
Nokia USA president is out, replaced by Microsoft vet Chris Weber - mfukar
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/12/nokia-usa-president-is-out-replaced-by-microsoft-vet-chris-webe/
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danilocampos
Is this how things are done now? Definitely cheaper than a buyout and you
don't have to worry about regulatory backlash from either country's
government.

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saturdaysaint
Why do you imply that Microsoft is the prime mover in this whole turn of
events? I think it's clear that the board, shareholders, and much of the
public (witness the hemorrhaging marketshare) had lost faith in the ability of
Nokia to develop a modern smartphone operating system internally. It's likely
that the board brought in Elop (and , yes, some of his former colleagues) to
make a deal like this happen under the most favorable terms for Nokia.

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rst
What's not so clear is that this strategy was the right one. Particularly
since the big, bold move isn't doing Windows Phone 7. (They're late to that
party already; LG, Samsung and HTC already have phones out now.) Instead, what
distinguishes Nokia so far is what they're _not_ doing: fielding an Android
device. And if you think Nokia doesn't have enough resources to do both, why
haven't they dumped Meego yet?

There may be unannounced considerations that make this deal reasonable. But if
you're going to bet your company on a single third-party platform (something
that you don't need to do), it seems odd for it to be one that has yet to gain
any serious traction in the marketplace.

Hence (I think) the suggestions that, to put it politely, Elop's past
affiliations have skewed his judgment...

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saturdaysaint
Elop gives a very credible answer to why Nokia shunned Android:
[http://video.allthingsd.com/video/nokia-ceo-on-choosing-
wind...](http://video.allthingsd.com/video/nokia-ceo-on-choosing-windows-
phone-over-android/A9024583-EBC9-4817-AD5E-A2569CA55F4B/)

In short: Nokia would give Android so much market share that Android would be
unstoppable. Which sounds nice, but it would mean that Nokia would very
quickly have almost no leverage over the ecosystem.

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rbanffy
So, his reasoning is based on the idea that Microsoft depends on Nokia as much
as Nokia depends on Microsoft. When WP7 fails completely, life will go on for
Redmond, but will be over for Nokia.

You have leverage when your partner needs the partnership more than you do. In
this case, Microsoft has as much of it as it wants. As soon as Nokia is
committed to WP7, Microsoft can do whatever it wants with them and they'll
just put up with it, because they need the "partnership".

Elop is not dumb. He is screwing Nokia _for_ Microsoft.

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endtime
If I were Elop, I'd want to hire someone I knew and felt I could trust to do
the job. Elop probably knows a lot of people at Microsoft. Expecting him not
to hire a Softie would be tying a hand behind his back.

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rbanffy
And that is exactly the problem of hiring softies - they export the amazingly
successful practices that resulted in blockbusters like Vista, Zune and Kin.

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MartinCron
On a more serious note...

I'm in Seattle, and I've worked with a lot of ex-Microsoft people on various
projects. I find that they are often committed to the Microsoft way of doing
things, which is often appropriate for a huge software company, but wildly
inappropriate for a small startup.

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yuhong
Yea, Techrights has several cases where ex-Microsoft people that was hired
recently led the company to add a MS stack as an option. It is interesting
that an issue that was discussed there years ago has become more widely
discussed recently.

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rbanffy
You cannot trust Techrights to be balanced. Those folks have a serious (albeit
understandable, I admit) case of MS hatred.

But I also observed this behavior many times.

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yuhong
Yea, I never agreed with every claim they make.

