Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
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Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
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Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#2I think the biggest mistake was adopting Windows as their OS. It negated any technical advantages they could have over Android.
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#3I think the biggest mistake was adopting Windows as their OS. It negated any technical advantages they could have over Android.
I'm not so sure. There will always be viable alternative histories of course but their existing Symbian OS was already long in the tooth and would have required a lot of work to catch up to the smartphone world and I'm just not convinced they had it in them.
Arguably they should have just gone with Android, and it's easy to say that in hindsight. But Android was a horrible mess in its 2.x era, Windows Phone seemed like a genuinely interesting alternative. Until Microsoft repeatedly messed the whole thing up.
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#4I think the biggest mistake was adopting Windows as their OS. It negated any technical advantages they could have over Android.
I don't think that's their biggest mistake. Their downfall was because they where mainly a hardware company without any network effects. Customers could easily switch from Nokia to any other hardware without an issue.
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#5I think the biggest mistake was adopting Windows as their OS. It negated any technical advantages they could have over Android.
I'm not so sure. There will always be viable alternative histories of course but their existing Symbian OS was already long in the tooth and would have required a lot of work to catch up to the smartphone world and I'm just not convinced they had it in them. Arguably they should have just gone with Android, and it's easy to say that in hindsight. But Android was a horrible mess in its 2.x era, Windows Phone seemed li…
Today the vast majority of people I know rarely use the browser on their phones. They interact with the internet through apps from various walled gardens, and even for news on the open web they are likely to install someone's app. Windows wouldn't have stood a chance if app development became so quickly an iOS/Android duoply.
Same goes for Nokia's Maemo and Meego. We nerds loved those OSs for being full-blown computer OSs, but the general public doesn't want a full-blown OS, they want a bunch of icons to corporate apps.
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#6From the article:
"Elop oversaw the 2011 launch of a Linux-based smartphone, the Nokia N9. The N9 ran on a distribution of Linux called MeeGo. Reviewers at the time praised the new smartphone direction the Finnish phone maker had taken. 'Possibly the most beautiful phone ever made,' wrote one reviewer about the N9 for Engadget.
But the N9’s accolades did not ultimately carry the day. Nokia announced its Lumia line of phones the same year—a direct pivot away from MeeGo toward the Windows Phone. It would be the last major strategic turn Nokia would take as a cellphone manufacturer. From this point forward, a succession of C-suite decisions all but sealed the fate of Nokia’s iconic line of phones."
We were so close to having literal plain Linux phones. Sad to me. I wonder where this could have gone without Microsoft.
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not so sure. There will always be viable alternative histories of course but their existing Symbian OS was already long in the tooth and would have required a lot of work to catch up to the smartphone world and I'm just not convinced they had it in them. Arguably they should have just gone with Android, and it's easy to say that in hindsight. But Android was a horrible mess in its 2.x era, Windows Phone seemed li…
Today the vast majority of people I know rarely use the browser on their phones. They interact with the internet through apps from various walled gardens, and even for news on the open web they are likely to install someone's app. Windows wouldn't have stood a chance if app development became so quickly an iOS/Android duoply. Same goes for Nokia's Maemo and Meego. We nerds loved those OSs for being full-blown compute…
> Windows wouldn't have stood a chance if app development became so quickly an iOS/Android duoply.
That was always the problem. But IMO Microsoft were probably the company best placed to compete there, given the existing developer mindshare they had. But they just messed it up, over and over. Incredibly to look back on, really.
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#8Why do people assume that MeeGo would have been a big success?
Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#9I think the biggest mistake was adopting Windows as their OS. It negated any technical advantages they could have over Android.
I'm not so sure. There will always be viable alternative histories of course but their existing Symbian OS was already long in the tooth and would have required a lot of work to catch up to the smartphone world and I'm just not convinced they had it in them. Arguably they should have just gone with Android, and it's easy to say that in hindsight. But Android was a horrible mess in its 2.x era, Windows Phone seemed li…
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Re: Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
#10There is a Korean manhwa/manga called Real Man or A Man's Man. It’s about a guy who worked in the mobile phone company. He goes back in time and starts developing software and hardware phone designs before the companies who originally made them do.