahonen :-)
Posted by: Tomi T Ahonen | February 11, 2011 at 08:15 PM
@all who read vitaly,
there is already placeholder for windows phone nokia http://mobile.microsoft.com/en-us/default.mspx
and nokia mobile website welcomes nokia-microsoft.
Sweet
if i would have mokia stocks, I would claim for clarity
Posted by: denial | February 11, 2011 at 08:43 PM
Tomi, I'm in Argentina and here people doesn't care about all this...but I own a N900 and have always used Nokia phones...I feel really betrayed, sad and furious at the same time. I can't a imagine how a QT developer is feeling right now.
Ah! The song is great and sadly true! I heard it while singing your words!
Thanks for all your insights and thoughts, they are truly enlightening...I hope you were Nokia's CEO...
Posted by: Mauro Soso | February 11, 2011 at 09:00 PM
who wins :)
Posted by: timo soini | February 11, 2011 at 09:36 PM
*thumbs up*
Bonus points to whoever posts a recording of it!!
:D
Posted by: Sophie | February 12, 2011 at 12:45 AM
@Lee
I don't know what is the reason for what happened, but it screams of either exceptional incompetence or hidden stock manipulation intentions.
What happened is the complete and unnecessary destruction of a lot of value that Nokia possessed. Regardless of the reasons, this is criminal behavior and should be investigated.
What happened is that Nokia beheaded its dominant Symbian platform and offered no immediate replacement. Nokia destroyed its entire ecosystem, not just Symbian. And for what?
You may say that Symbian was doomed, but up until the announcement it had a dominant market share and it had a viable upgrade strategy in the face of Qt and MeeGo. Even if Symbian's market share would have declined sharply in 2011 it would have retained a position much stronger than WP7 could have ever gained for the same period. With this dominant market share Nokia is able to build a strong ecosystem on top of Qt. I find it very hard to believe that Nokia is not able to progress with MeeGo and retain a good portion of Symbian's market share and the value of the Qt ecosystem.
If you think that I am fantasizing about MeeGo's and Qt's value, then what about Intel and the Genivi alliance - are they fantasizing too?
Not only did Nokia cede all the potential of their future ecosystem, but they completely destroyed the value of their current ecosystem - for the honor of paying Microsoft license fees.
The decision to partner with Microsoft and to create a strong Nokia WP7 device portfolio is not bad in itself. What is bad is the terms under which it happened, the fact that there is no plan to preserve the current value of Symbian and transition it to the future ecosystem of Nokia - Qt.
It also puzzles me that Microsoft agreed to such a deal. On paper it looks great for them, but in reality I see only negatives. If Nokia and Microsoft are to reveal a family of devices that will start shipping in the next three months it could be good for Microsoft, but what are the chances of that happening?
Posted by: Yuri | February 12, 2011 at 09:16 AM
I have to agree with Yuri- the whole story of Microsoft-Nokia deal is too blurred and mysterious, beyond someone's comprehension and should be investigated by the Finnish authorities.
Posted by: Vitaly | February 12, 2011 at 09:41 AM
Despite all the doom and gloom, there ARE also other ways to look at this. Here is my try:
Symbian is not 'dead', as hundreds of millions of people are still using it today and will continue to use it for years to come so who is to say if it will come out on top in the end anyways? At least it is being given a fighting chance.
The appstore will continue to grow for example. Qt is in full swing. Those that ARE developing for OVI Store are still better positioned to take profits from mobile app development than those who are not. Those who are not, now have a new potential revenue stream to add and so a reason to stick around and learn a couple of new tricks. What is more, the number of developers developing for Nokia phones will grow. .NET developers developing for Nokia devices in the US might even adapt Symbian in order to reach global markets once they actually get to look at how good the developer tools really are.
There was NO WAY in which they could have gotten into the game at the US Operators with Symbian and without perceived value adding differentation, and it must have become clear that MeeGo was not going to cut it.
- First, both companies are facing Apple and have gotten hammered.
- Second, Microsoft dominates the majority of desktop computers in business environments.
- Third, Microsoft has tremendous software assets that Nokia is able to bring to all corners of the world for those who are willing to pay for premium phones & services (think business).
- Fourth, it doesn't take anything away from the developers, but gives them yet ANOTHER platform to develop Nokia phones on and derive revenue from. This increases the size of their ecosystem at the premium and enterprise end of the market.
- Fifth, Microsoft and Nokia togehter have tremendous patent assets in an increasingly litigious industry.
