I suspect that the Nokia board made the decision to go with Windows, and
asked Microsoft for someone to execute the strategy. Elop had no experience in
either the phone business or in other consumer electronics markets. The phone
market moves fast, and destroying your old product (Symbian) before you had a
new one on the market was stupid. Elop however would be used to enterprise
customers who *couldn't* change suppliers at short notice.
Something
that I find particularly bizarre is the statements that issued forth from Nokia
that they needed Microsoft's help to get better penetration in the "North
American market". First, there's no "North American market". The phone market in
Canada is radically different than in the US and none of the carriers are the
same. What was selling in the US is not what was selling in Canada (where
Symbian phones were actually selling quite well). That seems to indicate that
the board was not too clued into the nature of the respective markets they were
basing their decision on.
What is more, the idea that *Microsoft*
could help Nokia in either market is laughable. Microsoft's reputation in the
phone market was absolutely abysmal, based on how bad their previous versions of
phone software were. *Microsoft* needed *Nokia's* help in the US and Canada.
Microsoft is a slow and bureaucratic company with poor internal
coordination, and has difficulty making decisions. Nokia needed a partner that
could speed them up, not hold them back. They are the two worst possible
companies to pair together in a market like that.
Nokia would have
been better off putting out some Android phones while they tried to get their
own strategy in order. Even if it wasn't what they wanted to do in the long run,
that would have got some cash coming in to pay the bills. Instead, Nokia had the
idea that by selling phones that had software that nobody wanted to buy, they
could "differentiate" their product. A small share of a big Android pie is
better than a large share of a few Windows crumbs.
I feel sorry for
the Nokia employees, and I feel sorry for Finland. I can't see how Nokia can
save themselves now though. I wouldn't pin all the blame on Elop however. Again,
I think he was brought in to execute a strategy that the board had already
decided on. They wanted someone with good connections at Microsoft, and they
wanted an outsider who could be make the unpopular decisions and then got rid of
later. At this point they probably realise their mistake, but are now all too
busy looking for ways to escape the blame that is sure to follow.
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