Ex-Nokia exec Tomi Ahonen is crazy for CEO Elop

[rei]

http://communities-dominate.blogs.co...nd-destro.html

This guy has been shrilly anti-Stephen Elop (and the decision to Windows Phone) since the beginning. Sure, he may have been an exec with with Nokia in the past but these blog posts with their analysis (some good points here and there) and fancy charts kind of put on their crazy raccoon-eyes with headings like:

ELOP ADMITS MEMO DAMAGED NOKIA SALES, THEN LIES TO COVER UP EXTENT OF HIS ERROR

and:

ACTUAL DESTROYED PROFITS TO NOKIA FROM NOW INTO PERPETUITY:

...somehow he thinks Nokia would have been just fine continuing along its Meego/Maemo path and that the N9 (had it been given a chance) would have saved the company. Eh, isn't the above libel?

I prefer Horace Didieu's more sedate analysis of the mobile sector over at asymco.com but this Tomi Ahonen fellow really is interesting to read in a car-wreck sort of way.

Why yes, the 41 megapixel (but not really) PureView will save Nokia, I'm sure of it. Camera optics are exactly what will win everyone over.

[rei]

A goodie from earlier this year:

The CEO Insane: How to rescue Nokia

[Woolen Horde]

I'm still stunned at how Elop announced early last year that they would basically abandon Nokia's OS and embrace Windows Phone, and then they didn't release a Windows Phone until the end of the fucking year. Seriously, you just killed any reason why anyone would want to invest in a Nokia phone, but you won't have a Windows Phone for them to buy until almost a year later?????

[rei]

Well...that worked for RIM to repeatedly pre-announce vapourware, over-sell and under-deliver...right?

(an aside...I just posted this thread a few minutes ago but it's the first hit for "Tomi Ahonen is crazy" on Google! bahaha)

[rei]

Like RIM, he thinks all they need is marketing to save Nokia in just one quarter. This guy is Derek Smart level crazy.

[rei]

10k layoffs
http://communities-dominate.blogs.co...ew-career.html

[pyjamarama]

Unfortunately it probably won't be the last cut, my understanding is that Nokia did most of there production so this will continue until they close it all, expect the Chinese facilities and even them they may outsource. Also lot's of jobs cuts in research since they do less software development.

[Brakara]

I'm still stunned at how Elop announced early last year that they would basically abandon Nokia's OS and embrace Windows Phone, and then they didn't release a Windows Phone until the end of the fucking year. Seriously, you just killed any reason why anyone would want to invest in a Nokia phone, but you won't have a Windows Phone for them to buy until almost a year later?????

He actually did worse, since in the infamous "burning platform" memo, he also said Nokia's current products (at the time) were shit. Tomi may be crazy, but he is absolutely correct about the devastating "Elop effect."

[rei]

...and shortly after this Microsoft themselves Osbourned all the current Lumia phones.

Tomi has an update at: http://communities-dominate.blogs.co...ming-soon.html

[rei]

I'd forgotten how crazy Nokia was when they wanted to compete with iTunes back in 2007.

[pyjamarama]

I'm pretty sure that Nokia was well aware of the Windows Phone road map when they signed the contract with Microsoft, Nokia knew well in advance the the Lumia 900 should have been a 2011 release and not March of this year but was unable to to do it, to be fair reports say it takes about 18 months to produce a phone. That's why Nokia was on stage talking about all the apps that are still coming to Lumia WP7.5 in hopes that appeases some of the users, but in reality they are more counting on the fact that most people are not aware and as long as there phone works well they would be happy.

[stusser]

He actually did worse, since in the infamous "burning platform" memo, he also said Nokia's current products (at the time) were shit. Tomi may be crazy, but he is absolutely correct about the devastating "Elop effect."

Nokia was in a tough spot. Their current phones were shit. The CEO chose to double-down on the windows phone, with Microsoft's enthusiastic investment buoying the company.

It's not actually his fault that the windows phone never caught on. Looking at it from his perspective, he could either join LG, HTC, etc, and make yet another android phone in a market that was increasingly hostile to product differentiation, or try to break away from the herd. It didn't work out, but I can understand why he did it.

[pyjamarama]

I think it's a bit early to say what's going to happen to Nokia, sure they can sunk into the ground in a year but there is also a good chance that they remain at number 3 in the smartphone world behind Samsung and Apple.

[RepoMan]

Yeah, this is going to be a multi-year transition for Nokia. The game isn't over yet.

The real question is whether Win8 takes off on all fronts -- PC, Surface, and phone. If it does, then the apps are so not going to be a problem anymore. And the apps were the biggest issue with WinPhone7 all along.

[Brakara]

Nokia was in a tough spot. Their current phones were shit.

That may be true, but saying that your phones are shit before you have replacements is a recipe for disaster (as we've seen). And especially when your shit phones increased sales (in volume) in the previous Quarter.

[stusser]

People still buying nokia phones don't read the wall st. journal. They either live in third-world countries or deal drugs to kids and use them as burners.

[rei]

Did you see the shittastic 41mp sensor dumbphone they released for 699?

[stusser]

Nobody buys that stuff. Nokia's bread and butter is selling inexpensive dumbphones to disadvantaged people. A market which is slowly but surely dwindling over time.

[Starlight]

Eh. They're making a killing off "not-quite-smart" phones in the BRIC's at the moment.

[cheapfilms]

Did you see the shittastic 41mp sensor dumbphone they released for 699?

I really want that camera tech. The phone though...
Was it a vanity project by an exec or something?

[stusser]

Nokia is famous for releasing extremely expensive "halo" products that nobody ever buys. This is not uncommon, you see the same thing from ATI and nVidia competing on performance. Their highest-end cards are prohibitively expensive, costing more than some entire computers, and exist so they can say they're competing at the highest level. Nobody buys them, but that's not the point. "Halo" products are a proven marketing technique.

[pyjamarama]

Also the camera it was 4 to 5 year research project that was being tested on Symbian from the begging so, they either wait a year to put it in a WP phone or just release to the wild and sell a couple of them and send most of them for reviewers, question of course is if the technology can improve the cameras for other phones or if is just a dead end.

[rei]

Nokia is famous for releasing extremely expensive "halo" products that nobody ever buys. This is not uncommon, you see the same thing from ATI and nVidia competing on performance. Their highest-end cards are prohibitively expensive, costing more than some entire computers, and exist so they can say they're competing at the highest level. Nobody buys them, but that's not the point. "Halo" products are a proven marketing technique.

See Vertu. Point. Laugh.

[stusser]

Vertus aren't really halo phones, they don't feed into that same best of the best technolust urge. They actually aren't very good, technically. They're jewelry. Different urge.