Sixth: Innovation
I can't wait to see what comes out of this. Many people have said Nokia would have problems of all sorts but execution is not one of them. Any company that connects 450 million people in the world is doing a great job. But not great enough. Nokia has learned from Samsung that it can be profitable and is sometimes neccessary to also develop for other platforms. The perception of WP7 from cosumers has been great, and for Symbian has been terrible. It trerribly sad for the Symbian and MeeGo developers but the market and it's cosnumers are ruthless in their demands they are uncompromising yet when NOkia is uncompromising on Symbian it ge's hammered. It must enter the US specific market on it's own terms.
The *BIG* question is of course if these two companies can innovate together and build products that are desirable, useful, easy to use truly add value to the buyer. So will they? First off, Desktop environments such as Sharepoint and Silverlight as WP7 will be the only platform to have this fully integrated on the mobile.
There can be possible integration between the mobile and the Xbox taking place to provide a gaming experience on your Nokia phone unrivaled to PSP and Nintendo.
Look at what MS are doing with the Kinect and see how Nokia sold over 100 million smartphones last year. I think this decision is far more forward thinking, bold, incredibly hard to take, but ultimately the right one where the US consumer, not it's developer base, is being put in the driving seat
They just made an awesome deal with a rather large 'appmaker' for it's products to be offered to the US consumer that will set the bar higher.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use Windows. I feel termendously sorry for all those nokia employees. All Symbian developers who truly love the platform will have opportunities to let it shine in the next 12 months, making the software updates better, the platform ready and polished.
If the deal with WP7 would not work out, Nokia can always fall back on Symbian, and it will nurture MeeGo as well. This is the best possible strategy for Nokia looking at the next five years.
Posted by: Tg | February 12, 2011 at 01:24 PM
PS. If Communities Dominate Brands, this is the best ever possible example. Look at how the US community demanded from the Nokia brand to have it's needs met.
Posted by: Tg | February 12, 2011 at 01:39 PM
perhaps the money Nokia investing in os is not worth it in long run if they can´t deliver, they did try but, like normal computer os, can´t make the rules anymore in this huge buisness and have to do what they do best and let/make Windows to worlds leading mobil-os.
Well, every computer I buy have windows-os, and thats fine...= safe your money if you cant do better
Perhaps mobil industri can see some benefits in windows/ do you want to istall your XXX /driver downloading/ etc.. Better than can´t do or use creditcard/register....
MeeGo was the ultimat thinking for Nokia, I love that vision; and it´s sad that world don´t love Nokia enough to give the team 2 ? years more and unlimited money... sorry, it´s hard out there....perhaps something god pop out from that reasearch to change something in the future, perhaps not. Perhaps they took a wrong turn somewhere and that is fine in some cases but in mobil os it may result in a product with enourmus price tag and worth about zero.....
I think on the big worry from investors/nokiaemployees/Finnish people and every normal mobileuser... right now is; can we trust Nokia board and Elop in this big and scary move? Is Elop a "trojan horse" for microsoft or is he delivering the best bord desicion for Nokia to come out strongest possebly in the future?
Well, I don´t know and thats ok to me becuse, I dont trust my life to any company, I think this is a good strategy right now, I´ll play!. And if the computer and mobil is groving together, whats wrong with using Windows? marketsheers anyone? I pray for Nokia and HEY!!! Now is the right time to show upp and cheer for sucess for Nokia as company, there are so many people out there who "knows better" yee,,,I don´t think so,,,, I will be proud owner of these new phones and thats one thing Nokia was known for in the past....
Posted by: Ola | February 12, 2011 at 01:51 PM
Leebase!
You know the rules here! Don't bring that rubbish to this thread!
I have removed all discussion about the stock market from this thread. Except where it is explicitly discussed in my blog article - we do not discuss the stock market here on this blog, it inevitably leads to exactly the pointless comments that we again saw here.
Lee! You have been warned before. Do not do this or I will revoke your privileges to comment on the blog - and you know what that means, it means I remove all your postings ever. Do not tempt me
Tomi Ahonen
Posted by: Tomi T Ahonen | February 12, 2011 at 03:09 PM
Great lyrics, haha!!! You really cheered me up with this song after those disaster news about nokia going to windows.
Posted by: Henri | February 12, 2011 at 03:49 PM
Ok, that was too funny! Love the lyrics! Do Apple next!
Posted by: iadvize | February 12, 2011 at 11:28 PM