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Microsoft lays off hundreds as it guts its phone business
- Thread starter Spring Drive
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EvilKatarn
Member
Just imagine where would Nokia be if they were never acquired by Microsoft and made Android phones instead.
Spring Drive
Banned
Didn't former Nokia employees form a new company just for that purpose?
Bel Marduk
Banned
I know we all expected this but its still sad nonetheless.
Hopefully these people can get new jobs quickly.
Hopefully these people can get new jobs quickly.
Ballmer really stuck it to MS with the Nokia deal, they took a $8+ billion bath and got nothing in return.
Lucky for them that they keep making money elsewhere, a weaker company would have folded altogether after a debacle like this.
I don't think Microsoft is very popular in Finland lately.
Lucky for them that they keep making money elsewhere, a weaker company would have folded altogether after a debacle like this.
I don't think Microsoft is very popular in Finland lately.
sankt-Antonio
:^)--?-<
As a OEM Lumina user (forced) I had high hopes they would vanish entirely and stop supporting these phones. So I could get a phone that actually works as intended.
It's fucked up that the employees are not relocated to other jobs within MS.
It's fucked up that the employees are not relocated to other jobs within MS.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Microsoft did the stupidest thing by focusing on America instead of Europe, where Windows Phone still had a fighting chance.
This basically signals the end of Lumia and Microsoft's manufacturing efforts besides an eventual Surface Phone.
NumberThree
Member
We're having a good streak here in Finland with 1000 people laid off by Nokia and now 1350 by Microsoft (assuming they're all indeed being laid off).
Is this some sort of running joke?
Honey Bunny
Member
From the original Nokia acquisition thread, just under three years ago
http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=668101
http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=668101
dragonelite
Member
Uuh probably dead, or where BlackBerry maker is right now.
Auto-Reply
Member
I'm looking forward to future here maps updates lol
Keep telling yourself that, Microsoft.
Estocolmo
Member
Remedy and Quantum Break perhaps?
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
This pisses me off to no end because I actually think Here Maps is a heck of a lot better than Google Maps, specially for car navigation and international travel. It's the one Google service I didn't miss as a WP user.
I think Remedy guys are closely watching this Nokia disaster... and working on their CVs in spare time.
freenudemacusers
Member
At least they got a universal platform first.
Auto-Reply
Member
I like here maps, the only thing I don't like is that my position is only represented as a circle. Would be better to have an arrow so you instantly know what direction you are facing relative to the map.
Hamster Plugin
Member
Here Maps isn't owned by Microsoft (or even Nokia any more), it's now owned by some car companies. It's still as good as it always was and I'm on Android.
HERE Maps was sold to some German car group. And MS/Bing Maps use shared data from HERE.
Some awesome guy made this tool if someone wants to import their HERE favs to Bing BTW: http://www.jmevel.com/MapsFavoritesImporter
Some awesome guy made this tool if someone wants to import their HERE favs to Bing BTW: http://www.jmevel.com/MapsFavoritesImporter
They don't own Remedy. Microsoft may not fund another project but Remedy can do other things.
Sucks for people losing their jobs, that's a big number and doubtful new Nokia mobile will do anything but cherry pick who they know is the best.
I wonder if Nokia are seen as the bad guys too, they got paid 7 billion, Microsoft fired all their staff for them really and started over.
Auto-Reply
Member
Yeah, was aware of that. Says something about my expectations of further updates from MS directly!
No, Tesco were running some ridiculously good deals on the early Windows 8 Lumias.
TheSinkingKnight
Member
Isn't Nokia allowed to start making phones again in a year or so? If so, hopefully they rehire some of these people.
Caayn
Member
It didn't help that their new flagships(950/950XL) had two problems.
1. Price. The price was steep for an relatively unknown platform.
2. Lack of marketing outside the US. Seriously Microsoft there's more to the world than just the US. This is especially bad as the Windows Mobile had a better marketshare in the EU than in the US.
1. Price. The price was steep for an relatively unknown platform.
2. Lack of marketing outside the US. Seriously Microsoft there's more to the world than just the US. This is especially bad as the Windows Mobile had a better marketshare in the EU than in the US.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Is that even a certainty? I mean I'm all aboard for the idea but if they're going to just send it to die again why bother making it?
artsi
Member
They packed all the employees into buses and transported them to a hockey arena for the announcement. I guess everyone knew what's happening but sucks for them.
Difficult to find a job in a small country like this when there are thousands of capable, recently laid off people competiting for them.
Difficult to find a job in a small country like this when there are thousands of capable, recently laid off people competiting for them.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
My guess is that they'd want to promote it as a business first, niche device comparable to the early Surface range.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
Elflop putting in werk.
UnblessedSoul
Member
Pretty much said it was doomed from the beginning, they got patents out of it I guess.
Deader than dead now.
They were too late to the party, too unprepared when they did eventually get to the party and too unfocused in their communication to the consumer market.
