Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Here's an interesting short article that speculates on Nokia "losing it's mojo" and a brief mention of Maemo on a smartphone:

http://ow.ly/15JFSf

It's worth a read.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

"Maemo a key future asset". Every time I read that I'm excited-but-scared.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Another analyst saying that Apple's smartphone will conquer the universe.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

The sad thing is, so many of us (current and former) US Nokia employees saw trouble coming, knew steps we could take to at least minimize the damage, but were ignored. Most of us that became so didn't have to end up jobless. We could have fixed this.

Anyway, Qt could help Nokia in a huge way-- but will it be in time?

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

It's absolutely amazing how difficult it is to save a company whose time has come. Everyone can see disaster looming, but no one can agree on what action to take, so it continues to drive toward the obvious cliff. For me, the company was Quarterdeck, which went from privately owned company to $40 a share company to 50 cents a share company, then went under. I have a feeling Nokia is on a similar path.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I'll say it again. I know I sound like a crazy man, especially as the months go by, but... We here are privy to the seeds of a revolution. We're going to see a fairly standardized Linux distribution, backed by a big corporation, pushed into the mobile market in a huge way. The lines between PC and handheld are going to blur like never before.

Most of us here see this, but the industry will be blindsided. They won't know what hit them. The rules are going to change significantly. Until now, everything's been proprietary. The only threat to the iron control of the manufacturer-provider cartels were little hacker groups who made headlines when they 'jailbroke' or 'unlocked' phones...

Now, most everything will be open, INCLUDING THE TELEPHONY STACK. Just think of the power that gives developers and users to do what they want with the technology.

I've been repeating this since Summit 08; Maemo will change everything. You just wait.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I was in a rather unique position about a month ago to get to see some early prototypes of potential, future cellphones coming from Nokia.

The prototypes were so rare that there were only 1-2 in existence "touring" the world - and I kid you not when I say that they were treated as if they were made out of sheer glass :)

Anyway, since I can't say anything due to an NDA I can say that if those phones is an indication of what Nokia may come out with in its cell phone product line I'd say they may have very a very nice future ahead of themselves.

Note: I got to view/handle the hardware only - they were not (could not) be turned on - and very told about the functionality/features they would support.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I appreciate your optimism, but you've never owned a cell phone. There are powerful forces that control the airwaves, and those of us that are in tech and have had cell phones for over a decade feel those forces. They're not relenting. Software won't change everything; the technology has been ready and waiting for some time now. It's going to take an act of Congress, or Google will have to buy a country. I won't be holding my breath, but I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong if you're right. Or were you just looking for another bet? :)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I'm curious: what steps do you think Nokia should have taken? How could this have been fixed?

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

And you think the cartel will just let maemo leisurely walk in to break their hold?

We need people who sees the big picture of the reality... not technical people who understand which ideals would be best.

IMHO, iPhone was the perfect device to break the cartel. Why? Because it's actually a trojan horse.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I'll only speak to the US market.

The potential fix was in the feedback. Not just the stuff I was mining but info made readily available from a variety of sources. Demographic data that revealed to not just Nokia but any potential supplier just what American citizens wanted. Our surveys were flawed (the ones I saw) but even worse was our advertising-- nearly non-existant and poor when it was there. But customers, nonetheless, were talking.

Apple listened.

RIM listened.

Nokia shut its collective ears, and let those two seize a market it should have owned, in blinding speed.

Ragnar, many of the details are things you and I can only discuss in certain confines, certainly not in a public forum-- because what I have to say reveals far too much about Nokia internals. So hopefully you and I can talk in Amsterdam if my sponsorship is approved?

Anyway, it's public knowledge that in the US Nokia faltered on releases it could not afford to (N80, N75 for 2 examples) and bottom line failed to incorporate the needs of both end users and most critically the big service providers like AT&T and Verizon. Some of this was caused by CDMA IP issues with suppliers like Qualcomm, but bottom line Nokia allowed it to impact success in the US which helped allow competitors to gain a foothold.

I think it's safe to say Nokia should not have been caught by surprise by the iPhone. The groundwork for its own product had been laid with the 7710.

As for RIM, are any of us surprised that services matter?

Not sure if this reply is helpful for you, but again, I would be glad to gripe more privately. ;)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I think that what Nokia needs besides good hardware (which is actually provided), and good software (seems to be working on ?), is to care about developers.

