Nokia To Cut 10,000 Jobs and Close 3 Facilities 350
parallel_prankster writes "NY Times reports that Nokia said on Thursday it would slash 10,000 jobs, or 19 percent of its work force, by the end of 2013 as part of an emergency overhaul that includes closing research centers and a factory in Germany, Canada and Finland, and the departures of three senior executives. The company also warned investors its loss was likely to be greater in the second quarter, which ends June 30, than it was in the first, and that the negative effects of its transition to a Windows-based smartphone business would continue into the third quarter. Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, posted a loss of €929 million, or $1.2 billion, in the first quarter as sales plummeted 29 percent. Once the undisputed global leader in the mobile phone business, Nokia has been outcompeted by Apple, as well as by Samsung and other makers of handsets running Google's Android operating system." (Here's another source, if you're hit by the NYT paywall, and the company's own positive spin.)
No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of Apple fans and MS haters may be tempted to cheer, but the loss of 10,000 jobs in this economy means 10,000 families whose lives will been up-ended and that sucks no matter what phone you're rooting for.
And what's more, according to the article, a third of these job losses will come from Finland, with more in Germany and Canada. Decent western factory jobs seem to be going the way of the Dodo bird. Are there any phones still actually being manufactured in the first world? Even if Nokia recovers, what are the odds that those jobs won't reappear in Finland, but in China?
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheer?
I can hate on MS as much as the next guy, but this is sad whatever way you spin it. Nokia used to create great products and be a byword for quality, reliable, cutting edge phones.
Then they lost their way, management started all sorts of retarded internal competition games and the company just started chucking out hundreds of near identical handsets.
Even then they had a significant market lead, even in the smartphone sphere, but they were losing it. This is when Elop came along and really killed them, jumping straight into bed with his old bosses and sealing the fate of a once-great european tech powerhouse.
It's a shame to see such an icon driven into the ground.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Informative)
I should add that it's also entirely obvious that this would happen since the MS deal.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
It may have been obvious, but it was obvious long before Microsoft had anything to do with it, and this certainly isn't Microsoft's fault. Remember the Burning Memo? Nokia has been faltering ever since the Chinese factories have been able to create their own lines because of the cell phone chipset availability.
Nokia took the Microsoft deal because it became evident to them that Nokia's own OS was no longer a selling point, so it didn't make sense to further invest in it. That saved them a few kroner in the short term, plus there was a longshot chance that Windows Phone 8 could have made a dent in the market. It obviously hasn't yet, nor did the tech community expect much different, but one never knows what the phone market will look like in five years.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
They could easily choose a different strategy and save the company. E.g. they could become OS-agnostic, just like Samsung: produce N9-like phone in both Maemo, Android and WP7 version, and see what sells best. I'm 100% sure lots of people would buy Android version of this phone because of the great looks and mature OS.
Killing Symbian too early, killing Maemo right after it was finally ready to sell and going to WP7 only was the most stupid decision ever.
I hope they eventually going to realize it and give that infiltrator from Microsoft the treatment he deserves.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Interesting)
They could easily choose a different strategy and save the company.
Fire Elop and sue Microsoft?
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Wait, Google buys Nokia and fires Elop. No, Facebook buys Nokia and fires Elop. No, Ebay buys Nokia and fires Elop.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait, Google buys Nokia and fires Elop. No, Facebook buys Nokia and fires Elop. No, Ebay buys Nokia and fires Elop.
Or Microsoft buys Nokia and gives Elop a bonus.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
They could go Android, sure, but Android phones are almost commodity phones, where the handset manufacturer isn't adding enough value to make them differentiators. That means as a customer, I could pick up an LG or HTC or Motorola or Samsung and get a pretty similar phone. And that means they all compete on price. That puts the Nokia phones up against the manufacturing might of China, which means that margins would start out razor thin and fade quickly to non-existent.
