[mail4ajo]

Is the Nokia N8 due for any OS update? I love Nokia for its easy to use menu system and the hardware on offer. But I am not able to get an experience like the iPhone4 on the N8.

I am a diehard fan of Nokia and have used only them from 1999. But I feel its time to shift to a better user interface. Should I wait or choose the iphone4?

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Hope we hear something positive on Friday.. early release of Meego or switch to Android

I was about to pick up a N8 this weekend and now this. I would like Meego.

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

Is the Nokia N8 due for any OS update?

Ah.. there are more like me.

It has got an update PR1.1, no great changes. The changes are listed here by some folks a few posts back.

Now check what Netfreak comes out with.

Please Nokia - an E7 with Meego please. If thats asking too much how about a N8 with it instead. But no Symbian please.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I was about to pick up a N8 this weekend and now this. I would like Meego.

Best wait for couple of days...

Even those I know in Nokia are clueless about overall direction.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Please Nokia - an E7 with Meego please. If thats asking too much how about a N8 with it instead. But no Symbian please.

+1, ANYTHING but Symbian. A "firmware update" that installes Meego/Android on current S60/S^3 devices would the biggest gift Nokia can give to its customers.

[NetfreakBombay]

Complete memo:

Hello there,

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a choice.

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times - his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.

We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.

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.

And, we have more than one explosion - we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.

For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.

In 2008, Apple's market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core.

Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally - taking share from us in emerging markets.

While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.

The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.

At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.

At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, "the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation." They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.

And the truly perplexing aspect is that we're not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we've lost market share, we've lost mind share and we've lost time.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody's took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.

Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It's also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.

How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?

This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally.

Nokia, our platform is burning.

We are working on a path forward -- a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.

The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.

Stephen.

Source:

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest 'burning platform' memo? (update: it's real!) -- Engadget

More drama:
Google's Vic Gundotra on Nokia: 'Two turkeys do not make an Eagle' (updated) -- Engadget

[Thad E Ginathom]

The guy on the burning platform had to chose between probable and certain death.

I wish these management types would leave off analogy --- unless things for Nokia are really that bad: certain demise, or just probable demise. Maybe they are.

[Cesc]

I think the writing on the wall is pretty clear for Nokia - change or perish. IMO the analogy used by the CEO is quite apt.

Yes Nokia is a giant (still is) but history has enough examples of giants biting dust. The past 5 years (more so the last 2) have very significantly eroded Nokia's clout. This memo should have been sent long ago.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Best wait for couple of days...

Even those I know in Nokia are clueless about overall direction.

Confirmed.. Symbian has been abandoned. Nokia will move to Windows mobile platform.

Now, buying Symbian device makes sense ONLY if you need a phone and do not intend to install apps.

Nokia and Microsoft announce plans for a broad strategic partnership to build a new global ecosystem | Reuters

[San Phrangmung]

@ Netfreak Wish Nokia had joined hands with Android instead. Microsoft OS will only make Nokia phones more expensive and finding extra software a problem. If Nokia really abandones Symbian and stick to only Windows, my next phone is not going to be a Nokia.

[amitk26]

Ram milai jodi ek andha aur ek kodi ..

It is marriage of equals a company whose real problem was dated hardware which sucks marries another whose OS sucks.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Confirmed.. Symbian has been abandoned. Nokia will move to Windows mobile platform.

I am buying the N8 tomorrow. Probably my last Nokia device ever.

[NetfreakBombay]

I would advice against it. Development budgets are being slashed, firmware upgrades/bug fixes might not be around for N8.

[silversteed]

So it's Bye-Bye Nokia in a couple of years. Confirmed that my next phone is not going to be a Nokia. I wouldn't buy a Nokia phone(or any phone or laptop) running windoze. Let me see how far my 5800XM can stand my (ab)use like my N73

[devarshi84]

Symbian is not abandoned yet. Symbian is being pushed downwards making way for Meego. Nokia cannot just let Symbian die with all their investments and the huge marketshare it still commands.

What this means is that Nokia is putting all its resources towards Meego for now as it is very important for them.

It wont be long though when symbian is either merged or discontinued. The first battle was lost when they didnt increase the app list. Apps list is Iphone's most powerful weapon.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

I would advice against it. Development budgets are being slashed, firmware upgrades/bug fixes might not be around for N8.

I am buying it "only" for the camera.

And thanks your posts here have been helpful to keep track of how Nokia is digging its own grave.

Nokia's lost a diehard user of their products.

[NetfreakBombay]

Yes Symbian will live on, but not on phones like N8.its getting pushed down to cheaper devices that run S40 at the moment.

Meego has been given 16 months to thrive or get killed.

EDIT:

Apple to launch cheaper iPhone (smaller screen) for less than $250.Would be targeted at pre-paid and will not require a contract.