Huawei CEO Says Could be Interested in Acquiring Nokia but that Windows Phone is 'Weak'

So very briefly - late nite hotel, early departure tomorrow...

 

The Financial Times just wrote a few hours ago that Huawei CEO said yeah, they could be intersted in acquiring Nokia, but it would require Nokia's willingness (ie he'd not be interested in a 'hostile takeover'). He added - rather mischievously to me, considering Huawei also provides Windows Phone based smartphones while its majority is of course on Android - that Windows Phone is 'weak' yet one has to pay a license for it. This compared to the much stronger Android which is free. 

Yeah - Hello Nokia investors and Board. Fire the Microsoft Muppet! Elop has driven Nokia to the gutter. And those of the Board members who don't stand up to fire Elop, should also be fired. There is no excuse for Nokia killing the world's most praised OS - the only one regularly rated better than the iPhone (MeeGo) in favor of Windows Phone, if even other Windows partners see that Windows Phone even in its current WP8 edition is garbage - ok, or 'weak' as in Huawei's CEO's words.

Also there is some gossip about Lenovo, that while its looking at NEC and Blackberry, it 'should' also consider buying Nokia. Maybe finally now, we will see the bidding start on Nokia, and most likely, that Nokia would be split by the buyer(s) and various other companies. And that Elop finally gets what he deserves - to be fired.  (more and longer blogs to resume soon, as I wind down the end of this Spring's heavy travel, consulting and speaking season)

Comments

[Hansu]

@ chithan I had friend who bought a 60 usd android from thailand some unknown chinese made when he was on a trip just for fun and I and a few others had a go with it and it was well lets be kind it was laggy. I have another friend who owns an ahsha cant remeber which model but around 79usd and as a product it is way more useable every day battery build quality UIn etc. As for the harware specs for WP like iOS does bot need an octa core processor to run smoothly WP is a very lean OS when it comes to hardware requirements as for screen 1080p is nice but wp does just fine with 720p

[Spawn]

@Tester

> So, ultimately, the survival of WP solely depends on Nokia's brand.

I see wht you mean and you have a point. Its just that I think survival isn't enough for Microsoft. To have 0.1% or 2% market share, there is no difference in that for Microsoft. Its both "clearly a failure" (wording Bill Gates). If we look at it from that perspective and add on top the assumption that if this, MicroNokia, keeps goin it will stay at 2% next 2 years then its something to abort, change, not to continue.

The central question here is NOT "if" but"how" that change looks like. At this point in time there iw only one thing we are able to say: the Microsoft Smartphone feature is one without Nokia playing a central role. I think its 100% save to assume that. I think that part is set in stone. Its goibg to happen without Nokia whatever "it" (means new strategy) is.

> However, once Nokia goes, all that'll be left is a giant black hole.

The thing is, it already is a giant black hole from Microsoft point of view. If they stick to it they continue to be sucked into downwards together with Nokia. So, they abort and try to come out of that black hole. Reality is when Nokia and Microsoft joined forced WP market share was higher then now. Its going downhill and with Nokia strugveling more and more they beome a problem. An expensive problem Microsoft would need to cash-infusion to keep running just to not be sucked deeper into that black hole. That's not a healthy situation. That's not a situation Microsoft has anything to gain from.

Bill Gates was very clear: "it failed!". How could anybody interpret that as anything else but a statement to change strategy. Its certainky not something you say as corp-megahead during a public interview when asked for success/strategy if you plan to continue your path. It's clear it means admitting "we did wrong, now we know, we are going to change that".

> No, the Nokia brand is not string enough to make the platform a success and it'll never be. But it's still the only thing that makes WP hang on.

Exactly. As of now its the only thing cause just like Nokia Microsoft build fully up on the assumption its going to work. It didn't. Past, done, gone. Now they, Microsoft, need to explore alternate options.

Remember. Any sane coperation keeps options for exact such cases. Behind closed doors they may well worked on alternate options since years. Keep options, not talk about them to not make your currebt path fail but if your current path fails apply those options to explore a different path. No sand, no D-class manager, would evef do whqt Elop did and burn bridges, alternate options. The survival of your company depends on that.

What could that options be? I serios wait for a big hammer. One where Microsoft surprises us all with somethi nobody expected them to do. Notm not opensource but open eosystem and platform. Get carriers into control, open business options for them even not Android offers (services for example, a bridge to Desktop, Skype-revenue, etc).

If these is important for Microsoft and if they realize they need to drastical change something then yes, they may well do and it may enough to gain more then those 2% black-hole they are sucked into with Elop's Nokia since over 2 years now.

[Spawn]

@Hansu

> and if Nokia would have continued on symbian

We are not talking about going ONLY Symbian. Even before Elop that wasn't the plan. It was all about TRANSITION to a new platform. If WP, Android, MeeGo doesn't matter when comparing with Nokia plan vs Elop execution. Plan was transition, Elop exeuted abrupt abortion. He aborted any transition-path and left Nokia one whole year (that is half a trnaround circle in smartphone-world, an in redible long timespan) in Limbo till there first Lumia became available.

