Video: Jo Harlow on the BGR Show
Jo Harlow is interviewed on the BGR show and talks about Windows Phone strategy, Asha and PureView.
Asha will continue to be a competitor to lowest end Android. Harlow mentions PureView all about quality – Nokia’s INTENTION is to bring that to the WP platform too but go further in solving consumer problems when taking photos.
by iamOTHER
Via @BGR.
Category: Nokia
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llol asha dumb phones to compete with low end android.low end android device running ics like xperia miro has started to appear on market,s40 will not stand a chance.
* xperia tipo.
Yup never gunna happen longer-term, Meltemi was their best chance, they know this.
Their end game for quite some time (despite misleading everyone otherwise) is to push WP down to that sector, embrace Android, or abandon the low-end entirely & double/focus efforts on the higher-end.
All of which will be a big mistake longer-term, or a mediocre success at best.
the lowest price point for a android device is around 100 dollars but it runs gingerbread on low ram and 650-850 mhz processor and low res screen. with this hardware limitations you have a limited selection of apps that run properly and even those freeze your phone. not to mention android phones in that price range are built like crap.
s40 phones are below 100 dollars, good built,feature rich. people seem to forget these things. and who knows how s40 phones will evolve in the next 2 years. and in that time wp can go down in price and on lower specs.
for manu – the xperia tipo is around 120-140 euro, that’s around 170 dollars. doesn’t compare to the 70 dollars 305 or the 110 dollars 311
Yep as I said, the goal by killing Meltemi was ensuring WP can eventually go their instead, S40 wont compete LT.
That or they’ll embrace Android for that segment…
All those approaches will fail or be a mediocre success at best.
But hey, at least MS gets to have it’s cake & eat it too right, as Nokia will have become 100% it’s OEM bitch.
What makes you think Meltemi would have fared better? Why would it perform much better than Android? It would start with 0 apps whereas S40 has an established ecosystem and if WP ever gets down to that level has an even bigger one.
I think you are defining “ecosystem” by the number of apps, which is a very narrow approach. And in any case, I think there are currently more Java apps than WP apps, even though you can’t download all of them directly from Nokia store. I also hope you are not counting the Windows desktop ecosystem as part of the WP ecosystem; in reality the only unique MS services for mobile worth anything are Sky Drive and Bing, and I don’t see any real reason to use the latter. MS is trying to fix the reputation and functionality of Hotmail, but that is an ongoing project, which may not become much more successful than Bing. Hotmail still has a good number of users, but most of them are legacy from pre-Gmail days.
Furthermore, Meltemi was going to use QT, so for MeeGo apps a conversion for Meltemi would have been very simple if required at all, and converting Qt Symbian apps would have been fairly simple as well (similar as Symbian to MeeGo). In any case Meltemi would not have started from zero apps in practice.
Your last paragraph is about a timeline which has not happened, MeeGo was limited to the N9, and Qt was never a real proper toolkit on Symbian (too much missing, too much legacy like forcing time consuming operations on the UI thread, never even close to finished, you could only write toy apps without using actual Symbian native APIs), so there is no such thing as “simple” conversion from anywhere to Meltemi.
Also as far as we know it Meltemi was supposed to be on the low end, and while more efficient than Androids Java JVM crap, do we know it would be substantially faster than Android? (Enough to make a real difference?) What is the magic sauce? Of course it is has the cool N9 features like Swipe, it’d be awesome, but how can it be the S40 replacement would be like the high end MeeGo devices? Something had to be sacrificed.
As for MS services, that discussion has been had a thousand times. While I miss certain parts of my N8, my Lumia 610 is a thousand times more pleasant to use.
(Mind you I was looking forward to Meltemi)
You build an “ecosystem” (not just on your own ofc), you dont expect it magically appear from nowhere, that hasn’t happened (not even close) over the past 20mth.
If it had it would be looking FAR, FAR, healthier than it is NOW.
Definitely not as big as WP for obvious reasons/factors, but certainly better-off than RIM.
Android will fail, they wont compete with other vendors, same story will occur with WP.
The latter may just PASS, but it wont be what you can define as a raging success.
That woman is responsible for the smartphones, but I would be happy if she stays away from announcing them. I’m not sure why, but for some reason her interviews are sometimes a bit annoying. Maybe it is because she is in all interviews so pleased and proud with just about everything that Nokia is doing and have been doing. Or then its just the way she talks.