I mean, to give the same importance the "developer experience" as the "user experience".
It have to make it easier to develop or to start developing for maemo/symbian .
It have to provide tools for major platforms, good documentation and a good system for publishing/selling applications. I'd say something like the AppStore, but without all the AppStore nonsense.
If Nokia can provide an outstanding and attractive development solution, and create a good business opportunity for developers, it will rule the world .
To see what I mean, take a look at how many questions were asked on stackoverflow containing the following tag:
iphone --> 5,793
maemo --> 4
symbian--> 113

I know that StackOverFlow.com isn't the best place to compare the number of developers for these platforms, but these numbers are expressive.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

That's in the works NOW.

Should it have happened sooner? I think so... but again, the Titannic was very slow to turn... :D

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

How is the iPhone any more of a trojan horse than a Symbian, Android, WebOS or WinMo phone?

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Not to speak for ysss, I'd call it a trojan horse because it came with a solid, ready-made developer environment that Nokia is just now beginning to seriously cultivate. That plus iTunes. CONTENT is king... and the iPhone has turned out to be one of the best bearers and conveyors of content.

That said, the small number of Symbian apps compared to iPhone apps *could* speak to quality over quantity... but if that's even close to the case, it's still something Nokia needs to present better.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Be careful with your metaphores :)

It was that turn which sank Titanic...

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Yeah, but I was more interested in a trojan horse to do what? I'm in the U.S., without legal tethering, an iPhone contract would actually more than double my data costs. If it's not going to cut my data costs in half, what kind of cartel-busting will it be doing?

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I am totally pissed of by nokia's decison to stop developing touch screens after the 7710. Seriously it was right in front of them.... the future of mobile devices was touch screens. That was the most stupidest decision they ever took. After all they had billions of phones with key pad..... what is wrong in having some with touch screen?

Some day i would love to get to know the reason behind dropping support for touch screen phones.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

While this sounds very good and optimistic, I don't see what a new hardware and a new (already existing) software stack is going to do to upend the market ? Really QT has been there before (used in other phones/PDA's too (like Trolltech Greenphone conceptphone) and Zaurus (in Qtopia form) - and none of these bring anything that turns the market on its head .

I still fail to see what new market changing form this new technology will bring.

Apple by virtue of its total control and its unique new device also didn't change the market - but just could wrest some control out of the ISP's and take it upon themselves instead. Android hasn't had any market changing effect.

I believe Google voice actually has some market changing potential, in the sense that it can actually render the Voice ISP's as dumb pipes (as what they should actually be), since nobody needs to depend of the ISP to control they voice number anymore.

And just bringing a slick UI is no more a differentiator anymore - now any and all UI seem to be trying the slick act, so I wouldn't give much weightage there.

Just a open telephony stack might be a good technology differentiator, but I still fail to see how it is market disruptive in any way.

Or maybe you know more than most else ?

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

The metaphor was intentional. ;)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

perfect hindsight and USA == world seems to be running rampant...

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

As the US has gone, so will go the rest of the world eventually. ;)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

My biggest beef with Nokia's relationship with customers is the end user provision of accessories and parts (stylus, kickstands, screens, etc. the things that people might in fact want to fix or replace easily themselves and not have to wait an ambiguous month or more for the unit to be repaired and shipped back). I've never had such terrible experiences as whenever my Nokia products (not just my N800) needed repair. As you well put it, communication with customers is another issue. Despite all the religiously faithful optimism bandied about by some of the Nokia faithful, I can't say that I feel like Nokia listens when people have problems or want something. Ever since purchasing my N800 the day they were release, I've yet to see Nokia produce anything tangible as a result of various criticisms. (The exception being the open-sourcing of the drivers for some of chipsets. I've yet to see Nokia even open-source their very own applications written for Maemo, which makes me wonder whether the credit really goes to Nokia or to these chipset manufacturers).

Sure! Call me cynical. I'm just looking at the tangible results and the experiences of my own and of those around me. I can see why people are still buying some other brand's products, trying to find that brand to be faithful to. Nokia has potential and they were at the FRONT of something great with the tablets but I sense many possibly arrogant and myopic decisions from executives that 'know better' than their own engineers and the voices of their own customers.

Let's see if they can't manage to wrangle back customers like a proper company.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

*sigh*

I really, really wish I could vent more on this...

Oh, and shout out to my old buddy Milhouse! I see you lurking there! :)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I feel compelled to add something here.

I hope no one gets the idea I am whining for the sake of... whining. There's more to it.

