Comments on: Nokia’s $200m secret shows the rot goes way, way back Sat, 12 Jul 2014 12:46:35 +0000 hourly 1 By: Finnish Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:33:10 +0000 This is correct. In no where in the article (or the court papers, Nokia vs Hallikainen, which came public this year) it says that Nokia paid anything. Hallikainen with others tried to blackmail Nokia for $200M, Nokia didn’t pay and got the issue resolved with most of the people staying with Nokia. Hallikainen got sued and Nokia won in court.

By: Ariane Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:38:21 +0000 Actually Nokia’s current predicament is almost normal in any industry. In light of the current strategy, Nokia (or its shareholders) have panicked and over reacted to the whole issue, the media/bloggers have happily ridden the wave.

In my view the simple explanation is that a technological discontinuity was introduced by Apple when the first iPhone was launched. Particularly this came in the form of the sleek UI and user experience.

Once a discontinuity of that magnitude happens, the determinants of success get redefined.

Apple’s success is what you reap by taking the risk of being an early mover.
-They are ahead in the learning curve
-Securing of R&D patents (latest move) etc.

Now that the dominant design has been established, the best you can do is to compete (by extrapolating) on this already set trajectory; improving the UI and user experience as you silently seek “future disruptions”.

Unfortunately the agility to execute and stay abreast with the current trajectory is where Nokia missed it and opened the gap for Android and other players. Some internal housekeeping would be in order.

By: Matti Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:59:21 +0000 No.

More like:
Charismatic engineer tries to do those things, fails, gets sued by Nokia.

Your misunderstanding is understandable. It’s based on article written on the basis of a terrible Google translation. What a waste of digits.

By: Matti Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:47:25 +0000 The last bit is simply wrong information:

I’m native in finnish speaker and the linked article in Helsingin Snaomat does not state that. The plan of the rebel workforce was to demand 200 million. It failed and most workers returned to Nokia. Nokia did not pay the money.

Also, this happened at the Oulu network unit in 1999, currently part of Nokia Siemens Networks. Nothing to do Nokia’s smartphone side of business.

By: John Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:43:09 +0000 Sorry I didn’t see your comment before I wrote mine…

By: John Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:41:03 +0000 I believe your information is inaccurate. Jyrki’s asking price was 200 million (and I’d guess Jyrki told Jorma before Jorma would have time to ask). This was to complete work for AT&T’s 6160 phone that Jyrki, as project manager, though he knew what Nokia would pay for the work.

In the end the some of the employees were offered the ability to return, but some were black listed.

How to I know? I was there…

By: Hamranhansenhansen Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:19:24 +0000 Any company the size of Nokia would of course have problems and internal politics and of course sometimes makes mistakes.

Nokia’s problem is very, very simple: the mobile phone, their one product, was made obsolete by the mobile computer. End of story.

So Nokia’s choice now is either to die along with the mobile phone, or start making mobile computers. Their partnership with Microsoft to make mobile computers shows they have chosen not to die. Microsoft needs them because in spite of their computer industry heritage, Microsoft has not yet made a mobile computer. They are now essentially replacing their Windows (CE) Mobile (mobile phone software) with Windows (NT) 8 (mobile computer software.) Windows Phone is a stopgap: the mobile computer user interface on top of the old mobile phone software core, which is still hiding under there.

Same thing happened to Palm. Their mobile phone business died, then they died, then their brand was applied to a new mobile computer company, which went on to merge with HP, which is not a phone company; it’s a computer company.

At Google, they were making mobile phone software up until iPhone shipped, and they rebooted the Android project as mobile computer software instead, which is why Android is basically half and half phone software and computer software. For example, the carrier control and Java applets are anachronistic on a mobile computer, but right at home on a mobile phone.

You can see RIM buying QNX computer software to replace its mobile phone software. You can see them struggling with a developer program and the move into consumer marketing that mobile computers represent.

So Nokia did not commit suicide. They are not a unique case. All mobile phone companies have had their products made obsolete and now have to become mobile computer companies. It’s very hard to do. Some will not make it.

The reason Apple is so successful right now is they never made a mobile phone. So they have none of the baggage, none of the transformative struggle to become a computer company, because they already are that. And since they shipped the first true mobile computer, they are way out ahead of everyone else in the new era. Expecting any mobile phone company to be competitive with Apple between 2007-2017 is crazy. Pure unadulterated crazy. Ten years is only 5 product replacement cycles. This transition will take at least that long.

By: Jacob Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:05:53 +0000 Many of the facts in this are wrong. The Helsingin Sanomat article says that Hallikainen told Ala-Pietilä that it would cost Nokia $200 million to for him to “work with Nokia as well”, which by my reading means that he was leaving no matter what, and they could pay to use his new company’s services if they wanted. There is no indication that they ever paid that money. Also according to the article the “deal” Nokia offered the rebel engineers was they could come back quietly without consequences. The article mentions nothing about pay raises – in fact it indicates that Nokia had the upper hand, basically promising to not take legal action against them. This is corroborated by the fact that the article indicates that Nokia DID take action against Hallikainen, and he was forced to pay “millions of euros” to Nokia.

By: Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:08:35 +0000 So, let me get this straight:

1. An extraordinarily charismatic and evidently brilliant engineer left Nokia and started a company taking 45 rock star engineers with him.

2. Nokia panics and pays a ransom to bring some of them back, but Charismatic Engineer leaves anyway, still takes intellectual property with him, and doesn’t get sued.

3. Nokia is hamstringed by local politicians who won’t let the company read emails on their own internal company email system.

Sounds like Nokia’s problem is easily solved: move to Texas, U.S.A. Why?

1. Federal and state laws protect intellectual property.
2. Federal and state laws allow a company to do what ever they want with emails on their own systems.
3. Stealing intellectual property in the U.S. is not rewarded with millions, it is punished.

By: Rdx2 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:02:41 +0000 What BS is this? When is paying employees to stay equivalent of ‘rotting’?