Ex Apple Exec, Jean-Louis Gassée on Nokia, Elop and the board
Jean-Louis Gassée, ex Apple Exec is giving advice that Nokia should go ahead and fire Elop and the whole board. I’ve not really heard of this guy up until now or know why his opinion should weigh more than anyone else’s. Check out his Wiki page for more info. It seems that JLG himself was forced out by Apple’s board for poor performance. Well, that’s what Wiki said about him. Although he’s done quite a bit outside of the Apple thing, his name is referenced most as an ex Apple guy, which is probably why his opinion about Nokia is spreading.
Anyway, JLG said:
I think that Elop will have to go, but I also think that the board also needs to be renewed with people who have an understanding and working knowledge of the mobile industry
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2188976/nokia-elop-board-jean-louis-gassee
Is it really in his best interest to say that Nokia should just give up this whole transition at such critical make or break moments? Too much has been leading up to the launch of the WP8 devices. It seems based on other news that Nokia knew all about the WP7 limitations and were already working on WP8 devices, it was always about WP8 and W8.
In the 90s, Dell’s CEO once made a point that if he were in charge of Apple, he would ‘shut it down and give the money back to the shareholder’. It might have made sense to do that for outsiders, but they followed through. I’m not saying the same resurgence will happen to Nokia any time soon, but I feel they’ve got a better chance following this current strategy through (as bad as it looks) as opposed to pressing the reset button all over again and going Android or another OS.
It’s easy to hold JLG’s opinion in high regard now that you might agree with him. But for Symbian fans, he also advised back in 2010 that Symbian should be dropped in favour of Android.
I told them to drop everything and go Android. Do it in secret and let the rumours fly… I would have used Nokia’s design flare [sic] to make very nice phones
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfield/2012/07/05/jean-louis-gassee-nokias-board-ceo-should-go/
JLG reiterates that Symbian was dead. He says carriers were running away from Symbian in large numbers. Thus it made sense to move away from Symbian. BUT, JLG says the plans might have been revealed too early. Note, that infamous burning platform memo was never meant to be for the public.
He did a very good thing, which is to tell everyone that it is an eco-system ‘play’, not a platform play. That was very insightful. But then he reveals the plans without implementing them. Everyone knew that Symbian phones were dead-enders and Nokia’s partners – the carriers – ran away from Symbian in large numbers
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2188976/nokia-elop-board-jean-louis-gassee
As noted in the Forbes article, he would have preferred Nokia to switch away from Symbian in secret. With such a big company as Nokia, would that ever have been possible? I feel like we’re just going to be stirring up the same old arguments again as to why the memo was released to the employees and why Nokia made the partnership in Feb 11. Not to mention the mass of unknown internal challenges Nokia was dealing with. I’m sure folks have already settled one way or another on their beliefs but it seems people will never get tired of talking about it so feel free to do that.
The computing article then goes on about JLG’s opinions on OPK who
presided over a confused platform strategy featuring multiple iterations of the Symbian operating system and Linux-based alternative
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2188976/nokia-elop-board-jean-louis-gassee
Before JLG’s recommendations, the board were already thinking about ditching OPK but were not happy to go with Android.
Cheers all for the tip!
Category: Nokia
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and Facebook.com/mynokiablog. Check out the tips, guides and rules for commenting >>click<< Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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Do you always rely on opinion of granpapa? Personally I doubt that.
I’d say such an argument is totally weak/flawed, not to mention ignorant.
Old people have a life time of experiences & provided their mental faculties haven’t eroded too much, their idea/insights for solving problems can often be better than younger people.
Elop is also looks like granpapa lol although he’s in 50s
Such a surprising load of butthurt in this here article.
Tip: Before you disparage of other, older and more experienced people’s opinions, it would be proper to have a reputation for doing something notable yourself. Running a blog in your spare time is not it.
Besides, for a future medic you seem to be too blind to factual evidence. Elop has proved his incompetence on any number of occasions. Defending him against criticism puts your judgement into a bad light. I hope you act differently in professional matters. All the best, etc etc.
jesus… hey my opinions are sometimes off, but I don’t like it wen I’m insulted around here, can we stick with facts and not be on other peoples personal qualities… cmon please…
Jay is completely entitled to his opinion, I personally disagree with him and that’s fine, I do come up a bit biter sometimes with a “I told you so attitude” so I guess people would not like that about me, and that’s fine to, but can we stop the personal insults and character judgments???
