Intel 'not blinking' on MeeGo, Nokia workers in protest
updated 11:45 am EST, Fri February 11, 2011
Intel says committed to MeeGo, Nokia protest
Nokia's decision to switch to Windows Phone for its devices has triggered harsh reactions both from Intel and within Nokia itself. Intel in a statement said it was "disappointed" with Nokia but said it was "not blinking" on supporting MeeGo. The chip designer said to Laptop it already supported other operating systems and that there were other platforms besides phones to support.
"We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source," it said. "MeeGo is not just a phone OS, it supports multiple devices. And we’re seeing momentum across multiple segments -- automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, set-top boxes and our Intel silicon will be in a phone that ships this year."
The reference was likely to the Aava Core, an Atom-based phone developed by a startup.
Intel's loss of Nokia as a phone manufacturer is a major hit to its mobile plans in spite of its response. The company has been trying to reports from Finland have noted that hundreds of Nokia workers, possibly as many as 1,000, have walked out of Nokia's Tampere office in protest at the decision. Most of them are believed by HI to work on Symbian and are objecting to upcoming job cuts that will almost certainly scale back the software team as Nokia exits Symbian on smartphones.
The Tampere office was already expected to be closed, but over half of the 3,000 employees working there are involved in Symbian. Only the feature phone OS version, Series 40, is expected to survive in the long term. Some at the location also work on MeeGo and may see their involvement scale back.
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Joined: Oct 2004
The plan in a nutshell
The plan is this:
What you need in the marketplace, to maintain margins is differentiation for your products. So that they can command a premium.
Nokia doesn't believe they can do that, like Apple, with their own OS, whether it be MeeGo or Symbian.
But what Elop envisions, is he can shortcut all that. He can take a ready made OS in WinPho 7, and that MS has promised him the differentiation he needs.
So he can just begin dramatically cutting costs, such that he can keep costs below the expected dramatic reduction in sales - but emerge the other side with a premium brand, with high margins.
The only problem is, Elop is a moron. He is talking buzzwords, and believing buzzwords.
You won't have any differentiation at all, for all practical purposes he's making Nokia into another also-ran OEM of WinPho 7, without the manufacturing prowess of an HTC or Samsung, he's dooming his company.
There are no easy answers here - but MeeGo was the stategy. Bet the farm on making that happen.
Well, its all over now Nokia is finished.