I get your point, she does have a very “tired” voice somehow. I think Nokia should use for presentations whomever is the best presenter for an occasion. I think some of the latest presentations have been fairly good with okay presenters being used.
Yes, but then it turns the other way around. Probably Nokia knows that this Harlow has a bit “low energy” in her voice and what was the solution last NW to present the 800? Some screaming maniac that was a disaster on stage. Well, if thats the option, then I’d even prefer Harlow.
The maniac was actually quite a bit of fun at least when watching live in London. As was the Asha presenter who danced.
But yeah, I do get your point that they need to strike a balance.
When Anssi Vanjoki announced the E7 at Nokia World 2010, he too screamed. Nokia seems to have a history of screaming. A good fit with Ballmer, then.
I want the dancing hot(ish) Mexican lady again..
alas, she is in the S40 silo.
Then again, Jo Harlow in that see though blouse.. mmm… :-p
Are you again imagining that tired, low energy voice saying:
“Viipottaja, you have been a very naughty boy…”
Get a grip, man.
Hey, its slow at the office in August.
Who can blame you. It is slow in the overall Nokia land too. September can’t come soon enough. And Nokia better deliver something amazing. Not just amazing everyday. But more like everyday something amazing.
Unfortunately she (Blanca Juti) just left. Now we have only mr Screamer left.
Brrr I hated that. It was completely ridiculous. Kevin Shields seems like a nice enough guy in the backroom interview talks with Belfiore et all, but the “awesome!!!” act was emberassing for everyone involved, including the audience.
Though I think he and Nokia know that too, he didn’t do that at the WP8 dev presentation
Quite different from Vanjoki who at least seemed more genuine, though a bit over the top sometimes.
Key takeaways:
- Has been working closely with Microsoft to get what they need in Windows Phone for implementing their imaging differentiation
- Will bring PureView lossless zooming and (some new?) low-light photography solutions to Windows Phone
- Will try to take Windows Phone as low in cost as possible, but…
- Will continue to invest in Asha to keep it competitive to cheap Android
Not much was said, but I think reading between the lines you can get a sense of some of the focus areas.
I dont understand that at all. Whats the point of having an interview where you talk about things that was news half year ago?
-Pureview to WP, ok.
-Cheaper WP, ok.
-Investments in Asha, ok.
What about starting to deliver something revolutionary, not in the future but right here and now.
I don’t think there is much point in this interview for people like you and me, I guess it was directed at the watchers of the show who are not as familiar with these things as we are.
As for us, the thing I always watch in these interviews is the silent messages or the stuff between the lines, how they answer questions, what things they emphasize or not and so on.
I think the low-light capability is something we’ll see them hihglight on the Windows Phone PureView. Perhaps it will be a theme they’ll focus on with the less-pixel PureView sensors.
Also, the fact that she was discussing Asha investments suggests to me that the June cutbacks don’t mean a fast-track to Asha irrelevancy, but we may still see significant new things there.
Of course this is pure speculation, but we deal with what we have. In a months time we should be wiser.
I watch every interview I can but I just dont get too many of these silent messages (except the location-location, but dont know how silent it is). And sometimes I dont know if there is any substances in it. One interview which I watched one part over and over again was with some Walt Mossberg over a year ago? Elop is saying (and that is not even part of Mossbergs questions) that “For a company like ours, we have to cover the space of phones, tablets, gaming consoles, in-vehicle-system etc. Some of this through partners, some of it on our own”. He might not have said it exactly like that but I got the “silent message” that they intend to do all that stuff. But he didnt say “for an ecosystem like ours”, it was “a company like ours”. Either is it true, or then he was lying or maybe forgot that employer is no longer Microsoft. I dont know what to think about that, but I just dont see Nokia doing all that kind of hardware. I dont even know if I should expect a tablet from them. Answer has been at least 3 years now that “we are watching the space with interest, but have nothing to announce”. And while they are watching, the competitors are acting.
Reading between the lines is obviously hard and very error-prone, but sometimes it has reaped good results too. It is just added fodder for the rumor mill.
I’d have to see that exact quote to comment exactly, but I don’t think the way you presented it sound too outrageous. He is right, they have to have a solution for all those things – through partners or through their own. And that was the MeeGo problem, Nokia could do the phones and the tablets, and they had some advancements in the in-vehicle, but with Windows Phone they arguably have access to an ecosystem that can span everything eventually and much faster that MeeGo could have, meaning it may succeed where MeeGo wouldn’t have.
