Microsoft Lays Off Nokia Employees, Exits Consumer Phone Business

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I wonder if we'll be saying the same thing about the iPhone in a decade.

In a decade, the iPhone will have been "thinned" out of existence. Apple will be shipping empty boxes and many of us will be paying $1000+ dollars for air... then go out and buy accessories like battery, camera, Lightning 3 jack, screen, etc- all sold separately of course- to basically make what used to be included in iPhones from "about a decade ago." Some of "us" will passionately spin the genius of that. Others will question spending $1000 for an empty box and be called trolls or shills for Apple competitors. If the latter group gets too large or too persuasive, the former will freak out akin to this:

If there is still an actual iPhone in that box, we'll also need to purchase our own personal iElectron microscope (sold separately) so we can use it, and some kind of atomic sniffer device to help locate it when we've lost it (which should be quite often given there's a very high chance we're actually holding air at any given point in time). Of course, sometimes it will have slipped between the atoms of our skin and be inside of us. And then we might interface on a different level and proclaim ourselves Borg: "Resistance is futile."

All

 

[Gudi]

Microsoft Exits Consumer Phone Business

And at this point, shouldn't they also just scrap Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and restart with Windows 7.​

It's what people have been doing anyway:

 

[newyorkone]

Nokia. What's that???

 

[macduke]

Pretty sure I made some comment back then about wishing Microsoft would give me the $7,200,000,000 instead because I would put it to better use. They had to write that all off because it was a huge flop. I just can’t even…that's 7,200 MILLION DOLLAR BILLS!

How can the people running these companies be such idiots? Freaking Ballmer. Worst CEO mistake of a human ever.

 

[now i see it]

It's ironic that the iPhone killed Nokia.
That Apple is bankrupting Finland.
That thousands of Finish citizens lost their jobs to the iPhone.

And the one person who created this disaster was Steve Jobs.

Commerce is war.

 

[Mildredop]

It's ironic that the iPhone killed Nokia.
That Apple is bankrupting Finland.
That thousands of Finish citizens lost their jobs to the iPhone.

And the one person who created this disaster was Steve Jobs.

Commerce is war.

Where's the irony?

 

[JosephAW]

All those examples have a common thread. The companies that failed (regardless of how big), failed to properly read the market as it evolved.
[doublepost=1464174535][/doublepost]
Marketing, no one ever admits they failed any longer because that could affect the stock price.

Exactly! Good thing no one at apple dumped millions of dollars of stock recently. Otherwise we might think there's insider trading going on. Oh wait. Never mind they did do a dump.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Sucks for all the employees when their execs make terrible decisions that lead to stuff like this. Hope their severance package is good

Severance is 2 weeks for every year you've worked for Microsoft.
[doublepost=1464191174][/doublepost]

well they could have started AHEAD in the race, as there was iPAQs and the like running windows CE like in... 2002? They were not much bigger than a todays smartphone just bulkier

I still own two, running linux. batteries are probably dead tough. back in the day they were da bomb.

I had that first iPaq, I believe it was 2001. Microsoft didn't take it seriously enough and there was fragmentation from the getgo that made its way into Windows Mobile then got even worse.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Nokia. What's that???

They are a company who makes rubber boots.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Turns it into a duopoly... dunno if I like that.

It's not, though. There are two platforms, but a ton of companies.
[doublepost=1464191649][/doublepost]

Yeah, if Nokia as a company couldn't promote and sell Windows phones, what made MS think they could when that had zero experience in doing that.

I see similar results with the Surface Phone if that rumor comes to fruition. I think the mobile market has solidified and matured that another platform has zero chance - at least in the consumer sector. They could possibly try to market the Surface Phone for business but even then businesses are enjoying the idea of their employees supplying their own smartphones

The time between Nokia making that first Lumia phone and Microsoft buying Nokia was short enough that there weren't indicators yet, at least nothing solid.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

So Nokia was 'Zuned'?

Anyone not seeing this coming is looking rather foolish now...

I actually liked the Nokia I had decades ago. It had color changing paint, and worked really well, until I switched providers (again).

But at least I wasn't this guy...
[doublepost=1464192249][/doublepost]

They are a company who makes rubber boots.

Condoms?

Um... Do they need to be rebooted throughout the day? Do they report back to 'headquarters'? Um....