I joined Nokia because I wanted to. I was already employed elsewhere at the time. I saw an opening that highly intrigued me and went for it.

Best move of my professional life, hands down.

I fell in with a team of passionate, can-do people at the Alliance factory that had the knowledge and desire to make Nokia USA THE cell phone provider of choice. This group had been given an ultimatum: transform the way you do business; improve your efficiencies and quality targets; become THE best practice standards bearer for the corporation. Do these things, accomplish some very specific metrics, and your factory has a future. Fail, and it does not.

I was hired to help fulfill that. We took the challenge very seriously. The factory teams rose to the occasion and beat

every

single

expectation.

Not long afterward, we were told, "hey, nice job! You did what you were asked and more. But we decided to shut you down anyway."

Therein lies the origin of some of the bad feelings of many ex-employees. I can't blame anyone for it.

I decided to be optimistic despite depression over the closure, and made sure my name came to the attention of the main US office. I was fortunate that a role opened up I could walk into. So my employment was extended for a while.

Anyway, it's not just sour grapes. We were dangled a carrot and we rolled up our sleeves and went for it. We WANTED Nokia to succeed. We had the knowledge, the people and the tools to kick both Apple and RIM's @$$es soundly.

But we were not allowed.

And that's as much as I'll go into... and maybe more than I should have.

Some may wonder, "are you bitter, then?" No. Disappointed, but not bitter. And if asked, I would gladly return to Nokia. There's still things I want to be a part of fixing.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Dude.... don't get me started! :) Ahhh... too late.

I agree with pretty much all the comments made so far - Nokia made a complete hash of touchscreen phones by misreading the future direction of smart phones and arrogantly digging in their heels by denying touchscreens were important (the Exec behind that decision is hopefully looong gone). Nokia have even paid for the mismanagement of Maemo which, let's face it, was just a vanity project until the iPhone dropped, which caused Nokia to panic and decide to get serious about our favourite mobile OS.

Nokia's customer focus is and always has been poor, and even the comments made by danramos strike a cord - did anyone ever find the web page selling replacement stylii for the 770, N800 or N810? Hidden pages on the Nokia online shops - sheer genius! It's a little thing, but it kinda sums up the general incompetence and lack of attention to detail that seems to be endemic at Nokia.

At the end of the day, Nokia has become a corporate mess that should be sh1tting bricks at the level of developer mind-share they have hemorrhaged to the competition in the last 2 years, and which they are very unlikely to recover for a long while to come. It's good to hear that nice new devices are coming down the pipe, but the world has moved on from the latest hardware and it's now about slick, usable software and effective, reliable and ubiquitous services - areas in which Nokia are notoriously weak.

Maemo - amazingly - may be the salvation of Nokia, if (and it's a big IF) Nokia gets it right with Fremantle. Fremantle and the "N900" device must tick every box that one would tick when considering an iPhone, and that's just if Nokia want to be in contention let alone exceed what Apple have so far created.

And then there's the issue of improved customer service.... attention to detail... amazing and flawless execution. A major overhaul is required, root to tip.

Oh well... fingers crossed for Maemo! :)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Very, very unfortunately you and your colleagues were victims of Nokia incompetence when it came to the US cell phone market. :( I can tell you are not bitter, just immensely frustrated by the sense of helplessness you no doubt felt as you could see it all going to sh1t around you. Sometimes, I feel the same about Maemo... ;)

The US cell phone market seems to be different to every cellular market elsewhere in the world, and I'm not really sure that Nokia got to grips with that difference. And now, with the emergence of sophisticated US cellular platforms that will challenge the best that Nokia has to offer, Nokia will regret for a very long time the loss of that market, and people like you.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I believe nokia wanted to use its sheer numbers to change the way the cellular providers operate in the US. While they lost valuable market share by not releasing locked phones, they always had the hope of doing it the right way yielding better results in the longer run. But unfortunately that idea was a total disaster. Not developing touch screens and not going in for carrier lock ins are the most important factors which led to its current downfall. I personally think the first one is a dumb decision while i applaud the second one. But in the situation they are right now...... unless the fcc intervenes there is no way they would succeed by selling unlocked phones only. The worst thing is that people are buying the locked phones and ending up paying more over the 2 year period and having to stay in a contract. But still they are selling like hot cakes. :(

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I believe that in any SUCCESSFUL business that has managed to rise above the rest--you ALWAYS see the idea that EVERY division and job title in a company is there as a tool to aid the rest and that everyone needs to get their way. Let the engineers, engineer (management, lawyers, developers and everyone should be helping them to successfully execute good engineering decisions), let the developers, develop (management, lawyers, engineers and everyone should be helping them to successfully execute good development decisions), and so on.