I know MeeGo might have worked, but I think the overall message is fair. These ecosystems are moving more and more towards spanning the desktop to mobile to living room to car to office to home to wherever, and with Microsoft Nokia actually can offer their customers a solution that will span all that. With Symbian and MeeGo it would have been a long and hard road.
As someone having quite a bit of savings invested in the company, I sure hope that you are right. But the confidence is not growing. What about updating the strategy and informing me, now that it obviously have been changed? If I remember correctly 2 of the 3 pillars would be:
-Next billion. Is this still valid? How is it proceeding? If not valid anymore, whats the changes? Smarterphone/S40/Meltemi, whats the plan?
-Future disruptions. Meego should have been part of this, it was stated. Is it still valid? If not, whats the plan. There is not even official info from the company that most of Meego-team left. The last official info is still that Meego is part of future disruptions. There is also no official info from Nokia that they sold QT. Im watching their press-site every day.
Some more info in general from the company would be apreciated highly.
I agree. Hearing more about these would be good. Let me try myself:
- Next billion is still on, but in a new form – I think that is pretty clear. Asha touch, Nokia browser, etc. are all efforts to capture sales in the emerging markets where the next billion will come from. There is still the big question mark, will the Smarterphone acquisition bring something new to Asha – or will Asha be merely warmed up for a few years and then ditched. I think Asha news in the fall will be indicative. Anyway, Java will be the app-development of choice there now, that is clear.
- Given that plans were probably in motion around the AGM, I think the future disruptions part was answered there. Elop listed these things: “new materials (think bendy, think water resistant etc.), new user-experiences, new ecosystems, new power management. Elop also mentioned parts of MeeGo living on there.” I don’t think that means any full OS development per se (I think after Meltemi their feature phone efforts are the only area where they are at the moment doing that), but all sorts of R&D around the listed topics.
Yeah, I’d appreciate some overall guidance from Nokia on these as well, but those are my take at the moment.
Thanks, those ideas sounds reasonable. Some parts of course just speculative, but anyway makes sense.
Then for the first and most important pillar:
-Windows phone will be the primar focus for the smartphone portfolio.
Transition period will be from 1-1,5 years. They havent really updated this timetable officially so if I count correctly, the transition period should now be over and WP strategy running fully. Ok, how is that part of the strategy working? Maybe not yet as they excpected. What was the official answer concerning a back-up plan if it is not very succesful? To make sure it is very succesful. Well, now we are right there. Transition period is over (as officially announced the timetable would be), and that part of strategy is not very succesful. So now it would be about time for plan B, to make sure it is very succesful. I really hope that they have success with this plan B, whatever method they have to execute it. But so far I am sceptical that they really are doing everything they can to make sure it is succesful. Or why is all commercial filled up with Samsung phones and not Nokias? Hopefully things change very soon.
Counting from February 2011, 1.5 years only ends this month. So I’d roughly say the original transition is ending around WP8 announcement.
Ollila said of the schedule in the spring, I think calling entire 2012 a transitional year or at least the first three quarters. That was obviously in reference to WP7.
I think this also referes to the fact that Q3 is the first full quarter with near global Lumia availability and even then you have to wait for Q4 or beyond to global availability.
These of course are the reasons why I’m looking at Q4 results and the Lumia trajectory as my guidance, not, say, Q1 or Q2 results as the definitive proof of anything Lumia.
I think going for a plan B would be premature, Windows Phone 8 obviously is their big play. It was always going to be when Nokia gets to differentiate more than with the initial Lumias, has had a full 18 month cycle behind them to develop in-house Lumias instead of quick reference design hacks etc.
The transition is soon over, but only then does the real action start. Remember it was only less than 18 months ago that Nokia put the ship on a new course. It takes 18+ months for Nokia to normally develop a new product. Soon we shall see what those look like.
Yes, I hope that Ollila back in around november 2010 (when discussing with MS) saw something on their roadmap that is yet not fully clear (to me at least).
Another question since you seem to know a lot about what has been said in recent history. Do you remember if their estimate was to still sell 150 million symbian during the transition (ending about now), or was it all the way until 2016 or whenever they plan to stop supporting it?
