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February 19, 2013

Comments

skome

Let's hope they don't drag Meego back into it. Let Jolla have a fighting chance with Sailfish.
I have already mourned for Nokia and need to move on...

Ajai Khattri

Samsung, not being satisfied with just eating Nokia's lunch is perhaps about to eat Nokia's dinner too:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2013/02/18/samsung-gets-ready-to-attack-nokias-budget-sized-flank/

Spawn

The very first step must be to fire Elop. The disaster-situation he moved Nokia into, the lost trust, the many partners screwed, that needs to be repaired. This can only start with firing Elop. An Android under Elop would fail like any alternate plan B just because of the, his, Nokia's past actions.

WHEN Nokia finally decides its time for a change in strategy till its to late then the very first change needs to be to fire Elop. But its not only him. Majority of the Nokia BOD is as reaponsible. Responsible for all-in, no plan B, waiting to long, burning all bridges an exit-strategies, losing partners, supporters, customers, trust, hope.

This needs to happen BEFORE announcing the strategy-change or evn at the same time. Here a strategy-change can only mean swapping the failed management with the strategy. There is hardly ANY management in ANY company in ANY industry who bound themself so much to one single strategy. They are the strategy. They need to be changed.

I doubt this can happen without external influence, strong pressure. The whole managemen is aware that a change in strategy means changing chairs, there chairs. If there is one thing to learn then that the upper Nokia management is more loyal to there chaire then to the wealth of the company.

Tom Gorr

When a company says there is no plan B, it does not really mean that there is no plan B. It's all about surprise and lying is a means to the end. Nothing surprising about that.

If Nokia is to survive this firestorm, take hits left and right until Elop elops back home, they need to build up capabilities behind the scenes. Modest, secret and slow capabilities, but they are sure to built them. Everyone says its madness they are not doing this. Of course they are. There are a lot of concerned board members who can put pressure on Elop to divert some energies for a building plan B. Behind many scenes.

MS has cost Nokia a lot of know how, many talented people, credibility and revenues. There is a plan B to be sure, but it is like a tired swing from an ex champ in the tenth round, slow and cumbersome, and only hits if he is lucky. Let us hope they are lucky so the company at least can survive.

On a side note, when they said "Everyone loves a comeback," they said the truth. Their comeback will be modest, at best, but if they manage one, it is really respectable. Adds to tne Nokia flavour.

zlutor

Samsung started offensive targeting the last stronghold: Asha series... :-(

http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/02/nokia-corporation-adr-nok-asha-under-pressure-from-samsung-rex/

They play their card wise and well...

cycnus.i.cant.post

Tomi,

I was wondering if you think the weight of the statement that Bill Gates made about WP were the same as the one Steve Wozniak said about iphone - Woz: Apple got arrogant (from cnet). Is this also comparable to silent treatment of Jim Basile of BB throwing his all share?

btw,
Woz said he hate WP on that CNET article (here is link:)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57530563-71/woz-apple-got-arrogant/

cycnus.i.cant.post

@Tomi(again)

Sorry i can't post link for above article.
I try around 30 times, but if i include link, i can't post

Tomi T Ahonen

cygnus

Sorry, its not me (you know that..). Its something weird with Typepad again. Don't worry. Try it later, hopefully it works or you can send the link to me at ttahonen at yahoo dot com and I can see if I can't insert it into your comment?

Tomi :-)

Nicola

I do not think that the solution is Android.
1) must return the product quality (production should return to Europe)
2) other operating system, otherwise nokia it's like htc

Winter

@Nicola
"2) other operating system, otherwise nokia it's like htc"

But with Android HTC has a future. Nokia without Android hasn't. Nor does BB seem to have a bright future with their own OS.

This was claimed before "with Android, Nokia cannot differentiate from the pack". And we see Nokia did differentiate from the pack. The pack makes a profit, Nokia makes huge losses.

Sander van der Wal

No way in hell is Microsoft going to abandon mobile. They still have plenty of money to throw at it. Might even come up with the next disruption. If there is a company that needs it it is Microsoft.

Nicola

@winter
from the point of view of the market you're right, but I would like to see nokia to do innovation how in the past. There aren't many European IT companies to do this.

Tester

Right now 'Innovation' is Nokia's least important worry. First they need to get devices out into the market that actually sell.

Once that obstacle is passed they may try to get ambitious.

