I think many of Nokia's users, whether they use Symbian, Maemo, S40 or a combination thereof, have been extremely concerned by today's announcements.
It would seem that Nokia has become an adjunct of Redmond.
As per Google's barbed comments yesterday, I feel WP7 is a Turkey; a half-baked one at that. It's a glorified and under-featured feature-phone O/S. Consumers seem to recognise this, sales having been poor in the US and dismal everywhere else. Without Symbian or Meego, where would that leave Nokia in the smartphone market?
Whilst Nokia's direction seems to be governed by MS strategy at the moment, the board is not entirely composed of stooges (at least not yet). As per today's fairly drastic falls in Nokia's stock on world markets, many investors are in a state of extreme disquiet over today's news.
What can we do? We as a community can continue to support and buy Maemo / Meego, Symbian and S40 products, whilst boycotting any future WP7 phones with a Nokia label. Grass-roots campaigns can be exceedingly successful. Elop can't ignore the market forever, and if he does, he'll be sacked.
People should contact me if they would like to support this idea and have useful skills. I'm not a coder, so others will need to take care of that whilst other individuals manage the project in conjunction with me.
We need coders, site designers, admins, some good graphical artists, web hosting, people to write articles (preferably in the industry) etc etc.
Re: several posts doubting my ideas or the the likelihood of contuining to buy or support Symbian / Meego devices having any chance of success in undermining WP7 or Elop:
The principle is very simple.
Facts:
WP7 sales have been diabolical outside the US and very poor inside the US, so far.
Symbian sales are still strong outside the US.
A Meego device - if not released in an intentionally crippled state - has good potential for sales outside the US and possibly moderate niche market sales within the US.
Effect of continuing to buy Symbian handsets and future Meego ones:
Those sales will be supporting a CURRENT revenue generator and profit maker for Nokia at a far higher profit margin than notional future sales of Nokia WP7 devices (which couldn't help but be at a lower profit margin), whilst at the same time WP7 sales will likely remain dire.
In the face of continuing high numbers for Symbian, possibly promising sales for Meego and awful sales for WP7, are investors and non-MS-stooge board members of Nokia likely to support Elop / this strategy? The answer is a simple and resounding no.
you're wasting your time and money. nokia's idiot investors demanded that nokia focus on the us. if you want to have an effect, become a majority shareholder.
you're wasting your time and money. nokia's idiot investors demanded that nokia focus on the us. if you want to have an effect, become a majority shareholder.
Elop enjoyed far from unanimous support among investors prior to the announcement. The ~14% falls in price today echo this.
He was and is however exceedingly popular on Wall Street.
Excising Nokia's core smartphone markets (Symbian / Meego) can only work if WP7 moves any units at all.
Is this a joke?! You want to support Nokia when Nokia has effectively decided to stop supporting you?
Nokia isn't one man (or two, judging by today's press conference). It's a company. It's an entity. If you think the Elopian strategy is one supported by anything more than a tiny minority of Nokia's staff (without whom the company can't function), you're sorely mistaken.
1. Channel your money to Nokia by buying their product.
2. Watch Elop channel your money to MS for WP7 licenses and stuff.
3. ......
4. Profit?
He can't pay people to buy WP7. If and when it doesn't sell, if he insists on forging ahead, his tenure will be extremely brief and the whole, sorry episode will be terminated.
He can't pay people to buy WP7. If and when it doesn't sell, if he insists on forging ahead, his tenure will be extremely brief and the whole, sorry episode will be terminated.
Don't know about you, but I can be bribed. Easily.