 

[Mactendo]

OS I would expect them to run WP IS with a proper advertising push on continuum as the uniqueness of a phone OS is that (constantly syncing) but wack in a docking station and you got a mini surface.

Last but not least one heck of a marketing campaign with a clean slate.

They should somehow unite Windows and Windows Phone as they did with Surface book, so a phone would run full Windows apps in continuum mode. Then such device will become the ultimate computer of the future for most people replacing modern day desktops. Smart and aggressive marketing is what Microsoft will need here most.

 

[Nicksd84]

And Nokia turned down a partnership with apple to make the iPhone. Lol

 

[Michael Scrip]

I wonder if we'll be saying the same thing about the iPhone in a decade.

True... a lot can happen in 10 years... and anything is possible.

What happened before was people stopped buying Symbian phones, Blackberries, Palm phones... and they started buying Android phones and iPhones instead.

And people are still buying Android phones and iPhones today.

For the iPhone to suffer the same fate as those other older platforms:

- People have to simply stop buying iPhones and switch to the only other platform (Android)

or

- A third platform must emerge to steal sales from the iPhone

I have a tough time believing either of those things will happen en masse. Sure... the iPhone had its first slowdown in its entire 8 year history... but what if that was just a correction bringing it closer to what it's supposed to be?

Honestly... Apple could sell 180-200 million iPhones a year for the rest of our lives and be perfectly fine. The iPhone has always had a strong ecosystem with apps, accessories, etc even when they didn't sell in those numbers.

Look at how long the Macintosh has been around. They sell enough of those to keep it a viable platform.

 

[FieldingMellish]

How devastating for the employees. Who would ever have imagined the successful Nokia hitting the skids.

 

[mzeb]

Windows is a dead platform. It's time to move on! R.I.P. Microsoft we won't miss your blue screens of death.
[doublepost=1464173996][/doublepost]

Ahh the premature iPhone funeral. Memories....

The OS is less and less the platform. More and more is it "The Cloud". One can see the decrease in investment apple has been making in it's operating systems. They have had an increased rate and severity of bugs since 2006. Their latest iOS patch release bricks one of their most recent devices.

In contrast, Apple's focus on consumer cloud applications has drastically increased. OS X and iOS are just the best client for these services and so they live on.

Comparably Microsoft's Office 365 subscriptions and Azure Cloud services gave their stock good boost yesterday. And the best client for these services, yep Windows. It's here to stay .

 

[AFEPPL]

Windows is a dead platform. It's time to move on! R.I.P. Microsoft we won't miss your blue screens of death.
[doublepost=1464173996][/doublepost]

Ahh the premature iPhone funeral. Memories....

My mac's crash more than my windows machines...!
Thanks apple.

What goes around.... apple needs to change or this is a vision for the future.

 

[2ilent8cho]

My mac's crash more than my windows machines...!
Thanks apple.

What goes around.... apple needs to change or this is a vision for the future.

The only thing that seems to crash regularly on my Mac is Microsoft Office.

 

[gotluck]

Still hoping for an Intel based full os phone one day

 

[MH01]

Karma is a bitch.

sure is, When Apple copies your tablet

 

[maflynn]

The time between Nokia making that first Lumia phone and Microsoft buying Nokia was short enough that there weren't indicators yet, at least nothing solid.

I've followed the windows phone platform since the wince days. I think there were plenty of indicators, the warning signs were all over the place.

 

[JackieInCo]

I wonder what the next Windows phone will be? MS is still promising "many great" things for it in the future.

 

[gkarris]

I don't get it - MS is getting rid of its current smartphone to exit out of mobile phones and coming out with a Surface Phone?

 

[JackieInCo]

I don't get it - MS is getting rid of its current smartphone to exit out of mobile phones and coming out with a Surface Phone?

They never said that they would stop making Windows phones.

 

[Nunyabinez]

HP (and Palm till an extend), Blackberry, Sony / Ericsson (both and both combined), Nokia, Microsoft and Motorola.

It's incredible that established, megacompanies with virtually unlimited resources, some known for changing the mobile landscape, some known for actually creating that same landscape, haven't been able to get it right.

Samsung was making kitchen sinks, Apple was making niche desktop computers, Google was.... was making Google.

People say it's all about money. But in this situation, was it?

Read this and it will all make sense.