> Android, WP, Asha

Please realize: the target did not matter when Elop burned the starting-point before the goal became available.

Any argument about old Symbian technology, about WP greatness, it all not matters. If you abort your current product while your nee product is miles away you not have any products in the market. What should customers buy if you not sell? Why should customers go to you?

See that in the context of Nokia as markef-leader, as number 1, as bug fishcand they stop selling products. Whatever the goal was it stopped to matte hen transition got aborted and replaced with a no-product strategy.

[Hansu]

@ spawn. Yes true, but the N9 and 950 where expensive flagship phones sure Meego could have been made in to a more reasonably priced phone by time but the thing about Nokia during Ollila and OPK was that every decision had to approved 30 times by different chiefs and executives and that took time and comprmises had to be made and took time and time is luxury in the mobile industry that very few makers have to spare. Now if Nokia would have contiued in the path they were on the product development would have contiued at the same pace meaning that they still would have lagged behind in terms of hardware behind the competition and I hypotize that if Nokia would have gone the Symbia to Meego route the fall would have been alot softer but the old inefficient Nokia management structure would have remained and that would have kept Nokia down bit the same with GM they didn't go bust overnight but seeds were planted 30 years in the making the big mistake was that when the iphone came was to lay on their asses and do nothing. If we leave out the WP from everything that Elop has done, he saw things from the outside things had to be cut and simplified and excesses removed and speed up product development as it should and is right now at Nokia. Now even if the Meego transition would have been done like planned I have sneaking suspicion that the same would happened if they had gone the Meego route since they introduced a new OS that was clearly superior OS and people would looked at it gone hmm i'l wait on that Symbian phone when the Meego prices go down or make phone with a bigger screen, better camera etc and with the old management people would gone tired of waiting and still gone the Android, iOS the fall would have not been as treamendous as it was

[Spawn]

@Hansu

> Yes true, but

No but. It doesn't matter if the transition target was MeeGo or WP. By aborting the transition the target was harmed. Look where Nokia is now. It may a bit better with an alternate platform but I doubt it would be much better with the same disaster-CEO in place. Heck, Nokia could sell gold for free and Elop would destroy that business. That's the kind of disaster we talk about. He got a gold company (market leader by large margins, highly profitable, growing) and he destroyed all that. A monkey doing nothing would have done better.

We are talking here about a world record of collapse of such a company. It never happened before, it may never happen again. It was a series of gigantic unique management mistakes. No, not just mistakes but disaster-decisions executed with precision like a A-class Ninja kills his sleeping victim.

> they still would have lagged behind in terms of hardware

Nokia went backwards with Elop. Where is 808 like REAL pureview technology, that was there when Elop took over, today? Same applies for the 121 famous Lumia WP7 mistakes. Some of them so basic requirements missing and that where present since 0 years in every Nokia device done. Ut yeah, wireless-charging (with still a wire you need to connect your phone with) was more important, innovative and as we saw customers found it more important then USB file-transfer for example.

> the big mistake was that when the iphone came was to lay on their asses and do nothing

What did harm Nokia. But it was still better then burning Nokia to the ground like Elop did in 1-2 years.

> he saw things from the outside things had to be cut and simplified and excesses removed and speed up product development as it should and is right now at Nokia

And he did that by burning the company. Yeah, now its slim and doesn't need to carry all the responsibility any longer that comes with success. Well done! :-/

> speed up product development

Yeah, still the same Lanku with the software on top done by others with 1-2 new models, all the same with slighly different specs, every year.

> I have sneaking suspicion that the same would happened if they had gone the Meego route

With Elop in place Nokia trading gold for plastic would have failed. That's exactly the point. Put a moneky in place and let him be Nokia CEO. He would have done better.

[Tester]

@Hansu:

If you believe Elop, ok, then it may make sense. The question is, how can you believe someone who has shown an utter disregard for everything Nokia invented themselves?

I think that guy was biased beyond belief if he wasn't bought and therefore all his analyses were bogus by default.

Yes, everybody knew that Symbian had no future. That's hardly the point.

What I don't buy is Elop's reasoning why MeeGo was DOA. This sounds like bullshit and only served to push his WP agenda.

[Spawn]

@Hansu

Elop lied and so did his mate. Nokia had already 3 Harmattan smartphone devices before N9 came to market. Also you can take one device, change specs and multiply it for different scenarios/segments.

May I remind you, since you seem to have forgot it, that all those Lumia devices are in fact one device based on Lanku. We are near 2014 and Nokia had only 1 WP device but 3 very different (eg a qwerty slider among them!) devices. That is AT LEAST 3 times MORE!

And there I just punked your argumentation :-)