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This is an excellent, really excellent call to arms from a new CEO. I have a few takeaways -- first: the board brought Elop in for a four to seven year turn-aro

This is an excellent, really excellent call to arms from a new CEO. I have a few takeaways -- first: the board brought Elop in for a four to seven year turn-around. He's going to make enemies, but that's okay. If he executes the turn-around, they'll put someone more finnish back in to sooth the old guard after they're making money again. Second -- this guy has the Microsoft internal criticism DNA, through and through. This isn't quite a Gates-level memo, but it's in the ballpark. I'd love to see some leaks of him reviewing his experience using different phones, Gates style. Third -- he's totally correct. Nokia f-ed this up, all by themselves. I STILL miss my Nokia E-90; it had 7mb up and down, a beautiful keyboard, video chatting, first-class SIP phone account support, and an 840x320 screen in 2007, for God's sake! The UI sucked, the apps weren't there, and there was no touch interface. Apple cleaned Nokia's clock. Then Android did it again. One reason HN readers should care: Nokia is probably the only carrier in the world with the balls to just go ahead and release unlocked phones with things like VOIP accounts built in. They may be the only company who doesn't have to play nice with US carriers around; innovation from them will be excellent for consumers.

semanticist 16y ago
Nokia regularly cripple features, specifically including VoIP, at the demands of carriers. Perhaps not US carriers, but it happened frequently in the UK. I took the calls of people angry that their 'top end' handset couldn't do VoIP because they bought it from Vodafone. The carriers were always Nokia's customers, not the consumers, I can't see how that's going to change.
- metageek 16y ago
  >Nokia regularly cripple features, specifically including VoIP, at the demands of carriers. Perhaps not US carriers, Oh, definitely in the US—look at the difference between the E71 and the E71x, the AT&T version. The GP was talking about unlocked phones. I have an N86 which I bought on Amazon, and it's got SIP and other features which AT&T would hate me to have. >The carriers were always Nokia's customers, not the consumers Yeah, but that's the case with every phone manufacturer.
  - semanticist 16y ago
    > Yeah, but that's the case with every phone manufacturer. That's exactly my point. In this regard Nokia are not in a special position to stand up to the carriers. Unlocked handsets don't count: almost no one is paying that much for a phone. Even Apple had to accept carrier subsidies for the iPhone to get the end purchase price down.
    - Tuna-Fish 16y ago
      > Unlocked handsets don't count: almost no one is paying that much for a phone. Most mobile phones in the world are bought unlocked. Carrier-locked phones holding most of the market is an US/UK quirk, and in many European countries, carrier-locked phones like used in the US would actually be illegal.
      - thomasz 16y ago
        Locked Phones are the norm in Germany too. If this holds true for France too, the vast majority of mobile phones in Europe is being sold locked. I don't know the details about the "illegal" claim, but normally those things are governed by EU laws, making it somewhat hard to believe that contracts common in the UK and Germany would be considered illegal in the Netherlands or Portugal.
        hessenwolf 16y ago
        Locked phones are the norm in Ireland.
        limmeau 16y ago
        Locked as in "locked to one network"? Except for prepaid 20EUR-phones and perhaps the iPhone, which phones in Germany come locked?
        StudyAnimal 16y ago
        Yeah locked to one network which also means you can only get firmware updates when the network specific version is ready, which is often months later, or never. Any subsidized phone purchased with a new contract is locked, as far as I know. But I don't know of many that are hard to unlock.

semanticist 16y ago

Nokia regularly cripple features, specifically including VoIP, at the demands of carriers. Perhaps not US carriers, but it happened frequently in the UK. I took the calls of people angry that their 'top end' handset couldn't do VoIP because they bought it from Vodafone. The carriers were always Nokia's customers, not the consumers, I can't see how that's going to change.

metageek 16y ago
>Nokia regularly cripple features, specifically including VoIP, at the demands of carriers. Perhaps not US carriers, Oh, definitely in the US—look at the difference between the E71 and the E71x, the AT&T version. The GP was talking about unlocked phones. I have an N86 which I bought on Amazon, and it's got SIP and other features which AT&T would hate me to have. >The carriers were always Nokia's customers, not the consumers Yeah, but that's the case with every phone manufacturer.
- semanticist 16y ago
  > Yeah, but that's the case with every phone manufacturer. That's exactly my point. In this regard Nokia are not in a special position to stand up to the carriers. Unlocked handsets don't count: almost no one is paying that much for a phone. Even Apple had to accept carrier subsidies for the iPhone to get the end purchase price down.
  - Tuna-Fish 16y ago
    > Unlocked handsets don't count: almost no one is paying that much for a phone. Most mobile phones in the world are bought unlocked. Carrier-locked phones holding most of the market is an US/UK quirk, and in many European countries, carrier-locked phones like used in the US would actually be illegal.
    - thomasz 16y ago
      Locked Phones are the norm in Germany too. If this holds true for France too, the vast majority of mobile phones in Europe is being sold locked. I don't know the details about the "illegal" claim, but normally those things are governed by EU laws, making it somewhat hard to believe that contracts common in the UK and Germany would be considered illegal in the Netherlands or Portugal.
      - hessenwolf 16y ago
        Locked phones are the norm in Ireland.
      - limmeau 16y ago
        Locked as in "locked to one network"? Except for prepaid 20EUR-phones and perhaps the iPhone, which phones in Germany come locked?
        StudyAnimal 16y ago
        Yeah locked to one network which also means you can only get firmware updates when the network specific version is ready, which is often months later, or never. Any subsidized phone purchased with a new contract is locked, as far as I know. But I don't know of many that are hard to unlock.