Here’s an interesting internal Nokia interview with CEO Stephen Elop. I like a lot of what he says here, especially the bit around “we have to fight hard, show intellectual curiosity, and of course everyone has to be accountable … These are behaviors we’re trying to change … We have to go faster, harder, and more aggressively than we’ve ever gone before, because of the competition.” Exactly. Hopefully this mindset is infectious within Microsoft’s Windows Phone division as well.
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Infectious? MS will not become more agile until ballmer is out and a lot of the old management follows. the company’s DNA is to ship stuff every 18 to 24 months. WP is the exception and even so, they are already going back to the doomed strategy of BIG releases with tons of features and then a period of silence and inactivity which is when IOS and android are busy leaving them behind.
If Baller had any clue, he would have released all of the mango features that are ready each and every month. this would bring wp7 on par and allow it to keep up with IOS and android far more easily.
To be fair, Elop did come out of Microsoft and has close relationships with Ballmer and other higher-ups at MS, of course. That said, Elop was also sort of a short-timer (just ~2.5 years) at Microsoft. Maybe he never caught the disease. :) (To continue the “infectious” theme.)
The more I hear from Elop, the more I like him.
It will seem like a conspiracy (which I am not suggesting or advocating), but when I am asked who could replace Ballmer at the top of MS, I can envision and hope for someone like Elop..
Just thinking out loud….
Sure. This would be a great thing to do as part of the Microsoft/Nokia merger. :) And yes, I’m serious.
With Nokia stock price at a 13 year low Microsoft better buy it before another company does. Another company buying Nokia would probably end the operating system deal between MS and Nokia.
As far as Ballmer goes I don’t think MS/Gates will get rid of him unless the enterprise side of MS starts losing money and market position. MS does need to be more aggressive and faster on the consumer side of business but you can’t do that with the enterprise side. Maybe they need to appoint a strong leader with a lot of consumer product experience for the consumer side that reports directly to MS board and Gates. I don’t think Stephen Elop is the right person for that job. Elop has not been the head of a major company for any long period of time. He might just be at Nokia for a smooth sale of the company like he was for Macromedia to Adobe.
This would be a prime time for Google to mess around, methinks. They have money to burn and would probably enjoy the ensuing mayhem. :)
I fail to see how Google purchasing Nokia would be of any great benefit. Android is already growing at astonishing rates worldwide, far exceeding Apple’s iOS growth – it’s not like they need to acquire market share to keep their skin in the game. Furthermore, Google doesn’t have a history in hardware – 97% of their revenue is derived from search ads.
Even for Microsoft, there isn’t a need to acquire Nokia. They have already sealed the deal on Windows Phone being the primary Nokia smartphone platform going forward and that will be achieved without spending tens of billions via full blown acquisition. Ballmer, for all his perceived faults, actually makes some pretty good deals. The Nokia deal is another one of those good deals – for a few billion in petty cash and marketing, Microsoft will gain access to Nokia’s extremely broad worldwide reach, without none of the headache. Microsoft is a software company, that is its core business. So, it’s staying true to form.
Media pundits constantly say that Microsoft should wrest control over its platforms by making its own hardware so it can better compete with Apple. I do not think that is the answer – Apple’s success in creating end-to-end experiences is quite unique and is backed by an almost cultist consumer following. To pretend that such high-margin, double-digit profit growth success can be replicated merely by Microsoft getting into the hardware business is unwise, if not misguided.
Sure, people can point to the Xbox, but let’s not forget that billions were expended before it reached meagre profitability, and that’s before you consider the massive warranty costs involved after the widespread faults with the 360. Perhaps its only other mildly successful hardware venture is in keyboard and mice.
Which brings me back to Google. In many ways, Android is simply a more modern and usable replica of Windows Mobile 6.5 – it has all of the same problems with fragmentation, performance and lack of a smooth touch experience. But, Microsoft was left flat-footed in response to the iPhone and didn’t release something competitive until 2010. By that stage, Android had already been on the market since October 2008 and had been iterating very quickly. Google’s early response is paying dividends today. Arguably, had Microsoft focussed on iterating WM, rather than just sitting in abeyance, it would probably still be competitive today – let’s not forget that Windows Phone 7 is still based on CE.
That said, Microsoft deserves credit for starting afresh and trying to create something new and differentiated. It doesn’t often do this – the last major example is probably Windows NT on the desktop in the early 1990s, which is the underpinning of modern versions of Windows. Yes, they still have issues moving with haste (the NoDo delays etc) but by September, the feature parity gap with the other platforms will be broadly filled in. Nokia will then give the platform the volume it needs to really take off.
Google would never buy Nokia. I’m saying Google could easily cause trouble here, just like they drove up the price of that wireless spectrum auction.
Ah yes I am sure Google would not mind causing some trouble. Another company that might want Nokia is HP. It would be a big acquisition for them but would help push webOS into the European market. The Nokia employees and Symbian fans just might rally behind webOS.
I also like him, he is the guy behind the great Macromedia products some years back until Adobe bought them. Since Adobe bough Macromedia, products like Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc, have seeing absolutely no advance in years compared to the short time it took Macromedia to position their products as leaders in their fields including Flash which Adobe is slowly destroying.
Im absolutely sure Elop will do the same with Nokia, bring them back to their leader position in phones, he moves fast and always brings innovations to the companies where he works.
Its thanks to him in part that Microsoft has such great Office products and also why Microsoft absolutely dominates in the business arena.