That time when Microsoft bought and killed Nokia phone unit
-
[Repeat] The Register UK ☛ That time when Microsoft bought and killed Nokia phone unit
On the software side he wasn't wrong. Symbian was a bastard to code for – Android was much easier to use, and even iOS was bearable given that its users had cash to burn. Unfortunately, his solution to the problem was Windows Phone. So he killed Maemo and went all in on his former employer.
The rationale for the takeover was clear: Symbian has a great market share, so shift all those users to Windows and we'll own the mobile OS market.
It didn't work.
-
[Old] Tomi Ahonen ☛ Communities Dominate Brands: Final Score on Most Important Forecast of 2011 - Once Again Tomi Ahonen Most Accurate Forecaster in Mobile (Nokia, Lumia, Windows)
Never before has any company owning the world's bestselling 'platform' abandoned it for one made by a competitor, when it was still the biggest in the world. Sony didn't do this with Betamax or Playstation, Microsoft didn't do this with DOS or Windows or Xbox, etc. But after Nokia hired ex-Microsoft dude Stephen Elop as its new CEO, Nokia suddenly abandoned the Symbian platform - and Nokia's new MeeGo OS that was supposed to replace it - and switched not to the world's biggest smartphones platform (Android, like when Sony finally abandoned Betamax, and went to VHS); no, Nokia selected the smallest of 6 operating systems in smartphones and selected Windows for its new smartphone strategy. Could such a foolish strategy succeed?
-
[Old] Tomi Ahonen ☛ Communities Dominate Brands: Nokia Under Elop - His 3 Years: Performance Review - Worst CEO of All Time - All the Facts - In Pictures
Ok, we are nearing the end of Elop related Nokia stories on this blog, thankfully. Since we have just had the last Quarterly results where Elop was mostly in charge (July-Sept Quarter ie Q3 - Elop was removed from CEO post on Sept 3, 2013) we can now do the exact performance review covering the full 983 days that Elop was the cancer that was destroying Nokia. From the day he started, Sept 21, 2010, Elop was Nokia CEO for 2 years, 11 months and 12 days. This is the headline picture of epic failure:
-
[Old] Mobile Industry Review ☛ Nokia's fall from grace: The Background Story - Mobile Industry Review
The iPhone 2G was not the best phone in the world. Apple has since made 15 major technical improvements to the original, over the past 3 years, and Apple itself has celebrated those 15 changes as radical and important. Nokia’s flagship N95 which was being sold before the iPhone 2G even launched in 2007, had 14 of those 15 technical abilities as standard features. And the N95 had tons more features and abilities that even the latest iPhone 4 does not support. By every reasonable comparison, the N95 was the superior phone in 2007. Except for one very visible drawback – the N95 didn’t have a touch screen. And most head-to-head comparisons of smartphones by international reviewers in 2007 found that the N95 bested the iPhone 2G.
-
[Old] CBC ☛ Stephen Elop to get $25.5M for selling Nokia to Microsoft
Elop, a Canadian, had the terms of the bonus written into in his contract, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings examined by the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat show.
The formerly secret bonus terms have caused a furore in Finland, where many take great national pride in Nokia's success and pioneering role in the wireless industry. Investors, politicians and the public have all expressed concern over the sale of Nokia's smartphone division to Microsoft.