4 ms·

I can't believe I'm still bitter about the path Nokia took after all these years, but I am. We were so close to having a truly open + superb OS in our mainstrea

I can't believe I'm still bitter about the path Nokia took after all these years, but I am. We were so close to having a truly open + superb OS in our mainstream devices...

abdulmuhaimin 6y ago
trust me, you're not the only one who are still bitter about their idiotic decision. They had a burning ship. But instead of going into their own newly-built submarine, they trust floats full of money handed out by Microsoft. F Im furios everytime this topic is mentioned
- bjarneh 6y ago
  > But instead of going into their own newly-built submarine It really was an unbelievable move. I've heard from former Nokia employees that part of the reason for this nutty strategy, was internal division inside the company. The vast majority of Nokia supported going forward with their main OS (Symbian), despite very promising results on Meego (despite having a tiny team compared with Symbian). I guess Intel and others had already dropped out of the partnership as well, they were also invested in this (Moblin), but did not invest further in it. By choosing something nobody really liked inside Nokia (Windows Phone), at least they did not choose something half the company really hated.
Bluestein 6y ago
Somebody should make a documentary about the whole thing: "The World That Could Have Been", or some such ... I'd watch it. (Given the pivotal importance of mobile in our world, the title would not be an understatement). There's - also - something to be said about giving people an idea of the "right" thing to yearn for - lust for an endless sea of possibilities, not a drumbeat - as de Saint-Exupéry would put it.-
- nextos 6y ago
  It was a very strange move. Initially, Nokia had some interest in promoting these devices. The N770 was released in 2005, and the N800 came in 2007, just before the iPhone. I was a student in Scandinavia and my CS department got gifted a few hundred N800 so that students could hack and develop applications. We coded some cool mesh networking tools, and a text chat on top. It felt so futuristic. In parallel, I brought an iPhone 1 from the US and it never felt like a superior device. I recall sitting in a SAS plane in Spring 2007, whose departure was delayed for 1 hour due to technical reasons, and hostesses came to my seat as they were blown away by that little device I was watching some videos on. I also showed them my iPhone, and they were not nearly as impressed. Then, suddenly, before the N9 release they totally dropped the ball. Still, that device won some accolades in the press.
- bjarneh 6y ago
  Stephan Elop would be the ultimate villain :-)

I can't believe I'm still bitter about the path Nokia took after all these years, but I am. We were so close to having a truly open + superb OS in our mainstream devices...

abdulmuhaimin 6y ago

trust me, you're not the only one who are still bitter about their idiotic decision. They had a burning ship. But instead of going into their own newly-built submarine, they trust floats full of money handed out by Microsoft. F Im furios everytime this topic is mentioned

bjarneh 6y ago
> But instead of going into their own newly-built submarine It really was an unbelievable move. I've heard from former Nokia employees that part of the reason for this nutty strategy, was internal division inside the company. The vast majority of Nokia supported going forward with their main OS (Symbian), despite very promising results on Meego (despite having a tiny team compared with Symbian). I guess Intel and others had already dropped out of the partnership as well, they were also invested in this (Moblin), but did not invest further in it. By choosing something nobody really liked inside Nokia (Windows Phone), at least they did not choose something half the company really hated.

Bluestein 6y ago

Somebody should make a documentary about the whole thing: "The World That Could Have Been", or some such ... I'd watch it. (Given the pivotal importance of mobile in our world, the title would not be an understatement). There's - also - something to be said about giving people an idea of the "right" thing to yearn for - lust for an endless sea of possibilities, not a drumbeat - as de Saint-Exupéry would put it.-

nextos 6y ago
It was a very strange move. Initially, Nokia had some interest in promoting these devices. The N770 was released in 2005, and the N800 came in 2007, just before the iPhone. I was a student in Scandinavia and my CS department got gifted a few hundred N800 so that students could hack and develop applications. We coded some cool mesh networking tools, and a text chat on top. It felt so futuristic. In parallel, I brought an iPhone 1 from the US and it never felt like a superior device. I recall sitting in a SAS plane in Spring 2007, whose departure was delayed for 1 hour due to technical reasons, and hostesses came to my seat as they were blown away by that little device I was watching some videos on. I also showed them my iPhone, and they were not nearly as impressed. Then, suddenly, before the N9 release they totally dropped the ball. Still, that device won some accolades in the press.
bjarneh 6y ago
Stephan Elop would be the ultimate villain :-)