TBH I'm of the view their short term strong consumer connection with 360 was a bit of a fluke. MS really struggle in heavy consumer centric market engagement. Like many commercially focused ventures they're too fuzzy and slow. Consumers need clear propositions right away.
That said since Jobs passed Apple has been losing its edge there too IMHO so it's not just MS.
Apple though have advantage of existing consumer mindshare, MS started as a bit player and went downhill from there.
Surface phone it is.
Elop sure helped kill Nokia though. Really tough run for Finland with that one.
They were too late to the party, too unprepared when they did eventually get to the party and too unfocused in their communication to the consumer market.
TBH I'm of the view their short term strong consumer connection with 360 was a bit of a fluke. MS really struggle in heavy consumer centric market engagement. Like many commercially focused ventures they're too fuzzy and slow. Consumers need clear propositions right away.
That said since Jobs passed Apple has been losing its edge there too IMHO so it's not just MS.
Apple though have advantage of existing consumer mindshare, MS started as a bit player and went downhill from there.
Surface phone it is.
Elop sure helped kill Nokia though. Really tough run for Finland with that one.
It's the exact same post another person made in the other windows phone thread. The same spelling mistake of then instead of them included
I dont think this is true at all...def. not enough to make the whole endeavor make it worth the cost. The cheaper Lumia Phones sold well for a while because they had to sell them for cheap because of low demand to begin with.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
At some point Microsoft held comparable and enven bigger marketshares than iOS in some key European countries such as Italy and Spain. Some of those devices were cheap, but the 920 (which was quite pricey at the time) was one of their best sellers for a while.
Then Microsoft ceased all marketing efforts and gave up on flaghships for an entire cycle, killing Windows Phone in a single year. People looking for a new Windows Phone had nothing to look forward. One could argue that is still the case, as the 950 still lacks some of the features introduced by the then-revolutionary 920 and Windows 10 turned out to be a buggy mess. There was no incentive to upgrade. If you pass through the Windows Phone OT you will notice that many (most?) of us just gave up despite our love for the platform.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Nadella's endgame at finally undoing Ballmer's Folly is nearly here. I feel sad when thinking about Nokia, once the pride and joy of Finland. They were destroyed by Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, and Stephen Elop. Tens of thousands of jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars of economic value, a company more than a century old were all sacrificed to MS corporate infighting, the forced departure of an embattled longtime CEO, and the shifting of goals when a new CEO arrived.
It's not clear that would have been a path to success either. I mean Blackberry gave up the ghost and made their Android phone way too late to save themselves, but at the time of Elop's arrival there Nokia were still knee deep in Symbian and other projects like MeeGo. If they also had waited as long as Blackberry did to move to Android, they would have died just the same.
It's not clear that would have been a path to success either. I mean Blackberry gave up the ghost and made their Android phone way too late to save themselves, but at the time of Elop's arrival there Nokia were still knee deep in Symbian and other projects like MeeGo. If they also had waited as long as Blackberry did to move to Android, they would have died just the same.
They fucked about with windows phone OS too soon, alienating initial users, they diluted the industrial design to a point where they were just nondescript blocks of plastic, and their unifying platform came at least a year, probably two, too late.
sad really. Although Nokia at the time of purchase was in bad shape, I think they could have pulled through - the network business was picking up which, along with their patent pool could have helped keep a slimmer Nokia afloat. And they still have huge brand value in India and Asian markets with feature phones. They were basically giving up on Symbian at the time and would probably have moved to Android. Combined with their solid supply chain management at their core, plus their really nice industrial design I think they could have carved out a future.
I worked there for many years and have lots of fond memories ;_;
sad really. Although Nokia at the time of purchase was in bad shape, I think they could have pulled through - the network business was picking up which, along with their patent pool could have helped keep a slimmer Nokia afloat. And they still have huge brand value in India and Asian markets with feature phones. They were basically giving up on Symbian at the time and would probably have moved to Android. Combined with their solid supply chain management at their core, plus their really nice industrial design I think they could have carved out a future.
I worked there for many years and have lots of fond memories ;_;
Nokia wasn't destroyed, it's still a healthy company with 110 000 employees and $24 billion revenue. It successfully transformed from a phone company to a network company by selling the sick part (phone business) and buying new ones (Alcatel Lucent).
Too bad. As far as the OS goes, out of the box Windows mobile OS is far superior to Android. It may not have the app/game support, but I far prefer using a Lumia over Android phones. I prefer the layout & continuous scrolling to flipping pages, a lot of small simple stuff just are there that are missing from Android or used in a more cumbersome way and altogether I like the somewhat simpler approach/look in comparison to the way Android does it. It's a phone, I don't need it to be a mini-PC. As far as apps go, it has less to choose from, but all-in-all I feel I didn't miss anything much other than games. I got my sports tracker, bank app, news app, music app, a really good camera & its basic app, weather app, whatsapp/messenger/skype and a few more specific apps that I use a lot. There are some that are missing or don't have all that good alternatives, but most of those are on the level of "nice to have but don't use them regularly and can live without them"
The same result without the 7B. Probably would have died quicker.
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