Leaked Nokia Internal Memo: "Burning Platform" - Update, Microkia Lives! - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

FanIn80 · 02-08-2011, 10:42 PM

Wow. This is some pretty honest stuff. I don't know why, but I love reading internal memos and communications. I have a bit of a thing for business news, and I learn more from this stuff than I do from any tech magazine article.

What will they do? Partner with Google? Microsoft? Will they stay separate but poach some high-end talent? Now that this is out there, it should be really interesting to see which steps they take to move forward... and how the market responds.

Quote:

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody's took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.

Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It's also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.

How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?

This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally.

Nokia, our platform is burning.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/n...honest-burnin/

HotHotHeat · 02-08-2011, 10:53 PM

No one buys Nokia because they haven't innovated.

Bravo to the CEO for taking the better part of a decade to realize this.

FanIn80 · 02-08-2011, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

No one buys Nokia because they haven't innovated.

Bravo to the CEO for taking the better part of a decade to realize this.

Actually, I was thinking about that... and I suppose I could look it up, but how long has he been there? It says that he came over from Microsoft, but has he been there the whole time?

Edit: Whoa, I just looked it up. He's Canadian, and he just took over as CEO last September. Interesting that he was the CEO of Macromedia too.

Quote:

Stephen Elop (born 31 December, 1963, in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada) is the president and chief executive officer of Nokia Corporation. A Canadian citizen, Elop is the first non-Finn to be named CEO of Nokia. He replaced Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in this position on September 21, 2010.

Before starting at Nokia, Elop worked for Microsoft from January 2008 to September 2010 as the head of the Business Division, responsible for the Microsoft Office line of products, and as a member of the company's senior leadership team. Before this, he was the COO of Juniper Networks, the president of worldwide field operations at Adobe Systems, and the CEO of Macromedia until acquisition by Adobe.

bluejays · 02-08-2011, 11:11 PM

Really interesting memo. Normally these guys are politically correct and the outlook is always addressed in a positive light barely touching on the negative. It seems almost impossible that they'll announce a possible takeover this quick, but rather just another strategy like a huge budget increase in R&D in addition to a large marketing campaign. Real intersting though.

TheyCallMeBruce · 02-09-2011, 01:58 PM

Other than the N8, which with the exception of a 12 mega pixel camera, doesn't really offer much anything else. The Symbian^3 OS is not as user friendly as the iOS or Android, the phone is slower with a lot of touch screen lag, and the screen resolution falls short when compared to the iphone 4, hd7, or galaxy s, a major waste of the LED capabilities.

Other than that, what other consumer offerings do they have? They will continue to lose market share if this is all they have.

Torture · 02-09-2011, 02:01 PM

It's about time. I'm sure it wasn't an easy thing to do but they really are falling by the wayside after being at the top for a long time.

Should be an interesting story to follow in the next few months.

Hemi-Cuda · 02-09-2011, 02:51 PM

i never understood why Nokia insisted on using their own OS instead of switching to Android, it's not like it would cost them any money. hell they could probably save a bunch in the development sector, instead they have this one off brand OS that no one cares about and looks like a cheap imitation when compared to Apple or Android

mykalberta · 02-09-2011, 03:55 PM

Good read, seems a little desperate from the CEO but considering he just recently took over in September last year I am guessing at their Feb 11 meeting alot of things will be changing.

Yeah_Baby · 02-10-2011, 08:59 AM

But Nokia lasts till the 23rd Century!

FanIn80 · 02-11-2011, 08:50 AM

Looks like they're going to partner with Microsoft.

Quote:

- Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

- Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

- Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

Things just got even more interesting...

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/11/...rtphone-battle

Sliver · 02-11-2011, 08:58 AM

That's cool. Nokia had the best phones before Apple came along and made all the other cell phones look like tin cans and string.

BlackEleven · 02-11-2011, 12:30 PM

Wow, it really must have been a burning platform. First case I can think of where the company with the market-leading platform abandons it in favour one of their smallest competitor's platforms.