From my observations: when the management at the top pretends that they are the end-all and be-all of all knowledge in the company and stop being the managers and instead pretend they know all the best decisions for every element of a company, you will end up with either oppressive micromanagement or with a sloppy mess. Neither will work.

Seriously.. look around some some of the most successful and honest businesses that allow their engineers, developers, admins, etc. to have decision control or feedback in how a company runs.

It was VERY much appreciated on the customer end. I am not particularly interested in being a deep cynic here. I WANT to have brand loyalty, but I don't feel married to a brand that won't even talk to me or take care of me when I need support.

I regret that Tex was let go--I've always been glad to see someone at Nokia actively participating as if they were one of us and listened to the excited raves as well as the frustrated rants (and man, did I EVER rant a lot!). Thanks, Tex! :)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I only hope nokia does not do another 7710 debacle by stopping the development of internet tablets as we know them. As we all see there is a lot of interest in wide screen pocket able devices. Nokia has been having tablets for almost 3.5 years now and no one seems to be knowing them. While apple's tablets are still a rumor and every one is waiting for them to release. If nokia stops releasing wide screen 4-5 inch tablets then it is just a repetition of the 7710 debacle. If that is the case no one can ever help nokia.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I only have two complaints about Nokia:
1. The tablets never had a slot for a SIM card
2. They haven't come out with a current generation 3G smart phone compatible with T-Mobile USA

I still use my N800 on a daily basis, but I had to jump ship with my phone --- I ended up dropping my Nokia 6680, and getting a G1 which I'm very happy with.

H.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I starting to think Nokia is working very diligently and intelligently. We know almost all the Lead mobile devices coming in the future from major competing companies.Samsung(Tegra Based Phone), Motorola(Sholes), Sony Ericsson(X3), Toshiba(TG01), and HTC(Leo) devices that outperform what we currently know best of Nokia to come. Devices that define true mobile computing, performance, experience the edge. They are all unparalleled to anything out there currently. If one comes out before another it will dominate the industry of mobile phones a new benchmark. The Current Standards of the best. Even though everyone has sort of brought of their party-peace, "unofficially" Nokia is still staying shut. Why?

Now the million dollar question is what hack is Nokia Strategy of being on Top or competitive enough to succeed. What have they thought of that will bring them, to stay ahead of the Competition.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

One (other) concern I have about the new tablet (and Nokia) is the price.

Consider that the N810, when new, retailed for less than half the price of the recently launched N97 (in the UK, the figures were £250/$425 for the N810 and £600/$1,020 for the N97 at current exchange rates).

Now consider that the next tablet will be significantly better than the N97 hardware in every respect (more powerful CPU, more memory, bigger screen etc.) and I have to wonder if Nokia will be forced to sell the new tablet at:

a) N97-type prices thereby risking accusations of massive price gouging in order to prop up the N97 price when the more highly specified tablet is compared with it's much cheaper and only marginally less capable predecessor (the N810 is actually much, much closer to an N97 sans GSM module), or

b) Sell the new tablet at a slightly higher price than they charged for it's predecessor perhaps in the region of £300-£350 (allowing extra for the cost of the new SoC and extra memory, even though this hardware probably doesn't cost that much more than the older chips did 2 years ago).

If Nokia go with Option b) people may begin to wonder how Nokia can justify charging £600 for a less powerful device (the N97). But go with option a), and I think Nokia could be a laughing stock - surely a GSM module is not worth £200-£250!

Essentially, I wonder if the next tablet could redefine the smart device/smart phone market for Nokia - and potentially other players - in more ways than one.

I am truly beginning to find it harder to believe that any device, which is made from just a handful of off-the-shelf chips (ARM SoC, Bluetooth, WiFi, some memory, a Nokia ASIC or two, a handful of other components) using often stock circuit designs can justify a £600/$1000 price tag these days, particularly when these devices sell by the million and achieve a massive economy of scale.

Let's not forget the bill of materials for an iPhone 3G S is estimated at only £105/$179... yet it retails for many times that amount (yours for £919/$1,555 "SIM free" on expansys.com!)

If Nokia decide to charge a fair price (ie. N810-ballpark) for excellent hardware (no c0ck ups) with great software and UI (no c0ck ups, like there are aplenty in the N97) it will surely help the device (and the Maemo platform) become a success.

