Yes, their commitment to MeeGo being the center piece of their strategy is where I fall off being on the same page as these folks.
Phones need strong app ecosystems and familiar apps that everyone expects, but developers can only realistically support so many discrete platforms.
Nokia is great at making hardware, they should be confident that is what will stop them being a commodity OEM should they support a first-class citizen operating system (which is iOS or Android - so assuming no deal to support iOS means for me they have to do Android)
Depending on how Alien Dalvik works out, Meego may be able to take advantage of the existing Android ecosystem, while keeping the really nice bits of Maemo/Meego like telephony/messaging/address book subsystems.
Phones need strong app ecosystems and familiar
apps that everyone expects
Both iOS and Android started with zero apps.
MeeGo is based on the Linux ecosystem. Porting games from Android / iOS to MeeGo should be trivial. Building cross-platform apps that run on all of them in C++ is also doable, since you can share the business-logic.
Android would be a bad choice for them. They are big enough to want to differentiate themselves from the competition. Forking Android would be terrible for everybody; Symbian all over again.
So MeeGo or a new version of Symbian is their best option: they can reuse existing code-bases and they also have enough control.
Either way, the partnership with Microsoft is a disaster.
There is a world of difference between getting an <strikeout>executable program application</strikeout> app to run and designing one from the ground up that is platform specific and provides an optimal UX.
If you want the best user-experience, you have to use the OS-specific APIs.
Otherwise your best options are Webview components + HTML + Javascript + some native hooks to provide the missing functionality. Works quite well, take a look at PhoneGap + JQuery mobile / jQTouch.
I have both an iPhone and an Android with dozens of apps on them.
But I could do without all of them, all I need is an Email client + a browser + a Skype client.
If you build a usable/reliable OS with a usable browser and email client, people will buy your phone and devs will come.
WP7 is not even on the radar yet for developers. Porting apps to WP7 for me is waisted effort instead of improving the code-bases for Android / iOS (which also have shared logic that I cannot port easily to WP7 because WP7 doesn't allow native code).
Right, but the problem is MeeGo doesn't even exist in a final or mature form yet. As Elop said, they could probably only get a MeeGo device out next year!
As for the native code argument, well I don't entirely buy that. Developing for WP7 is easy and accessible enough - as evidenced by the flood of apps the platform has already.
Mobile phones are practically fashion accessories. You can buy jeans for $20 (if you don't mind the quality and lack of a brand), but lots of people still buy Levi jeans.
I can tell you it varies by country. In places where they are scarce it is very much a fashion label. Believe it or not, so is GAP. I've given away tons of old GAP stuff I bought in college to family and friends who absolutely adore it but can't afford it.
Sure, but I wouldn't sacrifice my position as the world's leading commodity phone OEM to try to compete on features and brand with Apple; that sounds far more obviously suicidal than gambling on the Win Phone 7 platform
> That is one bold statement. I don't know if I'd bet the company's success on a claim like that.
This whole "Plan B" is big on nice-sounding words that don't stand up to a serious critical analysis. Here's the first point, for instance -
> Return the company to a strategy that seeks high growth and high profit margins through innovation and overwhelmingly superior products with unrivaled user experience.
1. High growth strategy (lower price, more market share, more sales) tends to be antagonistic with high profit margins (high price, lower market share, less sales).
2. "innovation and overwhelmingly superior products with unrivaled user experience" - They're going up against Apple, who are already doing an overwhelmingly superior job and producing an unrivaled user experience... and Apple has a 5-10 year head start. How do they plan to make that gap up while charging high prices (for high margins), and getting large market share?
...the whole site seems more based on arousing emotion than critical thinking/planning.
That is a bold statement, but I think MeeGo would be a better bet for Nokia.
Maintain ownership and control of the software layer of the Nokia products. Software is where innovation, differentiation and shareholder value can most easily be created.
yes but it's something they've been failing at for years. People buy their phones (around the world) because they make the best hardware, but they're losing ground to others who can make much better software.
Nokia 3310 was my first phone.
It had the best software and user interface of its time.
Nokia 6310, featuring similar software, also dominated the market for business phones for a long time. Even when phones with color screens started to sell, people would still buy Nokia 6310 because it was reliable and easy to use.
Of course it is nothing compared to today's smartphones, but you're overestimating the talent and resources required to build good software, especially when they've got all the resources and talent they need.