Symbian appealed to a hundred thousand early-adopter phone geeks, but they were not getting any mass market share from the first-time smartphone buyers, who were heading straight to Android or iPhone (depending primarily on the contents of their wallets.) Maemo would have cannibalized that market, but would not have taken any buyers away from the two big players. The WP7 deal came with the backing of Microsoft, which provided a lot more marketing clout than Nokia is capable of delivering these days.
When you're trying to compete, it's best to have a differentiator that people will actually pay for. Symbian was no longer it, and Maemo would never have been it. They bet that WP7 might have been it. It's not looking great so far, but Microsoft is a lot better backed than anyone else courting Nokia.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
They could go Android, sure, but Android phones are almost commodity phones, where the handset manufacturer isn't adding enough value to make them differentiators.
You know, everyone says this, and while I'm not going to argue it's not true, I will point out that Android phones are actually selling, as opposed to Windows Phones. A differentiator only matters if it can actually sell.
Re:Carriers buy phones, not people (Score:5, Interesting)
In the USA that is true, but Nokia sells most of it phones outside of USA where consumers pick the phones.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Informative)
The iPhone proved a hugely popular choice and the smartphone started to boom. Established players Palm, Nokia, RIM, Motorola Mobility, Samsung, HTC and LG faced a difficult choice as they clearly needed a new winner. Palm made the wrong choice to go their own way and imploded. Nokia went their own way and suffered but survived on momentum. RIM continued to go their own way, confident their customers were committed due to the nature of their offering. When Windows phone came out, almost all the survivors hedged their bets with it but RIM persisted in continuing to go their own way and imploded. When Windows Phone proved an unpopular choice most of the survivors kept it as a hedge but emphasized their alternative, but for some reason [semiaccurate.com] Nokia bet the farm on it and imploded.
- History of Smartphone Economics, 2009-2012.
"If you bet the farm often enough eventually you win a factory job."
- Anonymous
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Funny)
The MS deal didn't really have anything to do with it. Nokia lost its way almost a decade ago. They flailed around trying a large number of incompatible things, with no overall direction. The Symbian kernel rewrite was probably the last good thing they did and they failed to couple it with a decent userland, so Symbian programmers were still stuck with APIs that were designed for systems with under 4MB of RAM. They made a few half-hearted attempts at moving to Linux (ignoring the fact that they already had a decent kernel, it was their userland that was the problem), and then seemed to completely lose the plot.
The MS deal was just another failure to fix the situation, in a long line of similar failures. It wasn't the cause, just another failed attempt at recovery.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Informative)
All this was in direct relation to the Microsoft deal.
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nokia bought navteq a few years ago for 8 billion. sad to see that now its own worth is 8 billion.
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mostly agree. My view from within (it's my last day tomorrow) is that the real thrashing only started 5 years ago. Changing gui framework repeatedly decimated developer interest each time. There basically was no 'platform'. I foretold this final outcome on feb11as did many others. Elop was certainly the person who put nokia on the directed downward spiral. The whole board is responsible, of course.
Fatphil, posting AC only as i' not at my desktop with memoised passwords, i'm on a boat to finland to return
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
The MS deal didn't really have anything to do with it
Oh which planet? Note: NOK dropped 20% the day the Microsoft sellout was announced. Burning platforms indeed.
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It really doesn't matter who is disingenious
Nokia is dead, even if it doesn't know that it's dead
Microsoft is the one who kills it
And Elop? This guy is only a hired hand, who pulled the trigger
As a former Nokia user, - I'm using Samsung now, - I just can't tell you how sad I am, looking at the how absolutely clueless the BOD of Nokia really is
This should serve couples of warnings:
1. Avoid Microsoft at all costs -
If you looked at the history of Microsoft, you'll spot a long road littered with dead corporate corps, which, one time or another
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Actually it's helping companies massively. On one hand, weakening euro means easier exports (since they can't do what US did and just inflate currency to help exports due to ECB). On the other hand worsening economic climate means employer's market where employees have to give more and more to employer for less returns.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
They brought it on themselves, and have only themselves to blame.