It must be a huge kick-in-teeth for Intel as well considering they were parterning with Nokia to build their next-gen platform (MeeGo).

anyonebutedmonton · 02-11-2011, 12:31 PM

Can't help but think how much better their phones would be if they had chosen to roll with Android over WP7.

Hemi-Cuda · 02-11-2011, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anyonebutedmonton

Can't help but think how much better their phones would be if they had chosen to roll with Android over WP7.

couldn't they do both? i know manufacturers like HTC do both Windows and Android phones, no reason why Nokia couldn't

photon · 02-11-2011, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anyonebutedmonton

Can't help but think how much better their phones would be if they had chosen to roll with Android over WP7.

Quote:

Nokia did talk with Google about adopting Android but decided that it "would have difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem" and the "commoditization risk was very high -- prices, profits, everything being pushed down, value being moved out to Google which was concerning to us." Microsoft presented the best option for Nokia to resume the fight in the high end smarpthone segment.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/n...ndroid-explor/

FanIn80 · 02-11-2011, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anyonebutedmonton

Can't help but think how much better their phones would be if they had chosen to roll with Android over WP7.

WP7 is actually a pretty impressive OS.

I lived through WM5 and WM6, so I was pretty skeptical about WP7, but I give full props to MS. They actually pulled off a unique and innovative OS. It's not just another iOS clone.

Edit: Nice ninja title update btw.

FanIn80 · 02-11-2011, 05:42 PM

The more I think about this, the more I wonder if this is an investment opportunity.

Nokia has always made decent hardware, and WP7 is a great OS that just needs some really good hardware in order to take off. The developer side of things is a no-brainer (C# and XNA in Visual Studio), so there can be tons of apps available almost overnight.

If I wasn't doing the starving student thing right now, I'd take a serious look at putting some money into Nokia and even Microsoft.

Hack&Lube · 02-11-2011, 06:17 PM

I don't see Nokia rebounding. They are the classic example of the market leader who lost all their market share and leadership position when they were caught off guard by new competitors into the market who were simply better and more efficient than them. Look for Nokia to continuously finish in 9th place in the conference and draft in the 20s.

The memo says it all. Chinese, Taiwanese, and South Korean factories are now pumping out everything from the low to high end. They have acquired all the technology and production methods. They can make 10 good products in the time it takes for Nokia to make one. For every phone they make on WP7, companies like HTC will crank out 5 phones. Nokia has no traction here. They've gotten old in a game where you stay on top by being the next newest thing. They've going to lose the low-end market on price. They've lost the high end market to Apple and Google and a little to RIM. They've lost the middle ground on lack of innovation. They are a burning oil rig that is going to turn into a BP oil spill.

Tech companies of that type rarely ever claw back.

arsenal · 02-11-2011, 10:14 PM

I think if nokia is able to create one or 2 really good phones, they could get back in the game. They have accepted the fact that they have lost market share, and they are no longer the leader. They are taking steps to get back into the game.

So what if HTC is able to crank out 5 phones for everyone Nokia is able to produce? Every person I have talked to that has used an HTC phone has said it sucked. If Nokia can make something that is able to captivate the high end market, they will be right back in there.

Hemi-Cuda · 02-11-2011, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arsenal

I think if nokia is able to create one or 2 really good phones, they could get back in the game. They have accepted the fact that they have lost market share, and they are no longer the leader. They are taking steps to get back into the game.

So what if HTC is able to crank out 5 phones for everyone Nokia is able to produce? Every person I have talked to that has used an HTC phone has said it sucked. If Nokia can make something that is able to captivate the high end market, they will be right back in there.

um, who are you talking to? i bought an HTC on the recommendation of many people and i haven't regretted it one bit, a much better piece of hardware than any iphone or blackberry i've seen. and HTC is consistently regarded as one of the best smartphone manufacturers in the world, their build quality is very high