Can we please stick to having fun dabbling arguments about nokia and not throwing insults to each other? Pleeeease?
Read the article. Jay made a character judgement on a distinguished man who has a lot of experience in the business. Opinions are one thing, but this passage here:
“I’ve not really heard of this guy up until now or know why his opinion should weigh more than anyone else’s. Check out his Wiki page for more info. It seems that JLG himself was forced out by Apple’s board for poor performance. Well, that’s what Wiki said about him. Although he’s done quite a bit outside of the Apple thing, his name is referenced most as an ex Apple guy, which is probably why his opinion about Nokia is spreading.”
… is actually demeaning the man’s achievements in the field and saying he’s a nobody and you shouldn’t value his opinion. Which is obviously not true. It is a rude bit of text, and for the sake of objectivity (is there such a thing on this blog nowadays?), perhaps Jay ought to edit that part.
My comment still stands.
Besides, I remember how for simply saying I didn’t like one Nokia’s execs for a reason, Jay and his court went all aflame on me about it. If it works one way, it works just as well the other way too. No double standards
Come to think of it, JLG did say Nokia should have dumped Symbian already in 2010.
Maybe dr_zorg will finally agree with that too?
JLG may be a distinguished man. I openly and honestly said I did not know about him. I also read several comments from others (in source blogposts and additional blogs) wondering why his opinion would matter more than any one else’s, so I made a note of this unfamiliarity.
Therefore, I gave a brief background from what I found on Wikipedia that he used to be at Apple. The headlines I was reading said he was an ex Apple guy, so I expanded on that a little. I also made a note that he’s not only an ex Apple guy but did quite a bit outside of that too.
So therefore perhaps he has some knowledge to pay attention to. I presented a link to his Wikipedia page because that shows a wealth of information about what that guy did.
I tried to understand where he might have been coming from. I accepted my limitations on my knowledge about him and let my readers have a source of information where they can find out more about who he is should they wish to.
Apologies if you interpreted this as extremely negatively as you did.
Blogging for me is not simply about talking about the stuff I’m an expert in. (I wouldn’t even say I’m an expert in many Nokia stuff, I just know what I like, dislike) I have limited knowledge and take the opportunity to learn whilst I share what I’ve learnt. (That’s why I love going to the open comments section to read and be educated by my readers because many have much more experience and knowledge about it that I do and I appreciate that they take the time to share here). I may express an opinion based on that limited knowledge but will let people know that it is from a limited perspective.
Quite rightly so, mobile isn’t my industry. I’m merely a fleeting observer, a fan of Nokia who takes some time every now and again to blog. I wish I could spend more time to learn about this industry but unfortunately, time is limited and is allocated to more pressing matters in real life.
You’re giving me a tip that essentially to my understanding is that I shouldn’t have opinions about other people unless I have a reputation of doing something notable myself and that blogging doesn’t cut it for you. Well I’m sorry about that. This is why this blog will always be labelled an informal, random blog for that same reason. I’m just a hobby blogger. And like many hobby bloggers, we will share our opinions based on what limited perspective we have of the industry. Does that mean we shouldn’t simply because we don’t know everything nor have a distinguished background of the subject and therefore those more distinguished cannot be talked about? I hope not.
Let me reiterate that my blogging at Nokia is just something I do as a HOBBY, something I enjoy, something I find relaxing.
I appreciate your concern with my professional life and would like to assure you that I take utmost care and attention there and that is why I do not spend as much time as I would like to learning about the mobile industry. I wouldn’t want to say I act the same because blogging is my a hobby that I enjoy, again – something to relax to. I wouldn’t want to have the same formal restrictions here that I would impose on myself in the clinical/medical/real world setting. But don’t worry, I make sure I adhere to the conduct proposed by the GMC and the document outlined in the publication ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’.
There are limited hours in a day and I prioritise my medical career, family and friends. I do what I can to make sure I can get the most and the best I can out of everything.
I also appreciate my readers here and when I see that they ask me to specifically talk about a certain subject or accuse me of ignoring a certain subject, I will do what I can based on the time that I have to quickly summarise what I think about it. This is why, I would often leave topics in drafts or never get around to many other topics because they take time to research to present accurately and fairly and I don’t have that luxury of stopping time.
Cheers,
Have a good weekend.
+1 to Jay!
And, what great things have you done sir?