Their problem is not that they can't write software. Their problem is the lack of focus, and this latest partnership only makes matters worse.
No, their problem is exactly that. They can't write software.
A software on 3310/6310 was much simpler than what we have today. It was hard to write because of the hardware requirements, but it was simple in design.
yes their software used to be the best but that was a long time ago, and things were simpler then.
From what I can tell they are cancelling all their different software efforts and focusing on making great hardware to go with Microsofts operating system. What makes you think this is making their lack of focus worse? Sounds to me like it's a step in the right direction? If they were adding WP7 to their current offerings I'd agree but I thought they weren't doing that?
Yes, for about 5 years I wouldn't buy anything but Nokia. And it wasn't because of the hardware, it was because the interface / usability was leagues ahead of the rest.
I don't think anyone disagrees on that point. But I see a lot of comments across the web (and here on HN) that people agree Nokia's strength is hardware, not software. If they don't have strength in software, can they really execute innovation, differentiation, and shareholder value at the software level? Elop's clearly shown where he stands on that thought with his burning platform memo. And I think the majority of people (from what I've seen from anecdotal evidence) agree with Elop.
Yeah, what are the chances they would come out with a compelling smartphone software platform in the next few months? It's hard to do good work with flames around you. ;-)
Maybe MeeGo would be great but that's certainly unclear at this point. They had years to come out with compelling software and they did not deliver. Essentially these guys are asking for more time.
At this point the steamroller that is Android is up to speed. I don't see how MeeGo is going to make inroads anymore unless it is drastically better. Even though WP7 is actually shipping, it has a similar problem. IMHO, it has to be quite a bit better than Android in order to gain much market share.
No, it isn't undeniable. IMO it's quite the opposite.
Are you saying that the software is the place it's the easiest to create a competitive advantage? (I understand that shareholder value equals to competitive advantage)
This statement is logically wrong - if it's easy for everybody to create a competitive advantage, then it's easy for nobody.
Or did you mean "It's software where Nokia can gain a competitive advantage against the competition". If so, then you should explain what is so special about Nokia.. Because from what we've seen so far this company proved anything but that it can do software well.
Or didn't mean a competitive advantage, but just innovation and differentiation? (I think that most people that repeat this statement do think it). Well - it is indeed easy to innovate and differentiate in software (change the UI, add some bells and whistles). But does it lead to the competitive advantage and shareholder value? There are plenty of examples to show that it doesn't (Symbian, BeOS to name a few).
So: no. Just because Apple uses software to gain shareholder value doesn't mean that it's just as good an idea for other hardware producers.
"most easily be created?" ...I don't see it that way. Building mobile software platform which would be attractive to both users and developers is extremely difficult to build. They already failed several times at that.
I think this is just the same old Nokia thinking - underestimating the difficulty of creating top notch software.
What I believe they are meaning with this is the next generation smartphone market, not the current one. WP7 and iOS will be needing total rework to fit in, whereas Meego is fine even at the moment (..when it is stable at least!). Targeting current market for complete takeover is just stupid, unless you are happy with dying out slowly.
Getting into margins now is job of WP7 platform. Symbian is not fit into smartphone field (use S^3 if you don't believe) and these guys realise it. True that Meego will need lot of work, but there should be enough time to polish it before market they should be targing opens.
Why would iOS require total rework to fit? The most important thing iOS brought was the idea, that small touchscreen requires new UI paradigm. I don't see that changing anytime soon. As for the "under the hood" stuff, it already has a lot in common with OS X, and will share even more with the release of Lion.
Apple for one is known to be looking way ahead of "current market".
Chips that are able to put out more power than current netbooks and still fit into smarphones are not too far away, I'd expect those be ready for market in couple years. Handhelds would be phones that could also be used as laptops/dockable computers. Meego and Qt makes it almost trivial to make same apps work on touchscreen and also with traditional monitor/mouse/keyboard. Remember, the OS is not the platform anymore, it's the app ecosystem.
>Apple for one is known to be looking way ahead of "current market".
So was Nokia. So was Microsoft. It is easy get stuck into profitable segment and not to expand in fear of losses.
Plus, how many MeeGo devices has Nokia shipped? AFAIK, MeeGo system images are available for Nokia N900 (Maemo) handset, but not shipped on _any_ device. Betting the company on that track record would be quite a big bet.
That is one bold statement. I don't know if I'd bet the company's success on a claim like that.