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Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#31

Post by fsloth »

pavlov wrote: post #27
RecycledEle wrote: post #16

A year before the first iPhone was released, I told Nokia they needed to take their N700 Internet Tablet, add voice calling and text messaging, and offer it in many screen sizes like 3", 4", 5", 6", and 7". If they had followed my advice instead of laughing at me they would still be the largest cell phone maker on planet Earth.

I had an N700 too. Nokia would be in exactly the same place today if their iPhone competitor had been that platform augmented by 3G phone capabilities. It was a finicky Linux GUI on a resistive screen, conceptually closer to Windows Mobile and Symbian touchscreen devices (like the SonyEricsson phones) than any modern platforms. Android would have still beaten Nokia to a usable iPhone clone/competitor.

N700 was underwhelming. N950 was a complete badass in all the ways it was not and in a bette world we would have a vibrant ecosystem on N950 successors. Sadly is was not to be.

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#32

Post by ekianjo »

ogjojo wrote: post #7
ecmascript wrote: post #2

Today they have 86000 employees so the reduction is about 16% of the total work force. It's not nothing but I wonder where and what types of work gets cut first. Usually it's not people producing stuff like programmers but roles that companies in times of trouble realize they can be without.

That and also refocus efforts on revenue producing products/departementets. I just hope Nokia has learned from their mistakes and don’t cut too much from their R&D.

There is R&D and R&D... If your internal R&D is amazingly useless and produces nothing marketable you are better off shrinking it

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#33

Post by jillesvangurp »

RecycledEle wrote: post #16

A year before the first iPhone was released, I told Nokia they needed to take their N700 Internet Tablet, add voice calling and text messaging, and offer it in many screen sizes like 3", 4", 5", 6", and 7". If they had followed my advice instead of laughing at me they would still be the largest cell phone maker on planet Earth.

You and loads of other people in Nokia. Including me. The N800 actually had a silly webcam and skype running on the device. And Google used it to dual boot early versions of Android on it. This was before they had the first nexus phone to work with.

The only thing it lacked (on purpose) was phone functionality. They were just stubbornly betting the company on Symbian and never committed properly to making a flagship Linux device. So every single maemo and meego device that they launched was encumbered with underpowered hardware, crippled features, or they would just position it as a developer phone and kill all the marketing. Because Symbian was "obviously" their future. There was a pretty big camp in Nokia who did not believe that though. And by the time the iphone and Android had launched the company was panicking and started doing increasingly more erratic things.

They came close a few times with the N8, the N900 and the N9. With the N8 they had a really nice device with aluminium body, oled screen, and 12 megapixel camera (mind you this was 12 years ago). But they chickened out and launched it with Symbian and it kind of was just another underwhelming not quite good enough Symbian device. The N900 was a developer phone and the first proper meego phone. I had one, it was great. But it was also under powered and seriously ugly.

The N9 did eventually launch but years late and with the message that they were shelving the whole meego team and betting the company on windows phone. They even managed to squeeze out an Android phone just before MS completed the acquisition (they promptly killed that). A year or so later, Microsoft bought the phone unit, and then fired the whole lot a year later as soon as they got rid of Steve Balmer.

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#34

Post by tgaj »

trustingtrust wrote: post #18
manxman wrote: post #8

Nokia’s been a zombie corporation for a long time. This isn’t news… this was a scheduled calendar event from at least as far back as 2007.

A lot of 5G deployments shifted to Nokia after Huawei ban and Nokia also dominates a lot of GPON FTTH deployments for end to end solutions.

Not suprisingly, most people commenting in this thread have no idea about Nokia and what they are doing. They are really big and somehow succesful company, but no one can escape recession.

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#36

Post by contrarian1234 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #29
contrarian1234 wrote: post #4

Is this the normal course of things? "We are now beginning the process of consultation on initial reductions." I'm not in the know.. but it comes off as if they have no idea what they're doing. You'd think you'd decide who you are gunna lay off before announcing it..? And they will be laying people off for two years straight? Seems like it'd just tank the moral of the whole place. I thought companies generally rip th…

> I thought companies generally rip the bandaid off and do it all very quickly - and have a concrete plan before an announcement In the US yes, and companies are free to ruin the lives of thousands of people overnight in most states thanks to at-will employment. In Europe, where Nokia is based, companies have to actually follow laws. No firing of individuals without cause, mass layoffs outside of bankruptcy have mini…

"companies have to actually follow laws“

What? Nokia won't follow laws in other countries?

"No firing of individuals without cause"

That's generally the distinction between firing and laying off. Layed off employees generally get unemployment.

"7 months until your employment actually terminates"

You continue working at a company that you will have to leave? What incentives do you have to keep putting in any effort? Doesn't this lead to massive amount of corporate theft? In the US you are typically "shown the door" when your employment is terminated to minimize the possibility of disgruntled ex-employees taking corporate IP with them.

"employees know that even if there's talks of layoffs going on, their lives won't be upended randomly"

That honestly seems just worse for everyone involved. Aren't you in a weird limbo for months/years on end where you don't know if your position will be terminated? It seems horrible for moral. The most talented people would probably not want to put up with the uncertainty and will leave while unions are negotiating

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#37

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

alibarber wrote: post #12
contrarian1234 wrote: post #4

Is this the normal course of things? "We are now beginning the process of consultation on initial reductions." I'm not in the know.. but it comes off as if they have no idea what they're doing. You'd think you'd decide who you are gunna lay off before announcing it..? And they will be laying people off for two years straight? Seems like it'd just tank the moral of the whole place. I thought companies generally rip th…

In Finland there is a mandated period of 'consultation' - usually at least 2 weeks long, between company and employees (or their representatives) when such things happen. I don't know if the actual term in Finnish is supposed to sound as euphemistic as the English one - but at this point it's pretty much decided.

"Muutosneuvottelut", which literally translates to "change negotiations", is basically the Finnish way of saying "mass layoffs and corporate restructuring incoming". Not the same thing as what you're describing but I find it funny in the same way.

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#39

Post by [deleted] »

RecycledEle wrote: post #16

A year before the first iPhone was released, I told Nokia they needed to take their N700 Internet Tablet, add voice calling and text messaging, and offer it in many screen sizes like 3", 4", 5", 6", and 7". If they had followed my advice instead of laughing at me they would still be the largest cell phone maker on planet Earth.

[deleted]

Re: Nokia to axe up to 14,000 jobs to cut costs

#40

Post by dagw »

fch42 wrote: post #21
thriftwy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea what they are up to these days. I own a button dumb phone by Nokia, it's fine but would not explain even 1% of that employment number. PA says they're making telecom equipment now. Fun thing it also mentions Ericsson, which used to make phones under its brand, then Sony-Ericsson smartphones (not unlike Microsoft-Nokia) and then had to drop it completely.

The Nokia of today has little (left) in common with "the Nokia of lore". Just as that had little in common with the company that used to supply the Finnish Army with Rubber boots. The Nokia-of-phones sold itself to Microsoft and was subsequently wound down. While the brand name for phones still exists, it's no longer held by the corporation now called "Nokia". That came to be, if you like to call it that, from a "rev…

While the brand name for phones still exists, it's no longer held by the corporation now called "Nokia"

The corporation now called "Nokia" still owns the brand name "Nokia" for phones, but is licensing it to HMD Global, a Finnish mobile phone company started by ex-Nokia people, but largely financed by Foxconn.

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