Svedu:
I remember. They admitted they failed to reach that and apparently cancelled several Symbian models and tightened focus on Lumia faster on a more global scale than initially was planned.
I believe it was after the Q1/2012 results they hinted they will not reach 150 million. That was also when I called failure on that part of the transition myself. I think the June shower was further proof that Symbian will be out very fast now. Some nominal support will probably be there until 2016, but I don’t expect any new devices or anything like that. I think one or two hardware updates to Symbians could still come pre-Nokia World, but find that quite unlikely though.
Oh and the 150 million was “until ever”, not “until fall 2012″. So, they planned to sell Symbian perhaps until 2013 perhaps.
I wonder how many Symbians have been sold since that announcement on February 11th… Let’s see…
Smartphones sold by Nokia, mostly Symbian – the substractions I’ve made a very rough guesses:
Q1: 24.2 – counting half since Feb 11th = 12.1
Q2: 16.7 – counting all as Symbian = 16.7
Q3: 16.8 – counting all as Symbian = 16.8
Q4: 19.6 – subtract 2.5 million N9/Lumia = 17.1
Q1: 11.9 – subtract 2.5 million N9/Lumia = 9.4
Q2: 10.2 – subtract 4.5 million N9/Lumia = 5.7
Please correct any errors, this was a very rough and very quick collection of numbers.
Total Symbians sold from February 11th until now, estimate: 77.8 million. I think we can expect Nokia to sell low single-figure millions of Symbians for the following couple of quarters. I doubt Nokia will be able to reach 90 million Symbians sold after February 11th *ever*, some 60+ million or 40% short of the 150 million goal. Yes, quite a failure to sustain indeed. Obviously, had Nokia continued to release more new Symbian models they might have eked out maybe ten million more sold, but what would have been the point. Symbian is on the way out. Nokia did part of that damage themselves, but most of the damage was done by cheap Android that decimated Symbian’s remaining stronghold.
The latest strategy update sounds like the future disruptions is scrapped aswell. I would not put too much emphasis on what was said in AMG since the official decision to the new new strategy and cut offs were decided only afterwards (I believe they were planned, but the AMG was only a show to keep the minority owners silent)
The strategy is according to the latest press release:
” Nokia’s strategy is about delivering great mobile products that sense the world. Nokia plans to:
- Invest strongly in products and experiences that make Lumia smartphones stand out and available to more consumers;
- Invest in location-based services as an area of competitive differentiation for Nokia products and extend its location-based platform to new industries; and
- Improve the competitiveness and profitability of its feature phone business.”
In short Lumia development, Where platform and Asha optimization.
That is in fact quite a change to the original, but as Elop communicates, it is just implementation of the original.
I think you are downplaying remaining R&D at Nokia (especially the research aka future disruptions part), as well as downplaying potential investments in Asha, but other than a fair assessment of Nokia’s current strategey. Certainly they tightened the belt and the focus in June, no disputing that.
I still consider Asha phones for my (8 & 12 years old) children.
But, is it enough?
Hope Sept. and October get here soon.
pureview lumias in q1 2013.
Harlow should be fired as soon as possible.
+1
Same messages underlying message….
All Nokia tech “not competing with MS products” will be used for pushing WP.
All Nokia tech “competing with MS products” will be strangled or killed.
I m just a bit happier that QT and Meego are given a chance to survive outside Nokia.
The problem with that is, it is fully in contraction. If Nokia wanted to strangle Qt, it would not have sold it – it would have stopped developing it inflicting maximum damage (even though open source efforts could have done some things with it).
Same with MeeGo, Nokia would not have used Nokia Bridge to launch Jolla if they wanted to inflict maximum damage and strangle things.
No, the sane answer is they wanted to cut loose things that didn’t fit their plan.
100k€ does not make much difference as Nokia support. Nokia did not launch Jolla, the guys clearly did it themselves. Especially if it means that the 4 guys wont get their 16 months salary
Their attitude in the interviews sounds like the Apple in 2007. (For zza reason since Apple had profitable business then)
You shoulf also consider Nokia from owner vs employee point of view.
I shoulf comment these anymore since it is fruitless. I just wish that Ollila et al are allowed and open on the facts (eg power relations) behind the strategy shift.