In all seriousness, Nokia sat around on its ass all smug and secure for way too long after the iPhone detonated, then redefined the market. Samsung, HTC, and many others busted ass to remake themselves and their products into credible contenders. Nokia sat around and watched their R&D flounder around, thinking they had all the time in the world to do something about it, all while pointing at Symbian's (then) massive dominance of the global smartphone markets. They then had a chance to make a clean break and start fresh, but they decided to back the wrong horse (with a nudge from their new Microsoftie CEO, natch).
Moral of the story? Apparently it's two-fold:
1) If you're on top, don't sit around on your ass all complacent about it.
2) Never hire anyone who has previously worked as a Microsoft executive. They *will* fuck you over.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
Then they lost their way, management started all sorts of retarded internal competition games ...
Bad management is why most of the high paying jobs have disappeared over the last several decades, due either to incompetence, crookedness or a combination of the two. Nokia is just the latest in a long line of mismanaged companies going belly up.
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Why would a fan wish for (fair) competition to go away in the first place? You may not want what they are offering, but its what keeps your side moving forward too.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
A fan is not a rational being. It is a marketing construct made through intensive brainwashing of already impressionable human beings and turned into a buzzword spewing machine. Its sole purpose is to promote the company's products while dissing competitors'.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
Getting Qt working well on Android and iOS and marketing it as a platform could have been a lot more successful.
They can still do that if they fire Elop. And they can start with vanilla Android to tide them over through the QA period. Getting QT up on Android would take what? Two weeks for somebody who knows what they're doing?
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assembling a phone is the equivalent of playing with Lego's. its simple tedious work. why would i want my kids to aspire to this kind of work?
the value is in owning and developing the OS, battery tech, screen tech, the communications standards as well as all the other IP and semiconductors that go into the phone. assembly is monkey work
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Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
why would i want my kids to aspire to this kind of work?
If you went to public school, remember all the "slow" kids, and all the others who clearly weren't cut out for college? Well, those kids are adults now and they need jobs just like you do.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
assembling a phone is the equivalent of playing with Lego's. its simple tedious work. why would i want my kids to aspire to this kind of work?
They are not just closing plants according to this [bloomberg.com].
From the bloomberg article: "The biggest share of cuts will come in research and development, where Nokia is killing whole projects to preserve others that are more important, Chief Financial Officer Timo Ihamuotila said on a call. Sales is the second-biggest area affected and general overhead is third, he said."
So they are now at the stage where they have to stop developing tomorrow's products in order to pay today's bills.
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Really? I'm no economist but I don't think these jobs are lost, the moved elsewhere surely?
I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of those jobs were lost/moved to Samsung, and I'm pretty sure Samsung products are not primarily made in China. Though I could be wrong, but I thought Samsung manufacture a lot of their products in Vietnam and Taiwan. Not that this makes any difference.
Don't get me wrong, I really hope the rest of the world can regain some manufacturing capability from those who have the st
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There have already been 20k+ jobs gained by competitors at the expense of Nokia. So while 20k families have been helped. I say less than 10k, because there has to be husband/wife or parent/child employed there somewhere.
Net gain for society (but likely not Finland).
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Its pretty empty headed to show sympathy for the symptoms if you ignore the cause.
Every man and their dog told them that MS wasnt going to save them, but they took the money.
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A lot of Apple fans and MS haters may be tempted to cheer, but the loss of 10,000 jobs in this economy means 10,000 families whose lives will been up-ended and that sucks no matter what phone you're rooting for.
And what's more, according to the article, a third of these job losses will come from Finland, with more in Germany and Canada. Decent western factory jobs seem to be going the way of the Dodo bird. Are there any phones still actually being manufactured in the first world? Even if Nokia recovers, what are the odds that those jobs won't reappear in Finland, but in China?
I don't think many people here will be cheering for this one. Nokia has always (well until recently) been near and dear to many techies hearts.
