Nokia CEO’s burning platform memo rocks smartphone world
By Alexis • Feb 10th, 2011 •
For years we’ve known that Nokia was in trouble with regards to its smartphone strategy. Other tech sites knew it, too. Nokia investors were also in on it, as was the average consumer who paid attention to sales trends. It seemed, however, Nokia employees were either oblivious to this or just refused to acknowledge it – we venture the latter.
Now, with an amazing, no-punches-spared leaked memo Nokia CEO Stephen Elop sent out to employees, it seems leadership is no longer prepared to jump around the problem and pretend it does not exist. He says the company is ‘standing on a burning platform.’
The iPhone did it
When the memo was first revealed, many were sceptical as to how real it was, but various sources have confirmed its authenticity. The scepticism is justified, however, if you read the stark words Elop uses for a company that is so unfamiliar with defeat or struggles.
One of the more intense sections reads: ‘The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.’ Saying more on the iPhone, Elop writes: ‘They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.’
Android is killing us, too
As to the effect Google Android is having, the Nokia CEO admits that: ‘Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.’ Why Nokia smartphones are struggling, irrespective of their great hardware is not lost on him, as he writes: ‘Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.’
Our own platforms aren’t holding the fort
To Elop’s credit, he addresses everything the tech world has been harping on about, admitting that Symbian is increasingly struggling to meet consumers’ needs, and that MeeGo is simply taking to long to get to market. He says ‘We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing [innovation] to market fast enough,’ before admitting that ‘at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.’
