Nokia CEO Stephen Elop under pressure for Microsoft decision

[The_Unbeliever]

Will reserve comments for a later stage, until WP7 (and WP8) have been all over the place, and have lots of things thrown at them.

 

[kingrob]

Where does this leave RIM?

 

[Sl8er]

Where does this leave RIM?

Pretty much without a JOB? (du-dum-dish!)

 

[murraybiscuit]

Where does this leave RIM?

rim is losing out internationally and its growth locally is not reflective of its global performance.
from an apps and ecosystem point of view, they have little clout unfortunately, so even if they did want to step it up a gear, they don't have the advertising model, maps and navigation, media content, email and productivity services which the main players have (in addition to exchange integration that is)
what they do have is bis which is useful for entrants into the smartphone market, but once users are less price sensitive, they generally end up leaving bb.
it seems that finally that people are realising that most platforms have push mail and some kind of im client nowadays.
well, that's the way i see it.

 

[murraybiscuit]

Will reserve comments for a later stage, until WP7 (and WP8) have been all over the place, and have lots of things thrown at them.

yeah. my issue here is with the timing. wp7 isn't being released as a tablet os, so msft's entry into the tablet market will be further delayed this year. and the tablet war started already in 2010...

 

[LazyLion]

I also hope they can pull it off. I won't mind having a nice alternative for future smart phones.

BUT.... it is going to be one long hard slog for both companies to get this right.
They really cannot afford a single slip-up here.
The first prototype that they release had better be one heck of a phone.
or their doom is sealed.

 

[murraybiscuit]

To me this is the phone standard of the future, I have no problem with Android currently, but we need to look at what would be dominant over the next 3-5 years and my gut tells me this is what Nokia have also seen in WP7.

i'm not so sure that you can bank on wp7 leading the pack, but you do have a point wrt c#. let's face it, there's plenty of c# developers, itching to use their mad skillz and msft have generally not given them anything to bite at in mobile for a few years now. there's also a bunch of new developers looking at the next 3-5 years thinking "do i really have to learn 3 different languages?"

one major hurdle to further hardware support is msft's tight control of the ui from a hardware and software pov. android gives oem's the opportunity to differentiate through customisation. wp7 doesn't. msft said they will make an exception for nokia, but i don't see that ms putting much weight behind it for very long. sorry, but you've got to decide at what level you are willing to allow fragmentation to happen, and not allowing oem's equal access may make nokia happy, but it's going to pi55 off samsung, htc etc.

my prediction is that samsung htc etc will focus more on android, because they have no licensing fees and aren't prescribed to in terms of ui. thus, nokia will be the dominant player for wp7, making wp7 it expensive competitor. it remains to be seen whether consumers think the ecosystem offers sufficient value for money and whether the wp7 interface is better than ios.

 

[kingrob]

rim is losing out internationally and its growth locally is not reflective of its global performance.
from an apps and ecosystem point of view, they have little clout unfortunately, so even if they did want to step it up a gear, they don't have the advertising model, maps and navigation, media content, email and productivity services which the main players have (in addition to exchange integration that is)
what they do have is bis which is useful for entrants into the smartphone market, but once users are less price sensitive, they generally end up leaving bb.
it seems that finally that people are realising that most platforms have push mail and some kind of im client nowadays.
well, that's the way i see it.

Good analysis.

I think RIM's future is with Android. iOS is out of the question & so is WP7.

If RIM can get the Android Market and apps running on BB OS, they will survive, otherwise they'll become a phone/tablet manufacturer for Android.

 

[InTheCube]

All in all this is good news, as it sees the death of Symbian (thank God!), and opens up many more opportunitues for a WP7/Nokia synergy then the sum of WP7 and Nokia acting in their individual capacities.

We have to thank the iPhone, because they sparked this war. Without iOS, we would still be stuck with Symbian S60 and WM6. Now we have iOS, Android, RIM and WP7, and no Symbian. Looks like the best outcome to me.

 

[groothendrik]

From a blind user's view point

Used a trophy and really liked it, so Nokia moving to use wp7 is a great move in my eyes.

Though what I find truly disturbing is how stupid some people can be.
Elop may have suggested wp7 as an alternative OS sure, but without from the board members and majority shareholders nothing could have gone forward in the first place.

That is very true. I think it's a good thing moving to WP7. However I have the following problems:

I have had accessibility issues with Nokia;
Using Windows is not easy because of the lack in making it accesible to the blind (they tried in Windows 7...) and it didn't work; and lastly
Are they going to import all the Windows buggs?

If so, I shall go Apple or Android...

 

[murraybiscuit]

That is very true. I think it's a good thing moving to WP7. However I have the following problems:

I have had accessibility issues with Nokia;
Using Windows is not easy because of the lack in making it accesible to the blind (they tried in Windows 7...) and it didn't work; and lastly
Are they going to import all the Windows buggs?

If so, I shall go Apple or Android...

wow. now there's a post from a different viewpoint
how on earth do you even begin to type a message on a touch phone?
hendrik, i think you should start another thread for this, because if you're to a large extent blind, it would be fascinating to understand your world...

