Microsoft kills what's left of the old Nokia

[Independent voter]

I always wonder how these companies can be pioneers of an industry, have tons of innovation and take on all kinds of risk and then just loose it all.

Windows phone was late in teh market, I doubt if it'll catch up. I used a windows phone at work and I thought it was pretty good but I'm too used to android now to switch.

http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/25/m...the-old-nokia/

Last week, Microsoft sold off what remained of Nokia's feature phone business while Windows Phone's market share slid below a single percent. Now, the company has taken what's clearly the last step in correcting Steve Ballmer's decision to purchase the mobile world's former number one. The Verge has secured an internal memo from Microsoft's Terry Myerson saying that the company will cull 1,850 jobs, 1,350 of which are in Finland. The company has also recorded a $950 million impairment and restructuring charge on its balance sheet, of which $200 million will be severance payouts to those employees.

The job cuts are, essentially, rinsing the company of almost all of its obligations towards the smoldering remains of Nokia. Microsoft went to pains to state that the firm's Finnish sales division is protected, with the cuts entirely focused on Microsoft Mobile Oy. As CEO Satya Nadella says, the company is focusing its phone efforts where it has "differentiation -- with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability."

When Microsoft sold off its feature phone business, it put out a weirdly-worded statement that only affirmed a commitment to "support" Windows Phone devices. The implication being that it was done actually building handsets itself, and will instead let third parties like Acer, HP and VAIO take over. Alternatively, it's rumored that Lumia as a brand is done, and the company will instead build a mobile device from its more successful Surface division.

"This in fact describes what we are doing (we're scaling back, but we're not out!), but at the same time I don't love it because it lacks the emotional impact of this decision."

Recode has published a copy of the internal memo, in which Terry Myerson explains that the company is scaling back, but is refusing to abandon mobile altogether. He also mentions that Microsoft will continue to "develop great new devices," although that's no indication that it'll manufacture them off its own back. A bigger part of the firm's focus, however, will be to "embrace other mobile platforms with our productivity services," or getting its apps and services available on Android and iOS devices.

[Vash The Stampede]

Wanna hear a joke? Windows Phone. Ba Dum Tss! Seriously though, Microsoft had Windows Mobile and CE long before iOS and Android. They just sat on it and did nothing. They deserve to lose out on the mobile market.

[Reeve]

It's kind of sad, because Windows Phone was actually a pretty nice OS.

It is amazing how brands that were so huge, like Nokia and Blackberry can just shrivel up and die out in less than a decade from their height.

[Deleted]

This whole shit was an orchestrated inside job from the get go.

Stephen Elop came from Microsoft to Nokia, made it so Nokia's stock fell like what, 62% or something, completely killed the Nokia smartphone section, then sold the phone shit to Microsoft, got an insane bonus ($25 million for destroying Nokia's phone section, well done Elop) and stepped down.

And, then, guess fucking what? Elop went back to Microsoft.

Yeah, come and tell me it's all a conspiracy and all that shit. It was a completely orchestrated and planned out maneuver.

[Gheld]

Wanna hear a joke? Windows Phone. Ba Dum Tss! Seriously though, Microsoft had Windows Mobile and CE long before iOS and Android. They just sat on it and did nothing. They deserve to lose out on the mobile market.

Yeah, my first smartphone was a Windows Phone 7 phone. Like from an everything perspective it was vastly superior to anything android or ios at the time; offered unsurpassed power user functionality, but could still be used for telecommunications if that somehow appealed to you.

Then I just said fuggit and went android because Windows Phone 8 was just a bad attempt to capitalize on the opposite end of the market (i.e. iphone users) which ultimately failed, instead of sticking with their core market.

So long story short, they got stuck with their hand in the cookie jar.

[Svifnymr]

I still stick with my Windows 10 phone, works great, cheap. The Nokia stuff was a huge mistake, but from what I saw most of it was more about production shifts than actual phone models. It'd be interesting to see how a Surface Phone might be differentiated from the Lumia, or maybe a high end Surface, low end Lumia. Of course, I have the advantage that I don't use a lot of apps, for many it's a huge deal.

I don't see them discontinuing Windows Phone entirely, they will keep it afloat on some level just to say it's still there, while infiltrating Android and IPhones with various apps. They'll just build them elsewhere.

[Puupi]

Nokia is starting to build mobile phones soon, though. Not sure what kind of phones and with what OS. It was in the news some time ago.

So Microsoft killed the part of Nokia they bought, not the part that was left as Nokia.

- - - Updated - - -

The news from a week ago: http://company.nokia.com/en/our-businesses/nokia-technologies/hello-again

The phones will be Android.

[caervek]

This is quite sad, you have to feel bad for the guys at Nokia who had to sit by powerless and watch Microsoft drive the company off a cliff, then crane it back up and drive it off again

I mean seriously, Microsoft told them to make amazing phones, and they did. I.E the Lumia 920 is a four year old design now but feature wise it stacks up to anything on the market today, it wasn't until this year that Samsung caught up with their Galaxy S7 and Apple are still years behind.

It's not like Windows Phone OS was bad either, it was easily on par with Android yet lacking in the apps department, and yet with all this potential Microsoft choked and then started putting out lame phones (the "budget flagship" 930 wasn't even as good as the 920 had been) and it just got worse from there, in the end the failing of WP can be directly attributed to Microsoft's desire to control everything despite having no clue what makes a good phone.

[dadev]

This whole shit was an orchestrated inside job from the get go.

Stephen Elop came from Microsoft to Nokia, made it so Nokia's stock fell like what, 62% or something, completely killed the Nokia smartphone section, then sold the phone shit to Microsoft, got an insane bonus ($25 million for destroying Nokia's phone section, well done Elop) and stepped down.

And, then, guess fucking what? Elop went back to Microsoft.

Yeah, come and tell me it's all a conspiracy and all that shit. It was a completely orchestrated and planned out maneuver.

Conspiracy? Microsoft lost about $7.5b from this deal and you call it a conspiracy by Microsoft? That's rich
Either way, suppose it was a conspiracy (this is pure crazy talk, but just to amuse myself) then please tell me who's fault is that? Who hired Elop? Why the board gave the green light for the sell? Why Elop got a bonus?

If anything this was a conspiracy by Nokia to get huge amount of money ($1.5b in cash mind you) for a division that was trailing far behind the competition and without a clear future.
Far more plausible that they hired Elop with the prospect of selling the mobile division in the future to Microsoft. Elop will deliver the pitch and Ballmer would bite. And eventually they gave Elop a bonus for playing his part. Still a conspiracy, but slightly less crazy talk. I mean it still is, but at least it makes sense.

[Deleted]

Any Nokia-Microsoft deal was made from the beginning with the intent to drive Nokia into the ground and off the market.