ac1d
Android > Most phone OS
BashLogic
the rise
in the begining of the ninties, nokia was an active member of the gsm consortium
and was way ahead in design and experience due to a history with nmt technology.
the first gsm model it released was the 2110. the model itself is still legendary
today. the 2110 is comparable to the iphone where the design was so good that
it became a problem. nokia was unable to sell anyother model simply because the 2110
was so good. it had the looks, the features and logic. it was good in every sense.
the model sold for over 3-4 years making it an epic legend up to which no manufacturer
has been able to acheive the same. nokia management noticed that it had to be
able to bring in new models and adapt to the american mentality of generating profit
gains qonq and yony. it was not untill 1998/1999 that nokia had a second hit, the 61xx.
prior to this, there was the banana model but it was over priced.
since the begining of the millenium, nokia attempted to bring changes to symbian.
its attempts were repelled by other share owners of symbian. each time nokia attempted
to suggest a development change for symbian, it was shot down.
Epic failures
of the first failures nokia achieved were the killing potential products. this was
done inexperienced middle management who were too afraid of trying something new and
wanted to bring new features a little by little to maximize profit. this is why we saw
in the begining of the 200x where nokia flooded the markets with phones with each newer
one having one or two new features but nothing radical.
the touch screens, nokia had touch tablets and phones produced ever since the begining of
the millenium. it was too afraid thinking that the conecpts were too radical for a potential
market. at the same time it wanted to brake into the US market but failed because of
the wrong atittude and strategy. nokia had the vision of "teaching" its clients on how
to run as an operator and where to generate the winings. the american industry had a different
perspective and shut nokia out of market. this was also done to support motorolla.
motorollas last success was the razor. in some parts motorolla was even ahead of nokia,
for example motorolla was the first and only one to produce a java based phone! in addition
motorolla was the first to bring the radio feature to a mobile device. let us not forget
that ericsson also had touch screen phone but was spoiled by limited availability and
technical problems.
most of the wrong decisions were undertaken under the lead of ceo jorma ollila. his successor
kalasvuo was left with the mess to maintain cleanup after jorma ollila left. it was not
long after jorma left taht iphone came into the market. nokia underestimated the iphone
due to its lack of understanding of the american market and media. it presumed that
the operation would remain small and necligeble. in came the android and no one really knew
what the android was realy going to achieve as where nokia wanted to be in an open market
and development, apple and android had their own views on the case. as android became more
common and few were left owning the symbian, nokia bought the symbian and qt as to
cross integrate and develop the symbian to be what it envisioned it to be at least 5 years
earlier but was repelled by the previous share owners of symbian, this included samsung, ercsson
and the rest.
nokia had created lots of models of which many did not make it to the market and many were
changed in the last minute due to changes in demmand and supply of components.
symbian itself under the hood is a very good os. it is the gui which was lousy.
with the increase in competition, competitors began bringing in devices that were not optimized
but were nice or fun to have and use. nokia understimated this by believing that the hardware
will fail and people will come to realize the difference between candy and quality.
there are numerous mistakes that were dont, most of them were due to inexperienced management
who were more interested in securing personal gains than that to see their job be well executed.
the struggle
for the last two years, nokia has been struggling to elevate the symbian and have qt ready.
the quick changes in the industry made it hard for nokia to find reliable coders in the market
having to rely on outsourcement and the poor quality that came with it. it attemtped to change
the organization and adapt different project development methodology but in vain. with the android
in the market, it was forced to experiment bringing in the n900 maemo. the concept was very promising
but it was shutdown by merging it with intel to become meego. by concept and long term, meego
is a winner. but the development has been too slow and now intel is almost alone working on it.
nokia has spent the last year trying to get everything redone with qt which would have been released
under symbian 4^.
market pressure obliged to make changes, which included the methods of releasing OS versions and
adapting new features. at the end, the risk would have been too large for it to way for the qt
version to come one while there still is a lack for a converged market to benefit of the qt and meego.
the rescue mission
it wont be for a while that we will get to know on the real plans of mastermind behind what elop stated
last friday.it could be a dirty take over by microsoft or then again forced by shareholders. there
has been lots of speculations going on arround this subject.
what was done now was not something of lets try our luck, it was more of a recovery action in attempt
to remedy and things back on track.
wp7, has novel ui concepts and integrates well with office backend. nokia/ms plans most propably
concentrates enterprise and converged markets and not individual end users. nokia and microsoft
has had a joint division with 400 coders working on cross integrating technologies for over a year.
so in that sense, the choice was not a total surprise. if it was to adapt the android, it would
have had the same struggle ahead of it as if it would continue redesigning and brushing up the symbian
with qt.
meego still has its place but has to wait for other factors to come to place first.
as of wp6.5, there has been lots improvements making it become promising. take a look at zune hd and expect
none less. it is more intuitive than android or iphone.
smartphones, what are they? at least iphone is not a smart phone, it is a simple phone with lots of eye candy.
android? it sill has issues but sure does beat ios, just try to develope a hello world and be surprised with
the differences! qt would have been the best. but now with wp7, you have lots of good tools to work on.
nokia had s40,s60,s80,s90, one too many to maintain. it cut down to s40 and s60. it yet remains to see
which of the two will remain.
