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Published in Mobiles

Nokia CEO issues a wake up call

by on09 February 2011
nokia

Apple and Android are kicking our behinds
Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop recently sent Nokia employees a memo admittedly trying to wake the company up from its slumber. It is no secret that Nokia, the company once heralded for mobile phone innovations, has fallen behind significantly in the past years.

We must admit, for a CEO he seems quite poetic as he drew a parallel between Nokia and a man standing on a burning oil platform. The memo reads: "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." For all you soap opera lovers out there, worry not as the man survived – which is exactly what Elop is trying to do with Nokia.

However, it was not all stories as Elop reminded the company employees that Nokia’s competitors have wasted no time in chewing of large chunks of Nokia’s share. He pointed out that Apple’s $300+ segment was 25 percent in 2008, soaring to 61 percent by Q4 2010. Elop noted that since the iPhone launched, Nokia hasn’t managed to make a product “that is close to [Apple’s iPhone] experience.”

Elop also had many a good thing to say about Android, saying amongst other things that the platform is fast approaching the sub-€100 segment. “Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.”, Elop said.

Elop said that while innovation was always a part of Nokia, the company is not reaching the market fast enough. He went on pouring cold water on MeeGo, saying that at this rate Nokia might have only one MeeGo product in the market by end of 2011. He also addressed Symbian, saying it is:” 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.”

Elop announced the new company strategy for February 11, rallying all employees to contribute to Nokia’s return to former glory. Our personal favorite part of the memo was when Elop said:”In the meantime, we've lost market share, we've lost mind share and we've lost time.”

All in all, we wish Elop and Nokia good luck, because they sure will need it. You can read more here, where you'll  find the memo in full.


Last modified on 09 February 2011
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