An interview with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop

Elop has made a terrible mistake last friday. I’m not saying that going Microsoft is bad but simply that he as told too much truth to justify himself within Nokia as he refered to the burning platform. This is going to create a headache for his sales team trying to keep selling Sabian for the next year. Phone companies and consumers will stop buying this platform which will further reduce sales and margins. This is a real mess and I can assure you that having worked for a Finnish company for over twenty years that they must be regretting having given the keys to the countries biggest employer to a foreigner. This will lead to a revolt company wise and nation wide. So now Nokia who is already suffering at the low end market has now added margin pressure on its high end phones. Furthermore, I question the fact that they have limited their choice to only WP7…why did he not go to both platforms like the other hardware vendors…Nokia is going to become a hardware vendor so why cut away from part of the market by refusing Android? This question is worth asking…Elop is leading this company like an novice that is in a rush to get somewhere….which only he seems to know where…

RIM on the other hand as been consistent in their finances and with their news OS, their tie with business, their BBM, their security, the future of credit cards through the phones etc… they have a real shot at defining themselves a niche in the smartphone market.

It’s pretty clear that Nokia’s board and investors selected Stephen Elop as CEO to shepherd this partnership with Microsoft. From a business perspective this is an immediate win for Microsoft, and probably for Nokia too, but only in the mid- to long-term.

But it’s causing cultural waves in Finland that will reverberate throughout Nokia’s huge worldwide fanbase. It’s an open question whether Nokia’s brand loyalty is about Nokia hardware or Symbian, and that question will be answered soon…

You were able to pull him out of Steve’s ass long enough for an interview? I’m impressed.

Elop gives an interesting insight into the Microsoft decision. Clearly he was hired by Nokia to steer this marriage.

Nokia evidently expects margins for Android phones to be demolished by competition and no doubt by patent violation suits.

The other interesting aspect was the dismissing of RIM as a competitor. Given that RIM is Nokias primary competition in a number of Asian markets at the lower price points, it is a massive compliment to RIM that Nokia is so scared of their threat so as to dismiss it entirely.

Personally I think it’s a terrible decision and will undoubtedly damage their position in the market.

It really shows what level of mobile tech blog this is that an audio clip is put behind a flash player.

You guys know how to host mp3s on the interwebs don’t you?

No, really…. don’t you?

Sounds like something a Microsoft executive would say (or someone hired by MS to say Android is the real competition)…oh yeah…

great audio – thanks!

Thanks, interesting.
Is it cut off at the end?

While I am flabbergasted by this decision and would have liked to see Meego ship with Qt as the platform of the future, I admire Elop’s courage to make this very difficult decision into the situation that he stepped into.

Nokia has failed to execute on their next generation platform and see their market share eroding. Nokia has also failed at their opening up Symbian strategy to other OEMs and contributions. It is just a matter of time before both iPhone and Android invade the Nokia low and mid-tier market. Meego is not currently a solution for this problem and Symbian has not galvanized an ecosystem. While I personally think Android may have been a better option, and do not agree with the decision not to put Qt into the deal with Microsoft as the native framework, I think Elop took over a burning platform situation where the management team was floundering and ability to execute had lost credibility among shareholders. I also think it was a solution he was most comfortable with.

This decision both goes against the proud culture of the company and violates the trust among those developers who were courted to develop on Qt for Symbian and Meego. But, clearly quick action was needed. So this move will either save them or sink them. I think it is too early to tell. The question is whether both companies can quickly execute on a true partnership and ship phones soon that delight customers – I don’t see a great track record here, but Elop has the potential to change that through management shakeups.

I wish him luck and hope he revisits the Qt decision (and puts it on Android) as I do think it would give Nokia the ability to galvanize an ecosystem.

At about 23:44 it suddenly skips back by a few minutes?

audio has some problems – @ 24 min mark the audio skips back to the 16 min mark??

WP7 = Beta OS

Who was the journalists who said the Windows Phone camera takes forever to load? It’s the quickest camera to date and you can take a picture from the lock screen.

Choosing Win phone 7 was a huge mistake. It’s just not that great.

I need Flash to listen to this on an iOS device? Guh?

I don’t care what Elop thinks is right for Nokia… Bottom line is that Nokia is no longer Nokia and if they continue their relationship with Microsoft; pretty soon Microsoft will own Nokia completely. So how can anyone think this partnership is essential to Nokia’s survival?!? That’s like saying that Pepsi start using Coke’s formula to survive market conditions. No, that just means that Coke found a way to eliminate Pepsi and another alternative choice for the people to buy!

Please. Nokia is the only Windows only manufacturer. Android IS the other Windows manufacturers. I bet Samsung, LG, and HTC are absolutely hoping and praying for WP7 to fail, because that will make Nokia weaker than Motorola. Just look at product annoucements at MWC. WP7 is dead to them. It’s not going to be Nokia vs. Android. It’ll be Nokia vs. EVERYBODY ELSE, including Apple, Samsung, HTC, Motorola and RIM.