OS itself is not the core business and never will be. in that sense it should not be strange to
have the os be changed. the core business runs arround the whole user experience ecology.
in all cases, there are over 15k jobs at stake with the changes to come.
Ayman
Very nice article Bash I really enjoyed reading it, I agree that what Nokia did recently is an execution of a fast recovery plan to get it back in competition in the smartphone market. I think the WP7 and Nokia combination can be a big hit as long as WP7 is actually as stable, powerful, and innovative OS as it seems, I think Nokia can bring a big hit again, my only hope is they kick apple's fat rich ass :P
m0ei
AymanFarhat wrotemy only hope is they kick apple's fat rich ass :P
Now i think you 're dreaming a lot those day.
IOS >= Android >>> Symbian & WP7
Symbian lacks alot and WP7 lacks even more. Good luck trying to get back up in the Smart Phone world.
Ayman
@m0ei, we will wait and see :P But I personally think there will be alot of apps for WP7 more than for android and IOS because it will allow any .net developer to create apps with C# and XNA, .net is a very popular technology so there will be allot of apps and games for WP7 in the near future IMO, plus we all know the great hardware Nokia manufactures so as long as WP7 proves to be good and stable platform, the winokia combination can be a hit who knows... After all, I think Nokia knows what it is doing when making such strategic decisions.
m0ei
AymanFarhat wrote@m0ei, we will wait and see :P But I personally think there will be alot of apps for WP7 more than for android and IOS because it will allow any .net developer to create apps with C# and XNA, .net is a very popular technology so there will be allot of apps and games for WP7 in the near future IMO, plus we all know the great hardware Nokia manufactures so as long as WP7 proves to be good and stable platform, the winokia combination can be a hit who knows... After all, I think Nokia knows what it is doing when making such strategic decisions.
I doubt that WP7 applications will exeed the number of iOS applications.
Now a lot of applications will be released fot Windows phone 7 thats true but a lot of Virus/trojans/worms and bugs will be released too. So that same problems you're seeing on a windows XP/Vista/7, you re going to see them on the Windows phone 7 after Nokia starts using that OS for their devices after getting popular.
BashLogic
a major difference to the advantage of wp7 is that it has 10x the legion of coders that are either able or willing to code. there is 100x more applications that can be converted to run on wp7.
what is to be expected of micronokia are:
- a new intuitive user interface (the likes of zune hd)
- a legion of coders and tools to be instantly available making it easier to bring in concept product software to end user devices
- a common development methodology
- a plethora of applications that can be ported
- a very tight integration with backend services, email/office/corp apps
- span out of the device by having "remote virtual mobile desks" (partial hybrid cloud computing)
- good hardware connectivity (nokia has always beaten the rest by bringing the best and the latest)
- web 2.0 with the services provided by yahoo/ovi (partial hybrid cloud computing)
- etc
haidcar
microsoft is really slow pushing updates like the "copy paste" update. i dont think it was a safe bet from nokia's point of view considering their current situation, Android should have been their os of choice.
Joe
BashLogic
QT wont be killed, QT future concerns factors way beyond just a mobile phone UI.
saeidw
AymanFarhat wrotethe winokia combination can be a hit who knows...
BashLogic wrotewhat is to be expected of micronokia are:
I love how the names of both companies have been merged into something new (and monstrous?). Is this what's going around on the Internet now? Are Microsoft and Nokia the new Brad and Angelina?
...
winokia? Really?! :D
mezin
The reason Nokia went with windows, according to Nokia CEO, is that they considered their loss came at the hands of android and iOS, and adopting android is like admitting defeat. that's why they chose windows as their future platform since that way that they can still enter into competition with android and iOS.
BashLogic
unforgiven wroteThe reason Nokia went with windows, according to Nokia CEO, is that they considered their loss came at the hands of android and iOS, and adopting android is like admitting defeat. that's why they chose windows as their future platform since that way that they can still enter into competition with android and iOS.
thou as simple as that may sound, it is too simple to believe.
yes android would have forged such an image but then again, it does not speak on behalf of the whole deal.
the financial mess around that would be comparing to enron!
battikh
1- They made a drastic change way too late. If they had made a move much earlier, it would have been much better. The main reason they didn't go for Android is that there's too much competition there, they need to stand out of the crowd, which is probably why they went for Microsoft. If they had shipped for Android a long time before, they could have owned that market.
2- Look at HTC, they make phones with both WM7 and Android. Where are the biggest sales for them? They do pretty much the same hardware in 2 versions, one WM7 and one Andoird, which one sells betters?
BashLogic
the problem with chinese companies such as huwahei zte and htc is that their finance is as vague as the whole chinese economy. there has been lots of speculation and even proof that some of these companies are operating at a loss. they are being supported by the chinese government to sustain and expand in the new markets. for one thing, this is not compliant with wto fair trade policy. with a bottomless pit of cash, these companies can use what ever they want just as long as they gain market share! they would even sell you your grandmother having her re branded just to make you happy.