 

[LazyLion]

That is very true. I think it's a good thing moving to WP7. However I have the following problems:

I have had accessibility issues with Nokia;
Using Windows is not easy because of the lack in making it accesible to the blind (they tried in Windows 7...) and it didn't work; and lastly
Are they going to import all the Windows buggs?

If so, I shall go Apple or Android...

Ja, I would also like to know more please... because I thought the accessibility features in Windows 7 were actually pretty advanced.

 

[EtienneK]

So, instead of adopting a free, very up-and coming ecosystem (android), Nokia's CEO decided to join a dying ecosystem.

Please stop spreading these lies. Android is only free if you use none of the Google services. And if you don't use them, well there goes your ecosystem.

 

[Quey_Quick]

Please stop spreading these lies. Android is only free if you use none of the Google services. And if you don't use them, well there goes your ecosystem.

Say what? Google services are free. The only place you will find any form of cost is bandwidth and the app market. That is the same with any samrtphone be it from Apple, RIM or Nokia.

 

[ads]

A marriage made in hell... but I guess they deserve each other

 

[lunamystry]

Currently we only have two dominant smartphone OS's. That's not good for competition, and thus us as consumers. I for one hope that they are successful in this, we need at least a third player. I doubt HP and Palm can pull it off.

I imagine myself working for some company withal boss who doesn't know about programming. He knows that mobile needs to be embraced. He thus wants an app for the company. if you have so many ecosystems, Eish. On desktop you know, it must work with Windows, they have market share. You also have three major OS so its not bad. Mobile, you have android, iphone, nokia, HP, blackberry. All different.

 

[EtienneK]

Say what? Google services are free. The only place you will find any form of cost is bandwidth and the app market. That is the same with any samrtphone be it from Apple, RIM or Nokia.

I don't think you understand. For manufacturers to bundle these services in their devices, they need to pay licence fees to Google.

 

[Quey_Quick]

I don't think you understand. For manufacturers to bundle these services in their devices, they need to pay licence fees to Google.

Ok. I get that. But I am pretty sure for any app the manufacturers will need to pay licence fees? Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Demented_ZA]

Nokia's new strategy

I don't think you understand. For manufacturers to bundle these services in their devices, they need to pay licence fees to Google.

Exactly!

I for one am getting a little intimidated by the fact that a company as large as Google has all this power, and isn't using it yet. More and more people are jumping on the Android bandwagon, lured by promises, reminiscent of an early mourning infomercial. Once Google has established a decent foothold, all they have to do is name their price and collect. Checkmate...

Mind you, Microsoft has already achieved this point, so Google is just giving them a taste of their own medicine.

I have been using the Nokia N900 for some time now, and I honestly believe that Meego/Maemo is the future. This is a true Debian Linux computer in your pocket. The sheer amount of community involvement and freedom of this platform is astonishing. I have used Android extensively, and it does not even come close to Maemo. If only Nokia had stuck to their guns, as previous posters mentioned, this would have been Nokia's year.

I've always loved Symbian because it was like a computer in terms of freedom, but this ended when they started with application signing and phones like the iPhone started overtaking Nokia in terms of speed, functionality and usability. It was at this point when Symbian "overstayed its welcome", and Nokia needed a new Ace up its sleeve.

Many users who know what I know, hoped that Ace would have been Nokia's Maemo (or Nokia+Intel's Meego) OS. What kept a lot of users loyal to Nokia in the high end market was the Rock solid hardware, the self-explanatory and easy to use interface, and computing features. With the new strategy, Nokia seems to be just another HTC competitor with the move to Windows Phone 7. Bring on the heavy licensing fees, poor battery life, unsupported hacks for features, and slow devices due to WPA being integrated like a xenomorph parasite.

Nokia's decision dealt a swift blow to the Opensource and Linux community. No surprise given Nokia's new ties to MS.

At the very least, if Nokia's new Smart-Phone offerings with Windows Phone 7 were able to be reflashed with Maemo/Meego, I would say hey, whatever keeps you alive Nokia, thank you for my handset! Even if this is not supported under Nokia's warranty, but they are at least still involved with the Opensource Project (whether it be Maemo or Meego) in order to help compatibility, I'm sure the open source community will do the rest as they already have been (and will be) keeping a lot of Maemo alive. I mean, a lot of new smart phones are computers. Format and re-install anyone??

On a final note, Nokia's employees and some shareholders, are not too happy about the strategy. Some shareholders have put together a plan B and requested immediate dismissal of Stephen Elop. Due to the new strategy, a lot of organisational changes are being made, meaning a lot of people will be losing their jobs. Luckily for them, Google has offered to employ ex-Nokia employees... lol!

Too bad Intel don' make phones. I'd support them as they are still going ahead with Meego. In this article Intel's CEO said, and I quote "...One shouldn’t do this capriciously; [it] needs to be thought out,”, referring to the change in Nokia's strategy. Considering Nokia and Intel worked together on Meego, I'm sure he'd know what he's talking about, and on that note, it kinda says it all...

 

[kingrob]

Hi Demented_ZA and welcome to My BB!

Very good first post.