See this man? His name is Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia. He has a problem– A big problem. As of now, Nokia has lost its dominance in smartphones world wide to Android. Symbian is a throwback OS and it looks like it. Nokia has no presence in the U.S., where the hottest Mobile OS lives. He wants to change that.
Elop wrote a memo to the company called the Burning Platform.
“Over the past few months, I’ve shared with you what I’ve heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and what I have come to believe.
I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.”
He basically rips Nokia a new one and is now teaming with Microsoft to bring WP7 to Nokia.
Symbian is good but it’s known to be difficult to develop for. Windows Phone 7 has only been out for a couple of months and it already has more apps available than Symbian! Crazy!
No Android for Nokia
“There are no heroics in being the 20th Android phone at Best Buy,” said Dan Hays, director at consultancy PRTM. “Going ahead with Windows Phone 7 could actually serve as a differentiator for Nokia in the marketplace. No other major mobile phone developer has really stepped forward to embrace Windows Phone 7 in a big way.” -CNN
MeeGO
MeeGo isn’t going away, its just not going anywhere either. It will remain an open-source “project”. Who knows when we will see a MeeGO phone hit the market.
Micro-Kia
I think it is a great move for Microsoft and Nokia–two companies getting their butts kicked in the mobile arena– to come together.
I can’t wait to see what this will look like. Excited?
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I’m not sure I’m too happy with Nokia teaming up with Microsoft. I actually like the Symbian OS. I know there’s barely any apps available on Symbian phones but the Symbian OS works great with Nokia phones as a whole. My first ever cell phone was a Nokia. Been using Nokia’s for most of my life. I’ve only switched to the Blackberry back 5 years because of the business nature in them. But I still use my Nokia N95 when I travel abroad. I like a phone with just the base phone functions and basic apps instead of Angry Birds on it. It just works. Nokia should just spend some R&D money on programming a new nextgen Symbian (not the meego). Teaming up with Microsoft isn’t a good move in my opinion. Microsoft has their hands in too many pies. They never spend enough time on one thing to make it great and complete it. Nokia would end up getting shafted by Microsoft. Don’t hate…just my opinion.
I think you have to consider the circumstances. Symbian is good but Android is waaaay better. iOS is waaay better. And this is the Age of the App. You have to have them. Otherwise you are just a really nice feature Phone.
He had to make a move. They were crashing and burning. If I was Elop I would have WP7, kill MeeGo and redevelop Symbian for 2012.
Look at HP with Palm. People thought WebOS was dead, but its back and looking better than ever.
We all know Android’s train will soon slow down, and people will be ready to try something different in a year or two. I think he is making the best possible move right now.
Nokia has consistently made the best cellphones in my experience. While the OS is lacking with today’s feature and technology, I’ve found that every time I’ve tried a different device, I end up missing the simplicity and quality of Nokia. I think this is a good move for them, though I think I would have preferred to seem them with Android.
The trend is a lot of people saying, “I remember my first Cell phone was a Nokia.” Yeah back in the 90’s! Like I said before, Symbian is good. But its not Great. It can’t compete. I don’t want it to Leave, I want it to get better. Right now though, Nokia is like what Palm was a few years ago. Kind of… They have to make a move or end up in last place.
Like I said, I think this is a good move for them. I just hope they continue with their quality of hardware and emphasis on ease-of-use.
Yeah I agree. Though there have been reports of problems with the C3, N8 and C6. All which made me hesitant to buy from Nokia, especially at an unsubsidized price. (which I really dont have a problem with so as long as I know i am getting quality.) None of Nokia’s Phones are in high demand and it certainly is not because of Hardware. Its the OS.
I kind of disagree with most of you. Nokia’s problem was named Symbian, an antiquated proprietary OS that actually has its roots in the Psion PDAs of the late ’90s. Nokia have spent enormous resources trying to turn that into a working modern phone OS.
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In the meantime, they have been running a much more low-profile project on developing Maemo/MeeGo, which has already blown Symbian out of the water (the Nokia N900 is an incredible phone). Why wouldn’t they give MeeGo a fair chance at showing what it can do?
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Oh yeah, did you know that Stephen Elop’s former employer was … Microsoft? Right up until last September.
Yes I know he was a former Microsoft Employee. And if MeeGo was so hot, where is it? The time is now not later for them to get going. I’m sure MeeGo has great promise and the N900 is great. But it has its short comings. A landscape oriented phone is not appealing to most people. Add that with unsubsidized price which people want, you are talking very small audience in the states. And if developers want to make some money they are gonna go where the money is. Symbian should have more apps than any other, and it has less. Nokia is not only in last place, its getting lapped. I like Nokia, I like Symbian. I almost went there instead of Android. Almost.
