4 ms·

I don't think he destroyed anything, just Nokia got caught off-guard by the iPhone and never recovered. As for choosing Windows Phone over Android, we'll never

I don't think he destroyed anything, just Nokia got caught off-guard by the iPhone and never recovered. As for choosing Windows Phone over Android, we'll never know and now it's easier to criticize but I would have done the same thing. Sometimes it just doesn't work and companies need to reinvent or die.

uio3 13y ago
Microsoft "partners" have a history of getting royally screwed. Android was the obvious choice, only a complete idiot (or in this case, a Microsoft mole) would choose otherwise. Not every company needs to reinvent to survive, plenty of companies perform well sticking in a middle ground. As did all the phone manufacturers who used Android...
- pavlov 13y ago
  Except for Samsung, all the companies that were in the phone business before the iPhone and then went with Android are doing poorly today: HTC, Motorola, LG...
  - corresation 13y ago
    Do you think that would have happened with Nokia? Their hardware designs and cameras alone would have made them a top tier Android vendor. Their distribution channel would have assured that. HTC, Motorola, Sony and LG essentially make their own beds, and worth noting that pretty much all of them would have been long bankrupt (their phone business, as obviously Sony and LG are much more) sans Android.
    - hershel 13y ago
      I think before the iphone , samsung has started eating nokia's lunch in phones.
    - chris_wot 13y ago
      Agreed. I had an N9, the hardware specs were, quite frankly, amazing. Had Android been the phone's OS, I never would have switched to an iPhone!
    - Pxtl 13y ago
      And now Sony is seeing a resurgence because they're recognized the obvious: you can't beat Samsung in the art of putting high-quality equipment in a cheap plastic chassis - they do that incredibly well. You can't beat them in low-quality equipment either, and there's a million no-name Chinese companies that are trying anyways. So Sony is going back to their strong suits - they used to be the company whose design language was copied by Apple. The Xperia line shows they've returned to this form.
    - GFischer 13y ago
      "Their hardware designs and cameras alone would have made them a top tier Android vendor" I believe this to be true: my niece is looking into buying a smartphone with a good camera. The "obvious" choice would be the Nokia 1020... but it's off the table because it runs Windows (she's considering the Xperia Z or the LG Optimus G)
  - narag 13y ago
    Would they be better if they hadn't go with Android? I know, I know: "we'll never know"... as for me, I'm done with HTC and Motorola (three last terminals from them before my Samsung).
    - flarg 13y ago
      If my memories of Nokia's range of wonderfully resilient, well packaged, highly functional feature and Symbian phones are anything to go by - Nokia would have had a significant slice of the Samsung's Android market. Remember - Nokia delivered the N800 range; they could have done so much with Android.
GFischer 13y ago
You can look backwards at the "burning platform" thread and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195520 His memo was hailed as a good move, but even then, many (including myself) were arguing for Nokia moving to Android: SandB0x 954 days ago | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195699 "Please, please, Nokia, adopt Android and put your efforts into making great hardware to go with it, without ruining the interface like so many other manufacturers do." Interestingly, the "trojan horse" hypothesis has been around for at least 2 years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3928410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3928410 with some skeptics unable to believe it (it still sounds farfetched, I believe that the cause was incompetence myself). nl 504 days ago "Now, of course, he grasps at a broad conspiracy theory involving Nokia CEO Elop being somehow motivated to deliberately destroy Nokia for Microsoft."

uio3 13y ago

Microsoft "partners" have a history of getting royally screwed. Android was the obvious choice, only a complete idiot (or in this case, a Microsoft mole) would choose otherwise. Not every company needs to reinvent to survive, plenty of companies perform well sticking in a middle ground. As did all the phone manufacturers who used Android...

pavlov 13y ago
Except for Samsung, all the companies that were in the phone business before the iPhone and then went with Android are doing poorly today: HTC, Motorola, LG...
- corresation 13y ago
  Do you think that would have happened with Nokia? Their hardware designs and cameras alone would have made them a top tier Android vendor. Their distribution channel would have assured that. HTC, Motorola, Sony and LG essentially make their own beds, and worth noting that pretty much all of them would have been long bankrupt (their phone business, as obviously Sony and LG are much more) sans Android.
  - hershel 13y ago
    I think before the iphone , samsung has started eating nokia's lunch in phones.
  - chris_wot 13y ago
    Agreed. I had an N9, the hardware specs were, quite frankly, amazing. Had Android been the phone's OS, I never would have switched to an iPhone!
  - Pxtl 13y ago
    And now Sony is seeing a resurgence because they're recognized the obvious: you can't beat Samsung in the art of putting high-quality equipment in a cheap plastic chassis - they do that incredibly well. You can't beat them in low-quality equipment either, and there's a million no-name Chinese companies that are trying anyways. So Sony is going back to their strong suits - they used to be the company whose design language was copied by Apple. The Xperia line shows they've returned to this form.
  - GFischer 13y ago
    "Their hardware designs and cameras alone would have made them a top tier Android vendor" I believe this to be true: my niece is looking into buying a smartphone with a good camera. The "obvious" choice would be the Nokia 1020... but it's off the table because it runs Windows (she's considering the Xperia Z or the LG Optimus G)
- narag 13y ago
  Would they be better if they hadn't go with Android? I know, I know: "we'll never know"... as for me, I'm done with HTC and Motorola (three last terminals from them before my Samsung).
  - flarg 13y ago
    If my memories of Nokia's range of wonderfully resilient, well packaged, highly functional feature and Symbian phones are anything to go by - Nokia would have had a significant slice of the Samsung's Android market. Remember - Nokia delivered the N800 range; they could have done so much with Android.

GFischer 13y ago

You can look backwards at the "burning platform" thread and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195520 His memo was hailed as a good move, but even then, many (including myself) were arguing for Nokia moving to Android: SandB0x 954 days ago | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2195699 "Please, please, Nokia, adopt Android and put your efforts into making great hardware to go with it, without ruining the interface like so many other manufacturers do." Interestingly, the "trojan horse" hypothesis has been around for at least 2 years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3928410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3928410 with some skeptics unable to believe it (it still sounds farfetched, I believe that the cause was incompetence myself). nl 504 days ago "Now, of course, he grasps at a broad conspiracy theory involving Nokia CEO Elop being somehow motivated to deliberately destroy Nokia for Microsoft."