Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
1–10 of 11 posts
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#2As the person who provided the soundbite about the Elopcalypse, I am still somewhat surprised to see it was quoted in full.
Various people came up with the term independently. I happened to be one. But I sure as hell do not claim to have been the first one. My early use of the term may have contributed to its spread among my friends and co-workers, but that's just how any meme or rumour gains its wings.
To provide some context, I am still a bit sour about the Elopcalypse. I was effectively deprived of a project we had been building towards for nearly five years. I stand by the quoted comment: the resulting destruction and turmoil were the best thing to happen to the Finnish ICT space. Best, but extremely painful.
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#3The headline would be more accurate - though not as punchy - if it spoke of ashes of Nokia's device business, not Nokia as a whole. Microsoft took over the devices but the rest of the company is still there and very much alive. Net sales last year 12 732 M€, profit of continuing operations 1 171 M€. It's not as huge as in 2007, but not doing badly at all.
But indeed there is a lot of startup activity by people who've left Nokia; I joined one that failed, but I'm glad we tried. It would have gnawed my soul if I hadn't joined an attempt when there was the opportunity.
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#4Sometimes it's good for one large company to either fold or be reduced so that all the innovative or productive employees can move on to set up new companies.
A similar analogy is happening in Rochester NY with the Kodak's bankruptcy proceedings. Now there are many smaller companies specializing in various types of imaging business.
But the transition can be really painful if the area is not already diversified or have a strong social safety net.
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#5I live in Tampere, and I honestly can't tell yet whether I picked the best or the worst time to decide to retrain as a programmer.
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#6They should just make old Nokias again
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8975623
There is a demand.
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#7I live in Tampere, and I honestly can't tell yet whether I picked the best or the worst time to decide to retrain as a programmer.
I'm doing the same in Oulu and I am optimistic. Things will change and there's reason to believe it'll get better:
http://teknologiateollisuus.fi/sites/default/files/file_atta...
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#8As the person who provided the soundbite about the Elopcalypse, I am still somewhat surprised to see it was quoted in full. Various people came up with the term independently. I happened to be one. But I sure as hell do not claim to have been the first one. My early use of the term may have contributed to its spread among my friends and co-workers, but that's just how any meme or rumour gains its wings. To provide so…
Former Nokia employee - lived in Helsinki in the early 2000s for a bit, current MSFT borg (TED/DX) (many, many years in between) -- the stories coming out of friends dealing with Elop appointment, HUT being merged with Aalto, and then the cascading fall out was always an interest.
Nokia always had (and through the legacy/current hardware (up to Icon), amazing hardware. The pivot the iPhone required and the software for such, takes time and resources -- apple ended up having the jump + resources. It was never clear to me if Nokia actually put the resources behind it.
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#9They should just make old Nokias again https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8975623 There is a demand.
I'd buy one. My current one is doing ok but at 3+ years it's starting to get a little rough around the edges. But since I can't buy a new one I'm just nursing this one along for as long as I can and then I'll buy a couple of them second hand and refurbish. If you don't need a smartphone an old Nokia featurephone is as good as it gets.
Ultra reliable, super good battery life and made to take a beating.
And I'm not even a drug dealer :)
Re: Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes
#10As the person who provided the soundbite about the Elopcalypse, I am still somewhat surprised to see it was quoted in full. Various people came up with the term independently. I happened to be one. But I sure as hell do not claim to have been the first one. My early use of the term may have contributed to its spread among my friends and co-workers, but that's just how any meme or rumour gains its wings. To provide so…
Former Nokia employee - lived in Helsinki in the early 2000s for a bit, current MSFT borg (TED/DX) (many, many years in between) -- the stories coming out of friends dealing with Elop appointment, HUT being merged with Aalto, and then the cascading fall out was always an interest. Nokia always had (and through the legacy/current hardware (up to Icon), amazing hardware. The pivot the iPhone required and the software f…
> HUT being merged with Aalto
That happened in 2010, before the Elopcalypse got going, and you could quite well argue that it's HUT (15k students) that ate up Kauppis & TaiK (<5k combined).