I hope it works well for them both. I have had Nokias for years [I’m British] and still have a use for my N95, but I’ve just got an E5 and it is painful compared to my iPod Touch. Even 3 years old, the N95 camera is amazing, and Nokia engineers are fantastic – no AntennaGate there!
I have heard good things about Windows Phone 7 so will be interested to see what comes out.
Yeah the E5 is at a good price though there are some short coming that made me not get it. Namely the Screen size. The N95 seems still be a great choice even after all this time. Would like one for a back up phone too.
@Jeff
Seriously? You really think the Android train will slow down?
I think the opposite will happen. I think components for Androids will become cheap enough that it will be cheaper to develop dumbphone using Android than it will be to create a dumbphone all by yourself.
When that happens, you’ll start to see $50 Android phones. Sure, many smartphone features won’t be there – it’ll probably be missing cameras, touchscreens, etc, but it’ll be an Android, and it will kill off the dumbphone market.
I think that Nokia basically just gave up the smartphone market, and will now tried to milk out as much money as they can from the dumbphone market, before they get overwhelmed by the cheap, “dumbphone” Androids.
Are you kiddin. Android is as fragmented as can be now. Yes they are able to make them cheap now but have you ever used a cheap android phone? There already a lot they can’t do. What’s more likely to happen is feature phones will disappear. But even then something hotter will come and people will be looking to try something different. Like wp7. Or webOS. I know i am.
2 years ago, there were zero Android phones. Today, they have 22.7% of the world wide smart phone market.
Android has already beaten out Apple, RIM, Palm/HP, and MS in market share, and are on track to beat out Symbian in market share within this year.
I like the Apple iOS far better than Android, but I’m not blind. I see the freight train coming. It’s a 2 horse race right now, between Apple and Android, and it’ll be a 2 horse race a year from now.
Those cheap, crappy Android phones? They’ll stop being crappy eventually, but they’ll still remain cheap.
It is a 2 Horse Race at the moment, but remember when the iPhone had no competition really to speak of? And then Android came and got strong, and by the Army that it has produced, it is dominant. But we all know if iPhone was on every major carrier, that Android Army would not be so large. iPhone would most likely have higher numbers than Android. Palm’s webOS muli-tasks better than Android and iOS. They screwed up by giving us Phone form factors that were not appealing, and then killed themselves with lousy marketing. They are back and Look quite impressive. Nokia makes fantastic Hardware and WP7 is Fresher than Android and iOS. I think that Andorid will soon begin to look stale when and if the competition delivers Handsets that grabs people’s attention.
I Love Android. I love iOS. I have a crush on WebOS and I am flirting with WP7. These are your 4 that will be around. for the foreseeable future.
oh and I forgot RIM. Blackberry is not going anywhere. Thats guaranteed.
Like Elop said it’s burning platform and he has to jump for his life(nokia as a whole), Microsoft is just happened to be a sinking life raft(mobile biz)within reach, pack w/a lot of cash and willingingness to “save”. Both can reach their destinies depends on how well the execution is, mobile biz is wide open with high growth therefore every has a chance. It’s too early to predict the outcome, let’s wait 12 months then see.
For those of you that think that Windows Phone has more apps than Symbian, here are some facts for you. Windows Phone currently has 8000 apps. Symbian has over 28,000. Less than ios and android for sure, but way more than Windows. And lets not forget that it is not a 2 horse race. The Symbian os still outsells everything from a global perspective, with Android nipping at its heels. RIMs BlackBerry is brining up 3rd place and Ios is a close #4. That currently makes this a 4 horse race, with Symbian on top but its steadily losing traction.
In comparison wp7 is far more current than symbian. Like I said though, I like symbian, its just getting blown away by android.
Relying upon sales numbers alone is folly. The proof is in the pudding. If current sales were the best indicator, Nokia would not have made this move (or any move for that matter).
Additionally, comparing the number of apps from platform to platform is apples-to-oranges, ESPECIALLY if they’re not in the same technology stratosphere… and in this case, Nokia is at the very bottom when compared to any of the current major competitors (Google, Apple, HP, MS, and even RIM).
Though I have to add that RIM too will need to make some major changes to keep pace, despite their current sales numbers in the US (and dominance within the enterprise).