How Stephen Elop destroyed Nokia https://seekingalpha.com/article/916271-how-stephen-elop-des...
Ironically, it looks like Nokia, on the other hand, rescued Microsoft (out of its ideology-obsessed acting) by providing it with a great new CEO.
Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
61–70 of 314 posts
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#62I mean the Nokia-Microsoft phones were great
Everyone who had one said so. It was the best of all the “third option” OS devices. All the WebOSes and such.
But the market just doesn’t want a third option… even back then the Android and iOS were ossified
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
The letter talks about a man standing on a burning platform choosing to jump into the icy waters instead. In this metaphor, Nokias actions were neither staying on the platform not jumping into the water but shooting itself in the head instead. If the internally Nokia OSes were not going anywhere, which looked to be the case from the outside, the obvious solution was to go with Android. Something that already had the…
Android was a choice. Not the obvious one. Seriously how many Android manufacturers are really successful? Samsung? Google? Pretty much everyone else is completely interchangeable in the crowd of low cost devices. LG, HTC, Sony …etc have all but disappeared and they all chose Android. Sony especially had some solid hits back in the day. Microsoft utterly failed Nokia but I don’t consider the decision at the time to b…
Yeah, and it's not like Nokia was riding a winning streak in the pre-iPhone market. Nokia hadn't had a ubiquitous hit for several years - before the Razr, before the LG Chocolate, before the Blackberry, etc.
They could have probably produced better hardware than the other Android makers - the N9 and first Lumias were very nice devices to hold and use - but they weren't exactly coming in with a ton of momentum in the market.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#64I liked my Nokia phones - they were ergonomic but not innovative; they were great "just a phone"-type phones. My wife even purchased a re-make of one of their classic phones recently.
But I loved my BlackBerries - they were the perfect tool for email/chat/calling and nothing else, the perfect complement to a laptop, whereas iPads partially overlap with both mobile phones AND laptops in terms of functionality, which is why at airports you now see so many people carrying three devices instead of one.
So while I have fond memories of Nokia, I don't miss their devices, but I'd give my metaphorical leg for getting my BB back.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#65> We too, are standing on a “burning platform,” and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.
Aaaand that's where I would have decided to get a new job. I've survived two different "roll up your sleeves, plebs, the management set our house on fire" scenarios. Never again.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#66Nokia N9 was the best phone I have ever owned. To these days their gesture navigation implementation is the best. And they had Swype keyboard preinstalled. Speaking of apps: Here maps, SoundHound, amazing mail client and calendar... Gosh I miss that phone. I used mine for about 3 years, I think, and sold it for more than a half of its original price in literally a couple of hours (which means my price was too low). B…
> Nokia N9 was the best phone I have ever owned. I'll counter with the Nokia N900. > I believe, they should have pushed with Meego. With vendor support their OS could've been a hit. So say we all.
> I'll counter with the Nokia N900.
I've never understood this about N900 fans.
My experience with the N9 was great, and never left me wishing I could go back to something more like a Sharp Zaurus with modern cell connectivity.
What is it that makes the N900 appealing? Is it strictly the physical keyboard? So the N950 would have been the N900 killer? Or was there something else about it?
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The letter talks about a man standing on a burning platform choosing to jump into the icy waters instead. In this metaphor, Nokias actions were neither staying on the platform not jumping into the water but shooting itself in the head instead. If the internally Nokia OSes were not going anywhere, which looked to be the case from the outside, the obvious solution was to go with Android. Something that already had the…
Android was a choice. Not the obvious one. Seriously how many Android manufacturers are really successful? Samsung? Google? Pretty much everyone else is completely interchangeable in the crowd of low cost devices. LG, HTC, Sony …etc have all but disappeared and they all chose Android. Sony especially had some solid hits back in the day. Microsoft utterly failed Nokia but I don’t consider the decision at the time to b…
So the should have choosen... both, 50/50 bet.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#68Looking at Nokia stock over the past 3 decades, you’d be hard pressed to pinpoint where the burning memo happened or say if it killed the company (I’d say it didn’t, the value is pretty flat from before the memo until now. It did kill the handset division).
However, it is easy to find the iPhone.
https://g.co/kgs/MVvYKr (click more -> max)
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it’s simple enough to see why Nokia thought Windows would be the right choice. It was far more polished than Android at the time. It ran well on cheap hardware. And they would have Microsoft backing them.
As someone who owned a Windows phone around that time, and knew others who did as well, the shared opinion was that it was a pile of crap. Nokia went for Windows because of the acquisition target, not because of quality of the OS. With that, they prioritized business strategy over product quality, and we all know what happened after.
My memory is completely different. I was an iPhone user, but I bought a Nokia Lumia 710 (I think) to play with and I was thoroughly impressed. It was fast, fresh, the tile interface really worked well for phones - it looked much better than the boring grid of apps and gave useful information at a glance.
But since Microsoft were 2-3 years late, there were not many apps. And then they shot themselves and all people who already bought a Windows Phone device in the foot, by completely forking the ecosystem with Windows Phone 8. Leaving early adopters stranded on Windows Phone 7 and no ability to run newer Windows Phone 8 apps.
Re: Nokia’s Burning Platform Memo (2011)
#70Nokia N9 was the best phone I have ever owned. To these days their gesture navigation implementation is the best. And they had Swype keyboard preinstalled. Speaking of apps: Here maps, SoundHound, amazing mail client and calendar... Gosh I miss that phone. I used mine for about 3 years, I think, and sold it for more than a half of its original price in literally a couple of hours (which means my price was too low). B…
Symbian was the biggest problem with Nokia phones. The hardware was always amazing.
I owned a Communicator 9290, and have yet to have a phone that performed as well on speaker. Bar none. Noise cancelling and volume both. I had an e90, and although it was less amazing on that front, the build quality, and look at feel just was... Great!
I'd pay iPhone Pro prices for (basically) an e90 running Android with a decent camera. Nobody's made one yet, but I keep hoping. And yes, in a matter of weeks I'll have my Astro Slide from Planet Computers, but I have little doubt the form factor will still fall short of the dream of a truly pocket phone you can type decently well on.