I remember thinking at the time that is was a great metaphor, and then reading on HN that its straight from some business school text on how to motivate change.
Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
11–20 of 314 posts
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#12Boy, did Nokia elope after this with M$ft phone which was supposed to right Nokia's collective "ship". Elop joined the hallowed hall of fame of abysmal CEO's who ran their firms into the ground. Remember Lumia, Windows Phone 7,8 & 10 blehh. Was it Balmer that hired Elop?
I had a Windows 8 phone from Nokia around 2015 or so and other than the lack of apps it was a phone like pretty much any other at the time or even these days. By that I mean I don't remember anything really bad about it, especially because I mostly use the web anyway.
I have no idea why things succeed or fail and so I don't know for this either, but my guess is it was new, but didn't have anything that provoked an interest with mainstream users. And Microsoft does not have many faithful users.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#13By the time they admitted this to themselves, it was like a decade too late to do anything about it
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#14Switching to Microsoft seemed like the best decision at that time. Those criticizing are underestimating the software engineering effort required to build a modern OS and the app ecosystem.
But what about Symbian and Ovi? I've had a bunch of Symbian devices with the Ovi store. They were simply not in the same league; the apps were basic because the development tools were just not good enough; and targeted basic low-end experiences. Windows Phone was the most modern OS out there (including the dev tooling); and had the best shot at competing with the Androids. I also bought the N800 (which ran Maemo) from Nokia in 2007. It was ok - but it never looked like a phone platform.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#15I'm not saying this is a great letter, but he wasn't wrong. I owned both Symbian and Maemo devices, and the experience (both to use and develop) really was this bad. That's not to say everything about it was bad, or that there was nothing to like (as HN comments have often pointed out, there was), but it didn't hold a candle to iOS, or even Android. (And Android in those days was pretty hideous.)
Now what Nokia did in response... that may not have been right either. But they had to do something.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#16Switching to Microsoft seemed like the best decision at that time. Those criticizing are underestimating the software engineering effort required to build a modern OS and the app ecosystem. But what about Symbian and Ovi? I've had a bunch of Symbian devices with the Ovi store. They were simply not in the same league; the apps were basic because the development tools were just not good enough; and targeted basic low-e…
Why was Windows a better choice than Android? You mentioned that Windows had “the best shot of competing with Android”, but why was that desirable? The adage, if you can’t beat them, join them comes to mind.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#17My mother was one of 8 children born to Finnish immigrant parents in America. As an adult she used the local Mormon temple to research her ancestors, connected with them on Facebook, then re-established the family back into the old country. She then visited the matriarch and lived with her for 2 weeks as my distant cousins visited her and made their acquaintance.
Most recently my cousin, whose daughter has an extremely debilitating incurable illness, emigrated back to Finland on his sick daughter’s request. The whole family is attempting to learn Finnish but it is apparently a struggle compared to other languages they learned.
Totally off-topic, but Nokia is a sad story and Finland is a wonderful country with wonderful people.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#18Switching to Microsoft seemed like the best decision at that time. Those criticizing are underestimating the software engineering effort required to build a modern OS and the app ecosystem. But what about Symbian and Ovi? I've had a bunch of Symbian devices with the Ovi store. They were simply not in the same league; the apps were basic because the development tools were just not good enough; and targeted basic low-e…
Why was Windows a better choice than Android? You mentioned that Windows had “the best shot of competing with Android”, but why was that desirable? The adage, if you can’t beat them, join them comes to mind.
Maybe they concluded (rightly) that there are no margins in Android devices. Samsung is a rare exception, but by then the signs were clear that manufacturing (including the R&D around it) was shifting to East Asia.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#19Great hw engineers let down by less than stellar software decisions.
Nokia owned a significant slice of late stage pre internet telephony infrastructure level equipment, bridged over to the emerging mobile world and .. kinda missed the boat when Apple happend in with iPhone and then Android's emergence killed them.
A lot of people loved their handsets. Just not enough in any single market to make up for some bad decisions.
A similar fate: I wonder if the myriad of vendors who glued to the Japanese market regretted it, as that model shrank as internet rose?
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#20When compared to Android devices, Windows devices have more computing power, more memory, and a more powerful CPU. This is useful if you have a fat client with a lot of data for things like real-time visualizations and you want your devices to keep up with your users as they complete their tasks. However, all of this extra power means that the battery drains faster and the devices run hotter. When using a unit that is mounted or placed in a docking station with a constant power supply, this is not an issue.