I still have fond memories of setting up my own land-line dial up server so I could connect to the Internet with the analog modem in my Nokia 9290. Their platform was very open, and seemed to encourage curios tinkering. For normal consumers, their products were well built, user friendly, and always ahead of their time. Nokia's failing was not their technology, but ra
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Recently read that about 30% of the employers has troubles finding qualified people to fill in the functions.
Based on my experience, let me translate that for you:
30 percent of employers are posting jobs that they know can't possibly be filled, so they can run to Congress and cry "We can't find Americans to do it," and get more H1B visas--so they can pay foreign workers to come here and work for slave wages.
Re:No good news in that (Score:5, Insightful)
The good thing about this will be that eventually all socialism will end....
No it wont. Because some socialism is good. Public schools are good. Public roads are good. Public health initiatives are good. You have some socialist countries now that are highly uncompetitive. And you have highly capitalist countries, such as China, which are highly competitive, but creating externalities that make their current path unsustainable. Somewhere in the middle, a resonably free enterprise system with some government sponsored investment and a public safety net is where you're going to get the best overal quality of life over the span of decades.
A brilliant mix of capitalism and socialism,... (Score:3, Insightful)
In our quest for purity, we are asked to don a red or a blue cap which is supposed to align to socialist-leaning (blue) against capitalist-leaning (red) doctrines, but of late, not combine the two. Its time to realize that any successful society will need to embrace elements of both socialism and capitalism to be remain sovereign. Get that Mitt? Get that Barack?
Re:A brilliant mix of capitalism and socialism,... (Score:5, Funny)
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I really hate the whole capitalist / socialist debate because the whole thing is stupid like localman57 hinted at. The problem with any ideological system is that they try to reduce people to simple, consistent groups. But people are not simple and they are not consistent. Anyone who has ever mowed their neighbor's law because their mower was broke, or they were sick is a socialist. Anyone who has ever bought an overpriced candy bar to support some annoying kids program is a socialist. Anyone who has e
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In other cases, we're willing to see our neighbor suffer (e.g. have his business go bankrupt) because we're confi
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
But, you're right. There are still large aspects of state run economics, particularly in the banking sector.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
Central planning isn't incompatible with capitalism. Nazi Germany was capitalist and fascist. Private citizens were free to make money so long as they belonged to the privileged race and had the right connections. So okay, it's a form of "crony" capitalism but it's capitalism nonetheless.
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Your centrist opinion is shining like rodolf's red nose, or the easter bunny hopping in the yard, or santa's beard.
Notice all of them are imaginary, just like your c
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, not this "Nazis were socialists--it's even in their name!" myth again. You didn't outright say it, but implying they hated the Jews because they were capitalist leaves no doubt. Undoing mods to reply to this nonsense.
The official name of North Korea is Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pretty damn sure they aren't democratic, but by your logic they call themselves that, so they must be, right?
The Nazis used a socialist platform (and yes, scapegoated the Jews for Germany's socio-economic problems) to get into power. But their first attacks after attaining power were against communists and socialists in 1933, blaming them for a massive fire that gutted the Reichstag (parliament) building. Their supporters were arrested and harassed. Left-wing parties were banned. Unions were dissolved. The Nazi party purged its own social-revolutionary wing by massacring its leadership in June 1934 in the "night of the long knives."
So please, tell me again exactly how the Nazis were actually socialists who hated the Jews because they were capitalist.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Interesting)
How is China capitalist? It is certainly more capitalist than it was 10 years ago
It depends on how you define capitalism. 10 years ago I watched ARM Chairman Robin Saxby [wikipedia.org] give a keynote speech where he said, "China is wonderful - it's the most capitalist country on Earth." What he meant was that, regardless of the central planning, China was actually a very good environment for doing business. Chinese suppliers were very competitive, and producing low price goods and materials. There were very limited regulations on employment, wages, manufacturing etc. and no need for employers to pay employee taxes, provide health care etc. China didn't even have free education for all children until 2006. That "central planning" that some people despise has led to China having a modern and efficient infrastructure, which in turn makes business more efficient.
In China, you can hire a person for $200/month, work them 100 hours a week, and fire them on the spot. That is a level of "capitalism" unmatched in Europe or the U.S.
