“You’re a nice guy … and the leadership team is doing its best, but clearly, it’s not enough,” one shareholder, Hannu Virtanen, told Elop. “Are you aware that results are what matter? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Please switch to another road,” he said.
Nokia is a business and like many businesses, if you can’t adapt and change, you won’t make it for very long. The transition from Nokias own Symbian platform to Windows was supposed to take 2 years. After that time frame the dip in market share was supposed to return. Obviously that isn’t happening. With the powerhouses of Samsung and Apple driving the majority of the mobile market, Nokia is in trouble.
Many of us have longed for Nokia to pull the trigger and just build us a great Android device. Anyone who has ever owned a Nokia phone will likely agree that they make great hardware. CEO Stephen Elop still has all his marbles in one basket with Windows.
“We make adjustments as we go. But it’s very clear to us that in today’s war of ecosystems, we’ve made a very clear decision to focus on Windows Phone with our Lumia product line,” he said. “And it is with that that we will compete with competitors like Samsung and (Google’s operating system) Android.”
I hate to break it to ya Elop, but Windows will never actually compete at the same level as Samsung, Android or Apple. Look at Blackberry, they are hanging on by a thread. I would personally hate to see Nokia fall by the wayside after being one of the biggest manufacturers in the world for many years.
Juha Varis, senior portfolio manager at Danske Capital, which owns Nokia shares, said Elop may be making a mistake.
“Maybe they could go back to Google and say we also want to go with Android. Even if it hurts. Microsoft, they’ve had their chances, and are not managing to take off,” he said.
Will the investors finally sway Elop to jump in with Android and give it a run along side their Windows push? I highly doubt it. Elop is pretty set on making the Lumina and Windows devices a success. It is looking more and more like it will end up being the ship that sinks them though. Nokia has gone from roughly 65 euros a share in 2000 down to 2.72 euros. That is pretty staggering. As Hannu Virtanen said, results do matter.
Sound off in the comments section if you would love to see an Android powered Nokia device become available.
Source: ReutersÂ