Lasko

I agree that Microsoft won't drop Windows Phone anytime soon, for this, it is just too important. I mean just take a look at Bing. They are wasting almost a billion a quarter for it although it is de-facto dead. They will keep on spending money on the mobile division - although I have to admit that I'm lacking the deep insight on the industry Tomi has. I'm quite intrigued to see what happens.

The way more interesting question is - what is the alternative strategy (to the one which has obviously failed)? Or better, is there even any alternative strategy?

I currently don't see what Microsoft could do differently to be successful.

And I think they won't, for the same reason Nokia won't: carriers. The reason is not neccessarily hatred, but rather the need to make an example. What we've seen in the past few years is kind of a shift in the power structure from the carriers to manufacturers, above all Apple. It is now the manufacturers who dictate (at least) some of the rules, because the carriers depend on them (to a certain degree), not vice versa.

I think Microsoft and Nokia is a welcome example for the carriers. "I don't care if you are the worlds largest software creator or the worlds largest manufacturer - if you mess with us, we have no scruples to destroy you."

Microsoft and Nokia are the horse's heads in the bed of Google, Samsung, Apple and all the others. Don't mess with us!

Huber

@Sander, Lasko:

Yes, Steve Ballmer is willing to waste Billions on WP, Windows RT and Surface-tablets.

But what about the Microsoft shareholders? Are they also willing to waste their money with this?

Of course the CEO can say 'we need to spend Billions today to make even more Billions in the future', and the shareholders with long-term thinking may find this a good approach.

But when this approach fails in 2010 and in 2011 and in 2012 and will also fail in 2013, then sharholders may see it differently.

They could very well say 'we spent Billions to get into the mobile market, but this has failed so far. So, instead of going on wasting our money, we want Microsoft to go into milk-mode. We are still making loads of money with Office and Windows, and we, as shareholders, want to have this money in the future!'.

Then suddenly Microsoft is no longer able to waste money left and right. I think this point will come rather sooner than later.

Tester

@Huber:

You are most likely right. Especially, since one major shareholder already criticizes the company's strategy openly.

Winter

@Mark Wilcox
"Do you really think Bill Gates would call Windows Phone "a mistake" now while they're still trying very hard to make the product a success in the market? Of course not."

Question: Come up with a reference to an earlier occasion where Bill Gates told the truth in public.

I have never been able to find one. Even under oath in front of a federal judge, he simply refused to utter a confession to the truth.

The fact that Bill utters criticism against Ballmer now indicates he want Ballmer fired. He has been critical before, but this is the first time he said in public that Ballmer made a mistake.

I agree that Bill will not necessarily stop WP, as there is no future unless you are in mobile.

Sysad

Bill Gates remains the [chairman of the board at Microsoft](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/billg/), and hand-picked all the other board members - who pick the CEO and evaluate his performance, give him goals and guidance, set his pay, bonuses and options, and set policy. Bill Gates is still very much responsible for what goes on there, and weighs in on every big decision.

Tomi T Ahonen

to all in the comments..

I did a rare thing, I deleted a post just a moment ago. I had posted the 'transcript' update blog to this story as a separate blog. But then after posting it, decided, it actually belongs here, with this story, not to be two separate things, so anyone who reads my original posting about what Bill Gates said, can now also read the transcript - so I took the second posting, verbatim, and added it to this blog, and then deleted the newer posting. Just so you guys know, you aren't imagining things haha.. There were no comments yet on that other posting. I do want all the discussion to be around this topic in this thread..

But obviously, the blog article just grew by about a third haha..

Tomi Ahonen :-)

Lasko

@Huber

The future is mobile. We've already heard that Windows is down to 20% market share when it comes to the entirety of electronic devices. Giving up on Windows Phone means giving up on Windows. And that's quuuite huge.

The thing with the Microsoft ecosystem (Windows, Office, Active Directory) is that it just works as a whole. If you drop one of the three you do not need the other two as well. Microsoft currently *is* Office (and Windows to this day).

If Microsoft is going to drop Windows Phone (and Windows) the only way I see is a transformation to a services company, above all Office and Office 365.

Maybe that's what Microsoft is going for. But this *will* hurt, as they are pretty much in the same situation as Nokia then. You can't sustain an organization built to be huge if you aren't any longer. There will be ropes to be cut.

If Windows Phone / Windows fails, that's the end of Microsoft as we know it. And that's something shareholders do *not* want.

The comments to this entry are closed.

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