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Nokia Plan B calls for Elop’s ouster

Geoff Duncan
By
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop

It’s no secret that not everybody in Finland is comfortable with new Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s radical direction shifts, including what appears to be an all-or-nothing stake of the company’s future on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. However, some Nokia backers are doing more than just grumbling about it: a group of nine unidentified young Nokia investors—all of whom claim to have worked for Nokia at various times—have launched Nokia Plan B. What’s the plan? Pack Nokia’s board of directors, put MeeGo and Nokia’s Qt environment back at the center of the company’s strategy, hire top young talent from around the world…and show Stephen Elop and selected other top-level Nokia execs the door.

The investors’ “Nokia Plan B” doesn’t actually call for the company to walk away from Windows Phone 7: it sees an alliance with Microsoft as having utility as a “tactical exercise” targeting the North American smartphone market—where Nokia essentially has no presence at all. Under the Plan B vision, Nokia would produce a limited number of Windows Phone handsets under a Nokia “sub-brand,” and consider ramping up the project (or extending it to Europe) only if sales volumes justify the effort.

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However, Nokia Plan B would see MeeGo re-instated as the company’s main smartphone platform, with development centered on Nokia’s Qt framework. They would also like to see Symbian’s lifespan extended by at least another five years to capitalize on its broad adoption in Europe and Asia. However, rather than simple returning to Nokia’s pre-Elop strategies, the investors would also see the company end distributed R&D and R&D outsourcing, eject selected members of Nokia’s current leadership team along with Elop, and aggressively recruit young talent out of universities to breathe new life into Nokia’s products. The group has not yet offered plans for how it would cope with Nokia’s existing Ovi services or ever-aging S40 platform.

The Nokia Plan B proposal seems aimed at forcing Nokia to keep control of both its hardware and software platforms, so that the company can move more nimbly and directly innovate its products without dependencies on other companies. The strategy has certainly worked for Apple…although Nokia has been pursuing a similar tack for years and has largely been marginalized in the smartphone market, despite essentially inventing it.

The young investors behind Nokia Plan B don’t have much time to rally support from other Nokia investors if they want to get themselves elected to the company board: the company’s next Annual General Meeting is May 3, 2011.

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Topics
Nokia’s bastardized Android could be brilliant … if it would just commit
Android Nokia X editorial

What do you do when you aren't ready to give up, but your rival is more than 25 times more popular than you? If you're Microsoft, you throw a costume party.
Yesterday, Nokia (Microsoft is purchasing its handset business) took the stage at Mobile World Congress to unveil three new Android phones under the Nokia X name. When we first heard news of this, we threw our hands in the air and began dancing ... until we heard the details. The fun always ends in the details. The Nokia X phones do run Android, but only technically.
The fun always ends in the details.

As the Darth Vader to Microsoft's Emperor Palpatine, Nokia has taken Google's open-source Android platform (it's free), gutted it, replaced all of Google's services with Microsoft's, and rebuilt it to look like Windows Phone. The only problem with this new battle station is that it's not fully armed and operational. Instead, Nokia and Microsoft are too scared to go for it and fire on Dantooine. 
Here’s what’s wrong: Nokia only views Android as a gateway to Windows Phone, so it won’t properly invest in these promising new phones. They have some great interface ideas, but they're still half baked, and they won't get better until Microsoft changes its attitude.
'Here comes the airplane! Nom nom nom'
"The Nokia X will be a feeder system for Lumia," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said when the device was announced. "We're introducing the next billion people to Microsoft."
The first major problem with this plan is that Windows Phone doesn't need a "feeder." It may need feeding tubes and an IV with its three-year losing streak against Apple and Android (Microsoft has a smaller market share today than it did when Windows Mobile's biggest competition was BlackBerry), but there are already cheap Windows Phones. The Lumia 520 retails for $80 these days - less than these three Android X phones - and it's a great device.
But the Lumia 520's low price doesn't matter because most phone buyers don't want Windows Phone right now. It has a weak reputation, it still has some problems that need fixing, and it doesn't have all the apps we want. But neither will the Nokia X, so what problem is Nokia solving?
No man's land
Because Microsoft has gutted the Google out of Android, the Nokia X won't have the Google Play Store, meaning people who buy these phones won't have the million apps Google has collected. Instead, the Nokia X will be like a half-way house: Nokia will operate its own Android app store and try to convince developers to convert their Android apps to work with Microsoft services. Supposedly, about 75 percent of apps work on a Nokia X without any problems, but that remaining 25 percent will have to alter their apps to get them to work. If they bother submitting their apps to Nokia's app store at all. Smartly, if Nokia doesn't have an app you want (and this will happen a lot), it will send you to third-party app stores to download them. Again though, the app selection on a Nokia X device is far weaker than Windows Phone right now, and probably will be for a while.
The second major problem with treating Android as a "feeder" is that it can never be all that good; Nokia and Microsoft must keep it from outperforming Windows Phone so users have a reason to "upgrade. They're already hobbling it in some ways. It runs Android 4.1, a nearly two-year-old version of the OS. The interface looks intentionally uglier than Windows Phone. There's no reason why Nokia couldn't have mimicked the Lumia Live Tile grid look more closely. Instead, if you sat the Nokia X down next to any Windows Phone, that device will suddenly look more appealing because it's like what you have, but more responsive and prettier. But looks have never held Windows Phone back. It's always been gorgeous.
With the Nokia X, Microsoft has hollowed out Android to wear it like a cheap Halloween costume.
Microsoft already makes a lot of money from Android because of the patent deals it has with major manufacturers, and if it has filled Android with its own services, isn't it OK that Windows isn't at the heart of it? Microsoft does call itself a "devices and services" company these days. It's too bad that its too scared to take that idea to the next level.
Microsoft is treating the Android-based Nokia X like Harry Potter's adopted parents treated him. It's stuck in a small room under the stairs labeled "cheap." But the Nokia X could be a wizard; it could do wonders for Microsoft if it could just go to Hogwarts. If Google truly is Voldemort in this extended metaphor, Microsoft's version of Android may save us all.
With the Nokia X, Microsoft has hollowed out Android to wear it like a cheap Halloween costume. What it should do is look in the mirror, realize how good that costume could look, and wear it every day. Amazon proved that Android can be a platform to pimp your own services with the Kindle Fire, and it could work for Microsoft, too.
The world is changing, and there is no money in selling operating systems anymore. Microsoft's decision to slash some Windows 8 licenses by 70 percent is proof: The money is in the devices and the services. Microsoft will soon own Nokia, and with Office and Bing, it can more than compete in the services area.
So why is it so stuck on treating Android like a gateway drug? Just sell people the drug they want and you'll do better, Microsoft.

