WSJ interviews Stephen Elop – bringer of the PureView? Reflection on Nokia’s challenges.

It appears we missed this post when it appeared last Wednesday at WSJ. It’s an interview with Stephen Elop. Many things common knowledge though a few interesting snippets too.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/07/18/nokia-ceo-reflects-on-phone-makers-challenges/

Here are some key points:

• Nokia a landscape of unpolished gems (too true. So many good things)
• Many great R&D efforts not landing into products
• Patent portfolio need to show up in the products
• Waxy build up of Symbian. Innovation couldn’t land quickly enough.
• Saw PureView weeks within showing up at Nokia and saw it as ground breaking.
• PureView was struggling to break through, failing to appear in products 5 years before (Elop had been consistent mentioning amazing things at the labs he wants to see in actual Nokia products, not just festering in R&D. He mentioned that the N8 is fantastic but that’s just a fraction of what he’s seen at Nokia’s R&D labs. So true, no?)
• (Question is, what contribution, if at all, did Elop have to bringing PureView to market as opposed to letting it stay in labs?)
• Elop imagines Nokia’s fortunes if they had such technologies earlier. I believe a similar post was going around showing that Nokia had iPhone and iPad years before iPhone and iPad but they never made it out.
• Elop talks about Nokia innovation where a letter pops up whilst you’re typing a letter to confirm you’ve typed it. Elop says that’s a Nokia innovation, designed and patented by Nokia but never made it to a Nokia, instead appearing on some Apples.
• Many things Nokia invested in, patented but Symbian represented a barrier in landing the products quickly enough.
• On spending so much more on R&D than Apple:  Investment and development of products is the lifeblood – critical to anyone’s future.
• Elop now focusing how R&D is spent. Instead  of seeing Symbian products a year to begin with, by the time they appeared to consumers, they were already 2 years outdated (too true. Remember those super long development times? We just accepted it takes Nokia 18 months to make a phone. By time of announcement there’s also a 6 month gap to release).
• WSJ praises Nokia’s past of ing the innovators and trendsetters but now says that is no longer the case.
• Elop replies,

“To the extent that any company believes that they get to define consumers wishes or they get to define an industry, therein lies the recipe for failure. At the end of the day no one gets to do that other than the consumers making the purchases”

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/07/18/nokia-ceo-reflects-on-phone-makers-challenges/

• (Nokia’s past has been troubled with plenty of arrogance and incompetence. Because they had previously tried and failed with touch screen, then did not see the threat from iPhone. How could anyone apart from Nokia set the trend? Erm, hello, the clamshell phones?  Nokia rest on laurels too much of great past performance and did not react quickly enough to both external and internal challenges. )
• Elop wants a challenger mindset (Note, to stay on top, like the current superiors, Apple/Sammy, you must keep fighting. Never taking a break. Always striving to improve so the competition is always playing catchup).

“Let’s understand that we have to fight, we have to fight our way through the difficulties, we have to listen to consumers, we have to both deliver what they need and also have some creativity and insight and deliver what the don’t yet know they need.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/07/18/nokia-ceo-reflects-on-phone-makers-challenges/

“

Category: Nokia