Can one man make a difference? -- Yes! Stephen Elop loses Nokia $13.2 Billion US

[PhilT]

This is an amazing analysis of Stephen Elops's decimation of Nokia.

http://communities-dominate.blogs.co...rs-moment.html

and this traces the horrible decline to his shattering memo:

http://communities-dominate.blogs.co...nd-destro.html

They are both quite long posts, but very illuminating.

[woodsmoke]

Here is another linky to the memo, for what it is worth. There are many articles about it, but few with it.

I dunno, not being there etc. But, I can see his point. He used the main "buzzword" of the time, ecosystem. And that really is what the various companies, especially Apple are doing.

Apple really does have an "ecosystem", closed yes, but it is the "whole experience".

Google is trying for it.

It may just have been that what he proposed was not within the capability of the people who had to, to use another analogy, turn an Aircraft Carrier on a dime like a destroyer.

dunno, but interesting.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/n...honest-burnin/

[SecretCode]

So Nokia is spiralling the plughole ... in icy cold waters.

Does this mean anything for the future of Qt? Not in legal or licensing terms but perhaps in the pool of framework developer expertise?

[GreyGeek]

Does this mean anything for the future of Qt? Not in legal or licensing terms but perhaps in the pool of framework developer expertise?

Quite a bit. Nokia is party to the KDE Foundation Agreement. Read the agreement here.

The Foundation has a license agreement with Nokia. This agreement ensures that the Qt will continue to be available under both the LGPL 2.1 and the GPL 3. Should Nokia discontinue the development of the Qt Free Edition under these licenses, then the Foundation has the right to release Qt under a BSD-style license or under other open source licenses. The agreement stays valid in case of a buy-out, a merger or bankruptcy.

A BSD type of license would be a terror to Microsoft. It could mean that anyone or software house could expropriate the code and create a proprietary tool set that competes with everything Microsoft sells at substantially lower prices. If under a GPL license, as it is now, but with the Foundation owning the code instead of Nokia, the KDE developers assume development and support of the entire Qt API. (From my POV there is NO other "Open Source" license. If it doesn't grant the four freedoms it is not an open source license.)


The rejection of the Nokia phones running Windows Phone is really a rejection because of two reasons:
1) Poor quality software ("Windows Phone, and Windows, is a huge resource hog (as Microsoft software is also traditionally) meaning the equivalent device, like a smartphone, will need more CPU power, more memory, more storage, more supplemental processors etc, to do the same task as more efficient software (like Android or Symbian or MeeGo)"

).

2) The inability of Microsoft, try as they have been doing, to bully OEMs and carriers into carrying WinPhones.

Then Microsoft (and Nokia) were attempting to bully the carriers with the Lumia launches and then threats with the Skype integration. Still now in May, Elop admits to the Nokia shareholders meeting that Microsoft is trying to bully itself onto the carrier platforms with Skype threatening that Skype will come in any case.

What is the result? Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop himself admitted to the Nokia shareholders meeting now last month that all Microsoft Windows Phone smartphones are experiencing reluctance by carriers to sell them. Some have refused to sell any Windows phones altogether. Not my words, Elop's.

In other words, with a more level playing field that is occupied by equally powerful players, Microsoft can't compete.

When Sinofsky's demo of "Surface" failed, forcing him to retreat to the back of the stage and fetch another tablet that was already powered up and waiting for such a contingency, there was a world-wide collective groan. It was like watching the BSOD displayed on the ceiling of the "Bird Nest" at the 2008 Chinese Olypics. People perceived that for Microsoft it was back to business as usual.

[SteveRiley]

If a Microsoft exec demos a product and it doesn't crash, did it really happen?