

Nokia Shareholder Meeting - That the Future is Far Worse than we Thought - kevinwmerritt
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/05/what-do-we-now-know-after-nokia-shareholder-meeting-that-the-future-is-far-worse-than-we-thought.html

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nl
Tomi (the author of communities-dominate) is kind of like MG Siegler - he
writes as a blind Nokia fan, with no hint of awareness that what he is saying
has more to do with fandom than proper commentary.

In MG's case at least it is about a company that is relevant. Tomi was amusing
back in 2008-10 when he would grasp at anything that "conclusively showed" how
much better Nokia was than the iPhone, and later Android.

There was a period in 2009 (I think it was) when you could almost see the
cognitive dissonance happening every time he wrote something.

Now, of course, he grasps at a broad conspiracy theory involving Nokia CEO
Elop being somehow motivated to deliberately destroy Nokia for Microsoft.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I'm aware that many dislike Elop (and there may be many good reasons), but I'm
still in awe of his "burning platform" memo[1].

He lays out the horrible situation they are in: pressured from the top of the
market by Android+Apple and at the low end by a huge wave of asian cell phone
makers.

Compare his very clear eyed approach to the ongoing and incoherent messages
coming out of RIM.

[1] - [http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-
ra...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-rallies-
troops-in-brutally-honest-burnin/)

~~~
diminish
Having followed Tomi, and judged by myself, Elop's memo was a killing coup on
Nokia, rather than a saving hand. S Elop could not manage properly a
transition to a new platform/s and his main decision to switch to Microsoft's
again and again unproven/failed platform can be judged ridiculous by a 10
years old child, even, namely Ms platform was sunk already multiple times
(here speaks a Windows developer, aka me), HTC/LG/Samsung were already
producing the phones, MS's stragegic misalignment with Nokia etc etc etc.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I'm not really disagreeing with you. I'm not particularly bullish on the
Nokia+MS partnership, etc.

What I'm objecting to is more the framing and context of the criticism. I
think it's a hard case to make that Nokia was doing gangbusters and that since
Elop came in that it's suddenly unexpectedly not doing well.

------
aeturnum
Attacking Elop, either as a mole for Microsoft or a good old fashioned
incompetent CEO, is pretty popular when talking about Nokia. However, I think
he's justified his actions pretty well, and that switching to Windows Phone is
a big gamble, but not an unreasonable one. I think their decision to
immediately drop Meego was questionable, but I can understand why they did it.

Before my current android phone, I used Nokia phones for about 5 years. The
Nokia phones had great hardware and a good low-level stack, but higher level
stack needed a lot of work. If I never use another symbian device, it will be
too soon.

I think you have to consider how competitive MeeGo would have been against
Android / iOS (probably not very - though not for technical reasons) and look
at the situation at RIM. RIM kept their own OS, and has suffered for it. I
think Nokia put out the Lumia phones to stay reasonably current, which they
did, and now they need to release a real "Nokia Windows Phone," that
differentiates them.

Maybe they can't do it and they'll go under, but I think a lot of the
criticism is sour grapes from people who dislike Microsoft or liked Nokia's
old phone OS'es.

------
codedivine
Here is a different perspective from another attendee:
[http://mynokiablog.com/2012/05/04/mnb-reader-generated-
fact-...](http://mynokiablog.com/2012/05/04/mnb-reader-generated-fact-
checking-what-was-said-at-nokia-agm/)

I must say I am a little disappointed that rants like these are now on HN
front page.

------
Loque_k
my 2-cents: I actually think Nokia could be on the up. Most companies like
this have a problem with their departments lacking communication, or lack
guardians that ensure each aspect is unified and works properly - and Nokia
may never have this; however if they stick to the platform and strive for
better quality on delivery and innovation it could work out alright.

I thought Nokia were going to bite the dust, but then I remembered consumers
are fickle... if Nokia release something that looks sexy, and works well, they
will be back oki. As long as they keep symbian going for the low-fi robust
cheap phone market (that is still at large).

Also I really appreciate the insight on Tomi from nl... thanks!

~~~
nakkiel
> consumers are fickle... if Nokia release something that looks sexy,and works
> well, they will be back

I kind of agree with you but the Lumia 800 is a really good device on all
sides but I coudln't find it in the color I wanted. Nobody cared at the shops
and I was a weirdo to them for shopping a device they don't believe in..

~~~
EnderMB
Mine was the opposite experience. I had played with WP7 and I thought that it
was a fantastic OS and would look and work great on a great phone. Nokia
always used to make fantastic phones so I was looking forward to the Lumia,
but quite frankly it just looks like a brick.

There's a certain sleekness to it, and given how annoying it can be to develop
for Android and iOS I think they could win over a load of developers who like
.NET and C#, but to me it feels like Nokia failed Microsoft, and quite rightly
they'll suffer the consequences.

If Nokia release a phone that looks amazing and is fully-featured I can see
them snagging back some market share, especially when Windows 8 ties in with
mobile. Additionally, if they can create a great phone with a low price tag
they could land the cheap smartphone market. A good Windows phone would
probably beat the cheap Android phones with ease. Ideally, Nokia would have
initially taken this financial hit before these horrible figures came through.

------
sethg
Speaking as former Nokia employee (they bought my employer in April 2010, I
bailed at the end of this January), I think all the discussion about Nokia’s
strategy is missing a very big factor in Nokia’s decline. Their corporate
culture is deeply, deeply dysfunctional: my pet name for them is “The Finnish
Soviet Socialist Republic”. I think (judging from some of the internal
propaganda we received while I was there) that some people in upper management
understand that there is this problem, but you can’t take a company of 100,000
people who were hired and trained and promoted to thrive in one kind of
environment and then, two years later, have them adapted to another.

------
lnanek
I admit I didn't make it through reading the article, but I disagree with how
he sees the CEO talking about wanting retail reps to sell the phone as a bad
sign. Every single phone OEM that sells in the US wants that very badly. In
fact, I'd be scared for any company that didn't constantly try to improve it
even if they were currently first or second at it. You constantly see OEM's
run contests, hardware giveaways, bonuses for selling one or x amount of a
device, training sessions, etc. - all sorts of goodies - for the retail reps.
That's just how most phones are sold in the US. Google selling the Nexus One
from www.google.com/phone didn't work out because they didn't get this, so
Nokia is already at least off to a running start if they realize where the
battle to get sales is at.

------
richardlblair
I use to work in a retail setting selling cell phones. I can tell you that
there are sales people that will boycott some brands. However, at the end of
the day these sales people just want to make their commission. Usually sales
associates will sell the brands that offer the best bonus for selling their
phones.

If RIM is offering double commission for their phones then the sales person
will sell anything with the name RIM on it. It's really easy as that.

------
mongol
No doubt is Nokia in trouble. And having followed the smartphone embryo that
was Nokia 770 (with Maemo) I wonder why they were so late to really embrace
this path. When they did, it was too late. What really happened in Nokia
between 2005 and 2008?

~~~
jacquesm
> What really happened in Nokia between 2005 and 2008?

Iphone.

------
kokoloko
Nokia can always embrace Android and become another Samsung. They seem to have
lost the opportunity to build a solid alternative with the
Symbian/Maemo/Meego/Win8 mess. Maybe a Maemo with Android Apks support could
save them?

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matt4711
what a terribly written article which almost lead me to a [Certain Road to
Death]

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recoiledsnake
Ugh, not this rambling guy again with his highly opinionated and biased crud.