TIME: Why China Does Capitalism Better than the U.S. [time.com]
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Yeah, they're all fleeing socialist Finland for communist China.
Re:No good news in that (Score:4, Insightful)
Too many people are arguing pro-Finish type of socialism, but that's why Finland is going to lose more and more jobs.
This argument would be a lot more convincing if the economies of more capitalist countries were booming. In case you hadn't noticed, they're not.
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Too many people are arguing pro-Finish type of socialism, but that's why Finland is going to lose more and more jobs. All socialists do is drive investment capital out of their countries somewhere else. Good for 'somewhere else', bad for those socialist countries.
And investment capital doesn't flee the US for China and India because it's cheaper there? In capitalism, money goes where the slave labor is cheapest, the working conditions poorest and the regulations the weakest. You get fucked until you're the cheapest bidder for the job and by moving the jobs around workers are forced to underbid each other until they're all dirt poor. This whole "workers must stand up for themselves" and fight for social security and decent working conditions through laws and unions i
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Ah, but then you're assuming he doesn't live in Republico-Fox-News-world.
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"Concern troll"? Haven't heard that one before. Does it have more HP than a Fire Troll?
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They also make incredibly popular low cost phones that sell millions in the developing world.
Have sold. But the latest figures for 2011 is that there's now 6 billion cell phone subscribers, or 86.7% of the world's population, though some have more one subscription for home and one for work. That means there's not many more new people left to sell to, while in established markets people now buy smart phones and dump their dumb/feature phones for practically nothing. So that market is dying very shortly too.
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Canada only has ~70% market penetration, one of the lowest rates on earth, definitely low for a developed country.
Most of western Europe is 125-150%, US, AUS are ~100%, Russia is 150%, middle east is similar. South America and Indonesia, Japan, are mostly ~100%.
India and China are both at ~75%, which is a massive number on their own.
The numbers are active subscriptions, so If you have a personal mobile and one from work, you're at 200% personally... which is how you get >100% penetration.
Re:So what is your utopian alternative? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Actually that's a smart move. Nokia's making very little on those tight margin devices. If Nokia wants to save money they'd stop trying to pursue those devices.
Re:So what is your utopian alternative? (Score:4, Insightful)
Money is money. If the phones are profitable, then continue to pursue them while you move in another direction. Consider Samsung, they are the smartphone leader right now, shipping 38 million smartphones last quarter (compared to Apple's 31 million). They also shipped 48 million dumb phones during the same period. I don't hear anything from them about dumping their dumb phone business. It goes to show that you can be both a smart and dumb phone company.
This reminds me very much of the recent HP shortsightedness with their low margin computer business.
Re:So what is your utopian alternative? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is now abundantly clear that Nokia needed to get on board with Android. Sure, they would likely end up with less than a majority share but their name recognition, distribution network, engineering and let's admit it, build quality, would ensure a solid, respectable share. Better than nothing, which is what they will have if they don't fire Elop.
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Queue the replies from people wanting MS to suffer at the expense of Nokia employees
You can add me to that list. Microsoft for a long time was an abusive monopoly, and they still have a very profitable monopoly on the desktop, even if that market is at risk. While Android isn't as open as it could be, it's at least a big step in the right direction.
Sorry for those Nokia employees, but if you're working on behalf of a company that I consider harmful then I can't root for your success.
"negative effects of its transition to a Windows-" (Score:5, Funny)
Whaaaaat?!?! Really? This is a tremendously unexpected turn of events that nobody outside of your boardroom dealings would have EVER suspected!
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Idea (Score:2)
Re:Idea (Score:4, Interesting)
Would not happen. Instead they would buy the companies fire all the workers and replace them with MS party line type folks. You would get a phone that RRoD would be a known issue for years, and would be worse than any the two previous companies made before. NIH is a huge issue for MS.
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I can see it now...
They would replace Mgmt with "Yes Men", and a year later release the ZunePhone, Poop Brown and Pea Green color scheme.