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Huawei isn’t put off by Nokia buyout, will continue making Windows Phone hardware
Huawei Ascend W1 Blue

The fallout from Microsoft’s buyout of Nokia has begun, but it’s not the disaster some feared just yet. Huawei, one of the established makers of Windows Phone hardware, has said it’s going to continue producing smartphones which run Microsoft’s operating system regardless of Microsoft’s purchase.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Huawei’s head of mobile in Europe said, “We remain one of Microsoft’s strategic partners,” and promised more products were coming. It’s good news for Microsoft, as it ran the risk of alienating hardware manufacturers, now building and marketing Windows Phone devices can be done in-house.
Microsoft certainly managed to upset a few when it launched the Surface RT, with Acer, Samsung, and Asus among the companies disappointed with not only the tablet’s release, but also by Windows RT. By purchasing the world’s number one Windows Phone manufacturer, there was a good chance lightning would strike twice.
However, while we’re sure Microsoft is pleased Huawei is still onboard, the Chinese company’s Windows Phone output has been modest so far. The Ascend W1 has had a limited release, and both it and the Ascend W2 are mid-range smartphones unlikely to become global superstars. What about Samsung, HTC, and LG? Where do they stand?
HTC is rumored to be producing a Windows Phone handset under the codename Harmony, which according to recent murmurings, may share the HTC One’s specification, but there’s no word on when it may be released, if it’s even real. Samsung’s output has been good, with the Ativ S Neo debuting on Sprint in the last month, but it hasn’t produced an S4-style flagship for Windows Phone just yet. As for LG, it was said to be working on a new Windows Phone in July.
We’ll get a better indication of the situation when Microsoft releases the GDR3 update for Windows Phone. It should see the technical specifications of Windows Phones finally match those of high-end Android phones, perhaps prompting an influx of desirable hardware from all of Microsoft’s partners.

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Did Microsoft just buy a new CEO along with Nokia?
is stephen elop microsofts next ceo and steve ballmer

Microsoft has rattled the tech industry in the last two weeks, first announcing that current CEO Steve Ballmer would be retiring within a year, and now by spending $7.2 billion in cash to acquire Nokia's clients and services business – and gain long-term access to Nokia's patent portfolio.
The Nokia deal means Microsoft is taking over Nokia's mobile phone design and manufacturing business. Microsoft will be building its own phones – plus taking on a whopping 32,000 employees from Finland and around the world. The deal also brings Nokia CEO Stephen Elop back to Microsoft, where only a few years ago he was head of Microsoft's Business division.
Elop will head up Microsoft's Devices business once the deal closes: That's a new role created just for him that encompasses (at least in name) half of Microsoft's "devices and services" vision. Those are big, new shoes, and Elop will report directly to Steve Ballmer.
Is Elop's position a signal Elop now has the inside track on the Microsoft CEO slot when Ballmer steps aside? Or is he a mere caretaker who will oversee the Nokia acquisition, then quietly drift away on a golden parachute sometime after Baller retires?
The case for Elop
Perhaps the best case for Stephen Elop as a leading candidate for the Microsoft CEO position is that he was already a candidate for the CEO position. Steve Ballmer has admitted as much to several media outlets.
"Stephen will go from external [candidate] to internal," Ballmer told the Seattle Times. However, he also noted: "The board will continue [to consider] all appropriate candidates through that process."
Elop has not demonstrated that a company under his leadership can generate barrels of cash.

Elop's stature as a CEO candidate can only be increased by shifting back to Microsoft in a role with critical responsibilities once the Microsoft-Nokia deal closes, expected in the first quarter of 2014. Elop will be in charge of not only Microsoft's first-party move into smartphones, but also Microsoft's ongoing efforts to make first-party Windows tablets (Surface devices running both Windows 8 and Windows RT) as well as Microsoft's Xbox division, which is on the precipice of bringing the Xbox One to market.
And Elop's candidacy for Microsoft's CEO chair was already significant. He headed up Microsoft's Business division (which, at the time included Microsoft Office and its enterprise-oriented Dynamics business) for two and a half years before jumping to Nokia. Before that, he helped navigate Macromedia's acquisition by Adobe (as Macromedia's CEO) and did a year as COO of Juniper Networks, a company that makes back-end networking equipment. On paper, these positions make him one of the few potential Microsoft CEO candidates who:

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