The PhoneBoy Blog

How Many Arrows are Left in Nokia’s Services Quill?

29 Apr 2009

One of the phrases I heard when I worked at Nokia right before they announced the divestiture of the Security Appliance Business (where I worked) was “more wood behind fewer arrows.” In other words, Nokia was wanting to focus more of their resources behind fewer initiatives, products, services, whatever. Seems reasonable.

It should, therefore, be no surprise given Nokia’s huge fall in profits and the general state of the economy that Nokia is, once again, putting more wood behind fewer arrows by, according to the press release, “[focusing] investments on fewer initiatives and [increasing] the use of common enablers across certain services.”

The press release gives scant details, as press releases often do. However, they do mention a couple of interesting tidbits:

• A variety of third-party partners will be added to the image capture and sharing features on devices. Presumably, only newer devices. Those of us with Nokia devices today likely won’t benefit. And seriously, how long did it take for Nokia to realize there’s a thriving ecosystem of services that they simply don’t participate in?
• When Nokia says employees will be impacted by a strategy change, as this press release says, it means only one thing: layoffs. 450 of them, or at least 450 people will have to substantially change their job. At least Nokia gives decent severance packages, but I still feels sorry for those impacted.

Given how long it seems to take for Nokia to make any serious changes, based on having worked for them for 10 years, I have to wonder if these changes can be implemented in time to reverse the downward slide of market share and mind share.

Based on what I saw in Redwood City when I was at the Check Point office last week, I’d say the fight is over and Nokia lost. Many former Nokia employees are now proudly carrying iPhones along with many long-time Check Point employees. Me? I’d love to get an iPhone now, but I can’t justify spending money on a new phone when I’ve got a drawer full of them. Maybe after Apple releases the next generation iPhone

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