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What's the point? The Lumia is a decent mid-range device, Nokia still has enough manufacturing capacity to make more of them - what they are lacking is customers.
MS buying Nokia would be nice for Nokia shareholders, but given that the company is already making Windows phones, there would be no gain for MS.
An award to Stephen Elop.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:An award to Stephen Elop.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Investors did not agree with the deal and the chickens are coming home to roost. EVERYONE knew the deal was bad.
1. No Windows phone for ONE YEAR. No product in one year is a lifetime in the smartphone market. 2. Killed off Symbian. Their existing lines of phones were selling. Their customer base starting jumping ship since those phones were being killed off for Windows phones that were yet to be seen.
Every analyst knew the timeline was extremely bad for Nokia. Nokia could have survived had they not made the deal and worked on their own products.
Re:An award to Stephen Elop.. (Score:5, Interesting)
there's reports that the existing symbian lineup has sold better this spring than the wp line. they hid the information on their reports though, bundling them together.
there's no excuse for elop announcing things too early and declaring a profitable business dead.
I tend to disagree here.. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Who was saying no to building Windows smartphones? But Elop apparently wasn't satisfied with only that. He had to kill the burning platform (Symbian) as well as the blooming platform (MeeGo).
How many horses do you want to ride at once? Many of the problems Nokia had was over the internal divide between Symbian and MeeGo, now you'd make it a three way race instead of a two way race. Apple picked a horse called iOS and rode that. Samsung and a few other picked one called Android and rode that. Nokia tried for a split with one foot on Symbian, one on MeeGo and the result was disaster. Yes, Nokia was in huge trouble already when Elop took over. Adding another platform would just make everything wor
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I agree with your horse analogy. But I don't see how Nokia can succeed with winPhone. In order for Microsoft to gain traction against Android and iOS, it has to sell WinPhone to other manufacturers. These manufacturers will only agree to a Microsoft deal that doesn't make them second-class citizens to Nokia. Notice how Google was careful not to overly favor one particular manufacturer (Samsung, HTC) when it was making its G-branded phones? Microsoft also has to play this game. WinPhone might yet succeed. Sa
The IP Vultures are Circling (Score:5, Interesting)
Meanwhile, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, and Google IP lawyers are circling to fight over the carcass (Patent Portfolio) of Nokia.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
If you cant adapt, you die (Score:3)
Pretty simple math. No matter how big you are, if you cant keep up with changing times, you go away.
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A sad day... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a shame to see Nokia falling apart. It was not long ago that they had the very promising n900. I was all ready to buy one of those until I found out that it wasn't available on my carrier of choice, and in fact the only carriers it was available on in my area were the ones with the poorest coverage.
What a factory! (Score:3, Funny)
a factory in Germany, Canada and Finland
That's some factory--Nokia must have invented some kind of trans-dimensional technology. Surely that's worth a few bucks to someone?
The end of Meltemi, Qt without Nokia (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia was working on another Linux based operating system. This is now stopped [maemo.org].
More insight into how the board of Nokia is being stacked with Microsoft cronies [blogs.com].
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I wonder if the endgame for Microsoft is to acquire rights to all the IP?
10,000 workers and 3 executives are going? (Score:5, Funny)
Another round or two like this and the company will be all executives, no workers. That should help get them going in the right direction.
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Someday, when my soul and will are fully broken by the business world and I become an exec, I too shall use that "sharpen strategy" line from the press release...
Typical (Score:5, Insightful)
Best of luck to those being let go.
CFIT (Score:2)
This is what the aircraft safety people call "controlled flight into terrain" when one flies a plane into the ground.
Elop is one hell of a pilot.
--
BMO
3% of the smartphone market (Score:2)
When Apple first announced the iPhone, Jobs said in an interview that he would be happy if the iPhone captured 3% of the global smartphone market. Mind you, at the time, the Blackberry and the Treo were pretty much the only smartphones that existed.
