Comments on: No turnaround in sight as Nokia loses another $1bn

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:26:10 +0000

The advance of technology waits for no one. In the last few years the smartphone revolution has taken down three formerly great tech companies: Nokia, RIM, and HP. All of them didn’t just drop the ball, they let it roll completely off the field and disappear.

By: Bobbie Johnson

Bobbie Johnson — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:06:32 +0000

Good point Ram. It’s been a big problem for Nokia — and a source of much regret inside and out — that it hasn’t been able to capitalize on its R&D expertise. I remember visiting Espoo a couple of times and seeing some really great stuff in the labs that never made it to prime time. It is interesting to imagine what would have happened had they shipped.

By: Bobbie Johnson

Bobbie Johnson — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:03:30 +0000

@evster88 I have yet to see any serious evidence to back up your statements to suggest that the restructuring is working, or that the corner has been turned for Windows Phone. If there is evidence, I’d love to see it: and if it is the case I am more than happy to revisit my position.

NB I’m not saying every analyst prediction was spot on, but overall they worked out pretty much in line with expectations. And for every fillip, there was a flop: the losses (for example) were significantly higher than the consensus.

And to @kyle and @jd – I am not being shortsighted, I’m being realistic. At some point Nokia has to turn these numbers around, because it can’t float on its cash pile forever. By these figures it’s got, what?, two years max until every last penny has gone. A few more quarters like this and the position becomes untenable.

By: Ram Krishnan

Ram Krishnan — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:46:43 +0000

There was an interesting article in the Journal today – about how Nokia’s research and design people had prototyped a smartphone with a touch interface and had some preliminary designs around a tablet too. Apparently, they merged the low end phone division with the smart phone division to combat the RAZR threat and the profitable low end phone folks cancelled the prototype. Not sure if the old Nokia folks are trying to cover up their strategic blunders. But it was funny to read Paul Jacob’s (from QCOM) comment about how it took 6-9 months for Nokia to mull over an idea or a proposal. Very funny!

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:20:41 +0000

Please offer some evidence that Nokia’s restructuring is working.

By: evster88

evster88 — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:21:21 +0000

Are you on glue? Who predicted 4 million in Lumia sales? Every “prediction” I’ve read has targeted 2-3 million max.

You are indeed missing the big picture here. Nokia’s restructuring is WORKING and public opinion on Windows Phone is steadily improving.

It’s cool if you’re an Apple troll, just be more upfront about it such as not to confuse your readers.

By: J.D.

J.D. — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:52:04 +0000

Seriously shortsighted. Did anyone really expect NOK to have a better quarter than they did? They are in the midst of a massive reorientation. This takes time and a lot of effort. In fact, I would argue that NOK performed slightly better than expected…and the market seems to agree so far. NOK is up 9.25% at 9:50 EDT.

By: S. Kyle Davis

S. Kyle Davis — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:05:48 +0000

Wow. What a shortsighted article. Way to completely overlook the fact that smartphone sales are actually up at Nokia. It’s just their low end phone business that is suffering, as the market overall is shifting to smartphones. Nokia is shifting with it, but it will probably take a year or more. The big question will be if they can retain enough capital to make it without those MS bailouts becoming a buyout.