Tomi Ahonen is not happy with Stephen Elop
by Volker Weber
Nokia is right now doing about 4 times as badly, as Motorola in its darkest hours. And this the new brave honest American-style CEO calls a 'solid' first quarter? What business school did Stephen Elop go to? This sounds like "They will greet us as liberators" style Rumsfeld-Cheney'ian deliberate suspension of any tiniest thread of reality. When I said, that for any Nokia CEO to write the 'burning platforms' memo, I said he'd have to be a "delusional psycopath who willingly suspends reality". Come on? Stephen Elop called Q1 of Nokia 'solid'?
Comments
It is really amazing, how fast Nokia is going down. However, even I as a hardcore fanboy, have to admit, that the N8 and E7 don't cut it. They are good phones, but e.g. the E7 is way too expensive. Plus Symbian ATM is not up to par.
Symbian Anna will make it a little better. Too little, too late.
Now imagine a Noia E7 with WP7 (Mango /w multitasking). Wow.
There IS hope, but they better act quick.
Has anyone here actually used a mid-level Nokia consumer product?? My God, they are awful, I had the misfortune of helping someone setup a new phone over the weekend. The old Nokia didn't have bluetooth (understandable) to make the transition easy, but the new one didn't have the USB cable in the box either so it pretty much came down to copying contacts to the SIM and then to the new phone. It took me 15 mins to figure out how to get it out of "Offline" mode, and I had to use my iphone to google a number of other settings. I love how they bury some items 4 menus deep and never in related areas. Even I was frustrated trying to use it, and I know a friend who is a flash programmer have a similar issue with the N900. Nokia really needs to hire UI and Useability experts, they might have some solid products but iOS, Windows and Android is going to kill anything that is the smartphone range.
Actually, i quite like the Nokia C7: Nice, slim and robust design. Dedidacated phone buttons (red and green) and free navigation. Nice startscreen with space-saving widgets (i can see new mail, new appointments and more on one screen, less space consuming than android).
The browser however is crap, as is the ovi store app and the general system to manage internet connections and roaming. Sadly, photos below 80 cm distance are not possible, other photos are ok and fast.
The Nokia C7 is now available for about 250 Euro without contract.
If you do not know how to switch from OFFLINE to GENERAL profile you have not used a nokia in the last years. Every Nokia i can think of was able to switch profiles with a short press on the Power button.
It is the user that is stupid not the product. Where have I seen this meme before?
The result is that many "stupid" users buy another product next time.
Maybe Tomi Ahonen is not happy with Stephen Elop but then one has to ask the question what to expect from a former Microsoft manager?
On 09.02.2011 someone named E.Casais wrote a comment on his blog
[...]
Contrarily to Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Larry Page, he is no entrepreneur, so very obviously, he will play by the management book (chapter "window dressing"). That means:
a) Discontinuing large areas of R&D (I guess Meamo and tablets are on the chopping block, as well as some branches of Symbian).
b) Quickly launching models based on WP7 or Android (to "catalyze or join a successful ecosystem").
c) Selling parts of the company (manufacturing plants, smaller divisions).
d) Severing the last links with Nokia-Siemens (to "focus on the core terminal business").
e) Firing lots of employees.
And in two years (max three), after a short-term profitability surge, he will tout his performance in revamping Nokia's fortunes, and then quickly decamp to his next position
in another corporation, leaving behind an eviscerated company.
We shall know more on Friday.
Unfortunately that is what I see in Nokias future too (but I am no expert in the mobile market).