You know what I meant by the word “launch”, come on. In no way did I want to diminish the Jolla guys, I have been appreciative and supportive of them since day 1, just that they themselves said they presented their plan to Nokia, got approval and support and were grateful for Nokia’s support. There is even strong reason to believe Nokia licensed some IP to them.
This does not sound like a company wanting to “strangle or kill tech “competing with MS products”” like the guy I was responding to claimed. Nor does selling Qt to a good home sound like someone wanting to kill it.
Are you a religious person?
The negative PR, the canceling of products, the ditching of engineers, supports, and third party developers were all great steps in “not” strangling QT and Meego.
You keep proving yourself to be a blind Elop fanboy.
typo
supports= supporters / consumers.
Another interesting link, how many people on the web will Janne twist.
Nokia preps to sell Qt, but not before Elop screws it up
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/81142/
A nice quote from the author:
“Secondly, what the hell is Nokia CEO Stephen Elop thinking? He’s firing all of the engineers and QA people, THEN trying to sell off the company? No one in their right mind is going to buy a DVD-ROM full of code without staff who actually know what’s what and where. That’s worthless.
Source code is only half the value, and perhaps even less than that. The team that built it, integrated it with other platforms, tested it, that knows it cold, is the real asset.”
Everybody knows Qt, inside and outside. You’re comparing it to an inhouse product. It’s not. Most contributions come from outside anyway. The sale is mostly about the rights to manage the roadmap for the official releases and to sell the commercial licenses, the latter of which Digia already had. Everybody else can do what they want anyway, it’s LGPL.
+1 on the personal insult though, not many non-trolls left on MNB. Turning into a cross between Engadget retards, Theverge douchebags and MR style fandroids.
I was trying to give an example on how QT was being strangled at Nokia.
Hey nokia plz reopen meltemi project……
I would put it: Nokia, please sell the Meltemi code and allow the people, who were fired, to join the purchaser, if they want.
i think jolla have the meltemi code and they might be developing it.
Hey nokia yours s40 full touch UI is Good but not fought against low end android…Because you have to put all stuff that is possible in low level android…why should they go if online music streaming,UI IS good,more coustmization,youtube streaming is good,3g capable and preety fast android system is there at low level even good mobile manufacture from various company..Also battery is boosted…I will appreciate Windows phone if they come at lower price point as android…..I think all nokia low end mobile segment user have right to use todays fast growing technology..Why should nokia not understanding us …Microsoft should build new UI for low end mobiles..They have put themselves in young mobile user market….
Hey Nokia insiders, Nok gained 10% in NYSE today after 6%, 5%, since Monday. What’s up to that?
Qt sale, NSN/LTE good news probably. And the overall feeling Nokia might be about to swing back, I guess. Sense of things moving forward.
Also, news that the Lumia 900 out sold the HTC One X for the month of July at AT&T.
It did?
Source?
Partially right!
The value of the company is currently to be estimated as lower than the actual assets maintained in the company.
Then in addition to your comment that the company is to be swinging back or sense that things are moving forward is also partially correct by people in some cases being miss led by the bigger picture. There is big expectations built for the upcoming Nokia World and Nokia must deliver something truly iconic and must productize before Samsung! I fear that Samsung will release their WP8 Marco and Odyssey before Nokia will release any WP8 products. In addition if Nokia then will not release something way cooler and same price or lower then the Samsung product then Nokia will take a huge leep backwards in stock value.
I would really love to see Nokia deliver a fantastic line up of WP8 phones and a stunning plus nicely priced W8 tablet. With the demand that Nokia deliver the products timely which has been Nokias achilles heel!
My next phone will definitely be a WP8 and the big question is if it will be a Nokia or a Samsung? Nokia needs a new design on their phone to be a true contender with a Galaxy S3 lookalike WP8.
Asha is not bad series in their own league but going against even cheapest Android with Asha is really a bad call. I know Nokia is in business from way way long and they have resources to make things right but somehow I am forced to think they are not thinking through a consumer’s mind.
THIS WOMAN IS A FRIGGIN TRAITOR…SCREW HER
Jo is teh captain refusing to jump the burning platform.
you got good apps with android play store.meltemi is linux so it could run android apps.its qt means it can run symbian apps.with s40 you can only play java game which suck.
Srry for poor english as i only 13
elop should be fire as soon as possible.buy jolla and symbian mid range,meego high end abd meltemi low end.s40 is dead.