The Deal That Makes No Sense

Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by kennethh on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @05:31AM (#6319931)

Elop must have the record in destroying a company. In 5 years a company went from being market leader with something like 90% of the smartphone market to almost bankrupt. I do not think something like this have ever happened this fast.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by Steko on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @05:50AM (#6319971)

(1) 50% five years ago and already dropping. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/World-Wid...

(2) Elop arrived in 2010 and Nokia was basically already done for.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by speeder on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @07:48AM (#6320345)

I must disagree. In 2010 Nokia was 70% of Brazil smartphone market and their share was still rising, very fast. Symbian phones were known to.be solid, fast, and had apps and games ( even a port of counter strike! )

As soon Elop announced Symbian death, the whole thing tanked, and I cannot help but feel that Elop is stupid.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by skc on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @10:26AM (#6321137)

This would seem to imply that Brazilian consumers read the burning platform memo.

I highly doubt that. I have a huge problem with people flat out claiming that Symbian was an acceptably competitive phone offering in 2010. That's a bald faced lie in my opinion.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by speeder on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @11:25AM (#6321454)

It was, because it was what people could pay.

Symbian phones were much cheaper than a iPhone, and Android had not yet really arrived in force.

Nokia was known here for making sturdy, durable phones that you could use for a long time. If they paired that with also having a solid app ecosystem for the most popular brazillian uses (like, Facebook, Mail and Youtube) they could have easily won the smartphone wars here.

Instead they dumped Symbian and went for Windows Phone, allowing Android to get their former place in the market.

Mind you, most Android phones here are now no-name chinese ones, Nokia left the cheap but solid phone market, and cheap (but not-solid) phones took over the vacuum.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by davegardner on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @05:49AM (#6319968)

Elop only joined Nokia towards the end of 2010. Nokia was well and truly on their downward slide by then.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by 300bps on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @07:29AM (#6320280)

Yeah the completely market revolutionizing iPhone taking all of the high end market and Android taking all the low to high end market had nothing to do with Nokia's downfall.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by pessimizer on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @08:43AM (#6320548)

And the announcement that they were abandoning Symbian when all of the phones they were selling were Symbian didn't have anything to do with that?

You don't announce that you're abandoning your current platform when you haven't developed your replacement platform yet unless you're a moron or intentionally sabotaging your company.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by throwawaykf02 on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @08:13AM (#6320421)

And multiple Chinese manufacturers taking all the dumbphone market in previously-huge Nokia strongholds like India and China.

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Re:The Deal That Makes No Sense by NZ_Matt on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @06:10AM (#6320030)

There's an argument that Nokia wouldn't have been stable now if Elop never took the job. It would have failed in Finland instead of now potentially failing in Redmond.

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