8/13/2019 Is Nokia on the Brink of Oblivion

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Is Nokia On the Brink of Oblivion?

If the onetime king of the mobile phone industry gets wiped off the map, dont blameCEO Stephen Elop. He made the best of a bad situation?

Stephen Elop does not appear to be interested in eating my brain. t least not yet. !he"okia CEO is on a #ou#h at the #ompanys San $ran#is#o %& firm, holding #ourt to showoff "okias latest flagship, the 'indows %hone ()powered *umia +-. !he brightly#oloured dei#e sits on a glass #offee table atop what looks like a small pillow but is anartfully designed wireless #harging pad. /pbeat and gregarious, the Canadian)born Elopreeals his roots as he tells me 0aboot1 the new phones.

0!he lens in here,1 Elop e2plains, 0is me#hani#ally floated, and so as your hand shakes,as it naturally does, the lens moes in opposition to that to smooth out the shaking.1 !henew *umia phones are boldly designed, hae great maps 3unlike, say, pple4 and astly

superior #amera te#hnology #ompared with the i%hone and ndroid models. nd the'indows %hone 56etro user interfa#e is as fluid as any OS out there.

7ut ery 8ui#kly into our #hat, Elop needles me oer a web story I wrote in Septemberthat des#ribed "okia and rial &esear#h In 6otion as the mobile industrys e8uialent of#orporate 9ombies wandering the Earth with little #han#e to return to the land of theliing. Elop was none too happy with haing the :;

8/13/2019 Is Nokia on the Brink of Oblivion

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years ago it would hae rolled out twi#e as many. Elop has made headway on improingdistribution in the /S, where the #ompany has had little presen#e in re#ent years.

Elop is a well)seasoned e2e# who did preious stints at uniper, dobe, 6a#romedia,*otus and 7oston 6arket. He was running the Offi#e diision at 6i#rosoft when he was

re#ruited to "okia in September -:-. 'hen he took the =ob Elop gushed about "okia as0the undisputed leader of the mobile #ommuni#ations industry.1 It didnt take him long tofigure out that the 0undisputed leader1 was in undisputed trouble. *ess than si2 monthsafter he arried Elop wrote his famous 0burning platform1 memo to employees, whi#h#ompared "okia to a man standing at night on an oil rig in flames aboe the "orth Sea.

few days later "okia =umped into the i#y water, announ#ing it would abandon itshomegrown Symbian operating system in faour of 'indows %hone software for allfuture smartphones. 0Its now a three)horse ra#e,1 he said at the time, the other two#hoi#es being oogles ndroid OS and pples iOS.

It was the only logi#al moe to make. Had "okia #hosen ndroid, it would hae beenone more endor in a #rowd. 'ith 'indows 6obile, "okia be#ame 6i#rosofts ti#ket toremaining releant in mobile. 7ut heres the thingA 'indows %hone has been runningsi2th in a three)horse ra#e. !he latest artner stats show that 'indows has a mere .