Nokia was at the time, the biggest provider of any type phones and Apple believed that they had no chance to compete in that market, especially since Nokia was making phones that cost a mere $20 after being subsidized by the carrier.
So, how did Apple, which start
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How? By doing what they've done for 30 years - making hardware and software actually work together without massive end-user hassle. They don't invent ground breaking technologies (for the most part, there have been a few exceptions), but they make available technologies actually useable.
Turns out that there's a shedload of money in doing that.
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Yea, Apple is great at integrating existing technology and marketing.
Before them, no one really gave a shit about a phone's OS, it was clunky and unwieldy which was to be expected.
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I believe it's because they built a phone for consumers rather than for carriers.
Nokia's death spiral continues (Score:5, Interesting)
The gist of it being that Windows isn't working, and Elop is killing any possible "plan B" for the company.
Re:Nokia's death spiral continues (Score:5, Informative)
Mod parent up. The blog in question is awesome. For example this [blogs.com]:
"Before the Burning Platforms memo, in 2010 Nokia towered over its rivals like very few companies have ever managed in a Fortune 500 size scale. Nokia's smartphones sold more than 2x those of the iPhone and more than 3x as many as Samsung. Today only 18 months later, Nokia is a third the size of the iPhone and one quarter the size of Samsung's smartphones. Never, ever, in any industry, has a global market leader collapsed this comprehensively. This is a world record in destruction of a market leader. Understand what that means. Elop has set a world record in management failure. He is a world record holder in the most incompetent CEO that has ever been. Not just the worst CEO now, but of all time - that is what 'world record' means - and this collapse of Nokia is BY A WIDE MARGIN the biggest collapse of a global Fortune 500 sized company, who was the market leader in its own industry. I have been asking my readers to come up with any example of such total collapse in 12 months in economic history - never been done. Never. This is the worst management failure of all time! And it was not caused by a tsunami or earthquake or national revolution or exploding factory. It was caused by Stephen Elop. He started the destruction on a February day in Espoo when he released his Burning Platforms memo. "
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This is a world record in destruction of a market leader. Understand what that means. Elop has set a world record in management failure.
This assumes that destruction of Nokia wasn't Elop's goal to begin with. It's hard to look at the facts and come away with that impression.
Re:Nokia's death spiral continues (Score:4, Insightful)
Elop has set a world record in management failure.
Management failure? How about criminal malfeasance.
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I agree that it's very bad news that Q2 isn't looking better, but isn't what Elop is doing exactly what he should do now? He's laying off people to bring the costs down, so that the chosen strategy can be implemented. The Windows move hasn't brought them to profitability yet, but it's way too early to say it won't work: the phones are just fine, Windows 8 is just around the corner. Any plan B would be much less likely to work at all and would also have a lesser best possible outcome.
Not quite. They're having a big problem selling phones. Their Symbian phones are selling quite well, but they're trying to move away from Symbian. They had another viable platform (Maemo/MeeGo), but ditch'd that to use Windows - a platform that was quite well behind where they were with the Maemo/MeeGo effort, and they are having a very hard time selling phones with Windows on them.
If they Board of Directors was smart, they'd can Elop, and either resurrect Maemo/MeeGo, or pull in Android. They'd have to
Ballmer should buy them out (Score:2)
And then screw it up unto death, like everything else.
Shareholders should sue Elop (Score:5, Insightful)
Presumably it is in his contract (Score:3)
Prepping to be bought (Score:3)
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It may well be a huge temporary cost if they will have to repay Microsoft for the billions they already received.
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They'd have been a latecomer to a saturated market.
No, they wouldn't. This is about saving what they have (or had) that Android has largely taken off them, plus they would have had a platform with a lot of applications. As it stands now they've just pissed that away.
Windows may have been a risk, but at this stage, delaying entry into the android market for another year isn't going to be a huge cost.
They'll be bust by then.
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It's kind of hard to do this when Apple and Google have hired away all your best people. RIM, MS, and Nokia are all in the same boat - lots of interesting ideas but not enough talented people to deliver.