By now many of you will have read the disappointing news that Nokia, the iconic provider of simple cell phones, has thrown in the towel, having announced a “strategic partnership” with Microsoft to ship new smartphones with Windows Phone 7.
Nokia CEO (and former Microsoft Exec) Stephen Elop made the announcement at the Nokia Strategy and Financial Briefing in London yesterday.
Nokia
Initial reactions from many directions seem mostly negative, commenters on Nokia’s official blog are slating the announcement, Nokia workers walked out in protest, Alberto Torres (head of MeeGo at Nokia) has quit, and Nokia’s share price plummeted by more than 13%.
The Symbian platform looks pretty much on-life support, and the use of MeeGo is described as a project for “experimental” devices, with Nokia’s R&D budget slashed. There are also rumours that the N9 MeeGo device has been killed.
The following quote is taken from the Nokia press release:
Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.
Intel
Meanwhile, Intel is keen to reassure that it’s not “blinking on MeeGo”:
While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel is not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.
More opinions: Nokia’s towel has been thrown – sad but true, the bomb has hit…
by J008
12 Feb 2011 at 15:48
Yes, yesterday was a difficult day,
Neither Symbian nor Meego deserve this,
But making fun of WP7? That is low.
Hope Nokia changes their mind and made an announcement to roll back changes.
by chester
12 Feb 2011 at 16:29
Waiting 2 see whether Nokia releases a Meego phone,
Now my next phone is likely 2 be from Intel with Meego,
Nokia shareholders should vote Mr Elop out.
by Catalin
12 Feb 2011 at 17:19
I’m very very sorry for the Meego and Qt developers at Nokia. Getting axed by a treacherous CEO just before releasing the first device, this must be very hard to take. My guess is that this great CEO of yours will be kicked out in a year or so, but a lot of the damage is already done. One more great company destroyed by bad executives, shit!
by Simon Rönnqvist
12 Feb 2011 at 19:11
I remember how Nokia was advertising Qt (and a bit of MeeGo) for potential developers at Assembly 2010 in Helsinki. Luring developers into learning a framework that you shortly after scrap isn’t cool, how’s Nokia going to regain the trust of the developers?
And guess what, the new developers won’t be Nokia oriented, they’ll be Microsoft’s servants… so in that sense, Nokia doesn’t need developers to trust them since they outsourced that part to Microsoft.
by kahola g
12 Feb 2011 at 22:36
if nokia has to survive in any form, they need to get rid of Elop. u dont hv to be a hotshot business executive to tell how bad this decision it is. microsoft got everything and nokia nothing. i doubt elop’s acumen now.
by Devastated Coder
13 Feb 2011 at 00:51
“Nokia going to regain the trust of the developers?”
It’s sad but true, but Nokia (Elop) couldn’t care less about Qt-developers and what they think. There will be tons of new Windows-developers and there’s already software for WP7. So, message for current developer is that “you can rewrite your software for WP7 if you like, but we don’t need you anyway, because there are new developers”.
by I4U
13 Feb 2011 at 04:24
“Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.”
Exactly the same terms used by B. Gates to speak about OS2 after the agreement with IBM… Now, we know what means exactly “long-term” in the MS dictionary!
by Fileexit
13 Feb 2011 at 06:47
I think this has been planned all along.. Why else would they select Elop over the vanjoki.. It was an arranged marriage!
nevertheless, it no brainer that symbian and MeeGo failed to deliver, and nokia is found panicing in a corner, instinct kicked in and they reacted very unrationally. I think the move to WP7 is just as wrong as keeping symbian or MeeGo