But price it the same as a current top-end Symbian smart phone and I think Joe Public will just get themselves an iPhone instead - why take the risk for similar money?

I also think Nokia may have to treat this next device as something of a loss leader to ensure they remain in the game. Getting the price wrong is just one more variable that could lead to a premature "game over" for Nokia, or at least leave them mortally wounded until the next Maemo device comes along next year, if anyone will still care by then.

/ramble

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

@Milhouse:

Wow, you're a downer. And stop making so much sense.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Unfortunately NOBODY cares about this. At least, not "in my time": seen the Palm T|X and Treo 650 price difference? Guess which one had _better_ hardware, which one had the "GSM module", and which one costed 200$ more?

I hope they care now that the iPod Touch is considered iPhone without GSM... but I'm not sure.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

You might be right, but I'm sure I won't be the only one to notice such discrepancies in future. :)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I know - that's why I went away from here for so long! Didn't work though :) :)

I don't know if it is sense, but it's what I've started to notice and I can no longer see how companies can continue to justify exorbitant prices for mobile devices, particularly when they are manufactured in quantities that range into the tens of millions.

I know manufacturers have design costs, production costs, distribution costs, support costs etc. but when the N810 is being sold by Walmart for $214 you have to wonder what price Nokia sold it for in order for Walmart to still make a profit - maybe a price in the region of $160, and Nokia still manage to make something out of it? So when the new tablet comes out Nokia may have a tough time justifying a price that is significantly different from the current retail price... IMHO.

Factor in the future Intel MIDs, plus netbooks with 10" LED backlit screens that can now be bought at retail for under £300 and I can't see how the current extreme prices for top-end phones can be justified in the longer term. I'm not expecting prices to change any time soon, but just thought I'd "throw it out there" before hitting the sack as it's beginning to annoy me the more I think about it! :)

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

I always thought the tablets were Nokia's way into the North American or subsidized handset markets. That is why I was taken by surprise by the purported direction Fremantle and Harmattan devices were going.

Now that mobile carriers are offering broadband speeds I was thinkin' folks would finally realize that:
1. You can do a lot with a remote broadband connection.
2. You still need a phone.
3. That when you manipulate broadband delivered content and data, more often than not you need to communicate your findings or are fulfilling a request that was made over a phone.
5. Not every phone call requires broadband delivered information.

I was hoping these same people would realize that the most efficient way to accomplish all of the above would be with two separate, purpose built devices.

With Googles help, eventually I believe the FCC will regulate cell phone provided IP connections the same way it regulates fixed site IP connections. The cell carriers would still have control over what equipment can connect to their telephone network however, their IP connections will be treated just like any other Internet service provider's. No restrictions or control over what equipment uses it.

The reality is they have little control over it anyway. Most of the methods used by cell providers to limit tethering have already been compromised.

I feel that the NIT's in North America may be ahead of their time. I also believe that the Chinook/Diablo OS is just hitting it's stride. Improvements in its usability are being made every day by independent developers.

Maemo could be Nokia's savior but not by chopping it down to cell phone size and restricting its GUI to Canola like navigation. Nokia should stick to its guns and lead the way with hardware configurations that provide multiple ways to connect to whatever networks that are available via FOSS.

Let the carriers control cell phones. If their customers are using Nokia to IP connect to their 3 and 4g networks, their customers will eventually demand Nokia phones as well.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Where is there to go? Texrat already tried that.

The n900 should blow away the N97 in every dimension, how then could it be less than $700? Makes sense to me.

Re: Article on Nokia Slowing Down
 

Texrat, I've seen that in far too many companies these days. Upper management becomes so disconnected from the reality of what's actually happening that they ignore the underlings who are in the trenches and see stuff the upper management can't or won't, and thus ignore you because "you don't know anything", and they do. They run the company and thus "are better than any trench rat who just needs to shut up and do what they're told." I worked for a company that repeatedly made that mistake until they finally went bankrupt. Until their dying day the upper management refused to listen to the underlings and "trench rats" even though we saw the day to day operations and knew what was happening with the company and how to fix it.

So don't feel bad. The disconnection between workers and management, mixed with over inflated egos and arrogance is part of the reason we're in the global rut we are now. The sooner management realizes they don't have all the answers, the sooner Nokia (or any company) will improve, because they will finally turn to their biggest asset and listen for a change instead of playing god all the time.