"Our goal is to act less like a traditional manufacturer, and more like an internet company," Kallasvuo told his shareholders. "Companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft are not our traditional competitors, but they are major forces that must be reckoned with. Make no mistake: We are taking on these challenges seriously and aggressively."
OK, that company is in its death spiral, as I predicted and expected post-iPhone.
Nokia saw the promise of the Internet very, very early.
That it has been a non-player all this time is very telling.
This is a company with a personality -- both internally and nationally -- that is incompatible with Internet Thinking.
They rose to the top of the cellphone heap not because they were excellent, but because their competitors were just atrocious.
It sounds like Nokia is going to spend less time on hardware design, new distinct handset models, and so forth (though I'd be shocked if the company gave up on hardware entirely), in favor of more and better software.
I wouldn't be.
Their vaunted Internet Tablet -- which they expected to save the company -- has gone nowhere (and deservedly so!). All those Palm users they thought they'd grab -- it never happened.
Their phones are just ... phones. They can tart them up with Zeiss lenses and the like but they're still clunky and uncool. They are for pinstripers; corporate dullards who left to decide on their own go with the seemingly safest choice. None of them are leadership devices.
Outside of people who buy Nokia, the company has no Internet presence. And it never will have one.
They probably think they buy their way in through acquisitions (Murdoch would be glad to burden you with MySpace!). But anything they touch will automaically be deemed DOA.
Nokia: Gone in five years.
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