Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

uk.businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 166 posts

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#61

Post by pjc50 »

dijit wrote: post #42

I was around when the takeover of Nokia R&D happened in Febuary 2011, I remember walking around the offices of Ruohulati in Helsinki and seeing a massive queue to the IT room, previously linux laptops were being reformatted to run windows. I asked one of the project managers: "why, will it really change that much for us, I mean, there's hope right?" they responded: "This is a takeover, I've seen it before, they're ju…

Minecraft is very much not destroyed. Nokia .. well, the burning platform was while they were still an independent company. Like Blackberry they failed to adapt to smartphones, and failed to understand their own niche.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#62

Post by slavik81 »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #36

A lesson from Palm, Nokia, Motorola, and every other small-to-midsize company in the Telco arena: Never let yourselves be acquired. It won't end well.

Nokia was a disaster for years before Microsoft bought them. Given that the alternative appears to have been a steady decline into bankruptcy, I think Nokia did pretty well for themselves in that deal. They sold the company for a lot more than it was worth.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#63

Post by rasjani »

dijit wrote: post #42

I was around when the takeover of Nokia R&D happened in Febuary 2011, I remember walking around the offices of Ruohulati in Helsinki and seeing a massive queue to the IT room, previously linux laptops were being reformatted to run windows. I asked one of the project managers: "why, will it really change that much for us, I mean, there's hope right?" they responded: "This is a takeover, I've seen it before, they're ju…

I was also in Ruoholahti at the time and while those where dreadful times, it wasn't as bad (Atleast for me) as you picture it. Yeah, MeeGo (well, it was Harmattan, there was nothing MeeGo except binary compatibility and using the name to please Intel). Formatting Linux laptops was more of a joke imho. And guys who started Jolla where really not high execs in the program - really good tech guys but not execs :)

But yeah, I got myself a transfer inside Nokia after harmattan program was finished (still working on Linux stuff). Was away for few years and went back few months before Microsoft bought us, laid us off and our dept. spun off. During those times I didn't see any change on how things where handled from old Nokia days. So anyone who says that they didn't see this final layoff round coming is blind AF.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#64

Post by Jtsummers »

varjag wrote: post #40
manojlds wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firebase, WhatsApp and Instagram have been good.

Android isn't much worse off..

To be fair, Android wasn't established when it was acquired. It was still in early stages and not released in production devices. Google took it there (by financing, management or what, I don't know, but it happened after they acquired it).

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#65

Post by Nokinside »

criddell wrote: post #58
pjmlp wrote: post #32

I guess it is about time I stop making my hobby coding portable between WP and Android, focusing just on Android. Sad, because WP is actually much better from tooling and architecture point of view, but the way the whole WP 7, WP 8, WP 8.1 and the yet to become stable WP 10, just drove everyone off. Personally I was kind of pissed off, when the 512 MB devices were left out of the last preview update. Also it was the…

Why do you think Microsoft continues to develop Windows Phone?

Because they are not done.

Remember any of these: Pocket PC, Windows CE, Microsoft Kin, Windows Embedded Handheld, ....

MS spent $1 billion for Kin alone. When they consider market to be important to their future, they'll keep going and spending money. Setbacks destroy their partners but they just wait and try again when time is right.

MS is still mainly business and OEM sales company. Consumer-centric divisions (including XBox, Windows Phone, Bing) are irrelevant from a profit standpoint. MS is perceptually trying to get into mobile because they are fearing for their business and OEM sales if they don't have the presense in mobile.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#66

Post by jpalomaki »

slavik81 wrote: post #62
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #36

A lesson from Palm, Nokia, Motorola, and every other small-to-midsize company in the Telco arena: Never let yourselves be acquired. It won't end well.

Nokia was a disaster for years before Microsoft bought them. Given that the alternative appears to have been a steady decline into bankruptcy, I think Nokia did pretty well for themselves in that deal. They sold the company for a lot more than it was worth.

For Nokia this turned out to be a good deal. They got good money for the mobile phone business. If they would have sticked to it that might have been the end of the whole company.

Now Nokia got several billions, bought Alcatel and continues other business. The feature phone business ended up in new company which is using Nokia's name and IPR and pays per unit royalties to Nokia. If this venture proves succesful, Nokia could just acquire them.

Years ago there was speculation that Elop was a trojan horse, placed by Microsoft. After things turned out as they did, I have started thinking that maybe it was the other way round. Maybe somebody planned all along that hiring Elop would open the opportunity of dumping the business to Microsoft in case it would nit start generating profits.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#67

Post by nihonde »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #36

A lesson from Palm, Nokia, Motorola, and every other small-to-midsize company in the Telco arena: Never let yourselves be acquired. It won't end well.

Apple could easily have agreed to an acquisition in the 1990s. It takes true serious chutzpah and goodwill to nose up from a failing product line.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#68

Post by rmac »

criddell wrote: post #58
pjmlp wrote: post #32

I guess it is about time I stop making my hobby coding portable between WP and Android, focusing just on Android. Sad, because WP is actually much better from tooling and architecture point of view, but the way the whole WP 7, WP 8, WP 8.1 and the yet to become stable WP 10, just drove everyone off. Personally I was kind of pissed off, when the 512 MB devices were left out of the last preview update. Also it was the…

Why do you think Microsoft continues to develop Windows Phone?

It took 4 iterations for me to buy a Surface.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#69

Post by ta2507823 »

criddell wrote: post #58
pjmlp wrote: post #32

I guess it is about time I stop making my hobby coding portable between WP and Android, focusing just on Android. Sad, because WP is actually much better from tooling and architecture point of view, but the way the whole WP 7, WP 8, WP 8.1 and the yet to become stable WP 10, just drove everyone off. Personally I was kind of pissed off, when the 512 MB devices were left out of the last preview update. Also it was the…

Why do you think Microsoft continues to develop Windows Phone?

for the same reasons google develops a web-browser. They need a platform where they have control. Not so much for evil reasons, but because it's a risky place to be in when a competitor controls the platform you use to deliver your services.

Re: Microsoft is cutting 1,000 jobs in Finland as it stops phone production

#70

Post by nextos »

rospaya wrote: post #49
BorgHunter wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nokia was doomed before Elop took over. Kallasvuo was CEO when Apple released the first iPhone, and Kallasvuo was the one who decided that Nokia's existing offerings were good enough to compete, just keep minorly refining things every generation. By the time Elop came in, the ship was already sinking (or, if you prefer, the platform was already burning). Elop's decisions did not turn that around, but realistically, c…

I agree that Nokia was too slow to compete, but they had massive advantages over both Apple and Google and with good guidance could've survived successfully. Even years after the iPhone came out, Nokia outsold Apple, had a bigger R&D budget and a bigger foothold in practically every market except North America. Smartphones outsold feature (dumb) phones only in 2013, five years after the iPhone came out. When did Noki…

> but they had massive advantages over both Apple and Google and with good guidance could've survived successfully.

I can't agree more. Few people remember the Nokia 770 was released almost 2 years ahead of the iPhone. With a bit of polish it could have grown into a fantastic product line. In fact, the N9 was pretty much a masterpiece.

Post reply on HN