The thousand days that sank Nokia - The País.com (Spain)

Transforming a giant in a dwarf in just a thousand days. The manual should be signed by one Stephen Elop that in less than three years at the helm of Nokia got, among other things, that Symbiam operating system passed from 44% to 0.3% of the market.

September 21, 2010, a Canadian profile insubstantial 46 years left the direction of the main area of ??Microsoft to lead Nokia, world’s leading manufacturer of mobile. Steve Ballmer dismissed him with crocodile tears praising his great services to the company, where never replaced. In turn, praised Elop, at first glance, Nokia phones: “There are great products that people have not seen.” Neither would ever see.

week of September, has purchased its own excompañía Nokia by 5,500 million euros, ten times less than it did when Elop came to Finland. In his three years at the helm, the Finnish multinational giant to dwarf passed.

Elop’s signing was not a whim. Nokia needed a spark strong. Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, sales of the Finnish mobile not stop falling. Although he had grown to more than half of all global sales, both basic phones as smartphones, to the arrival of Elop alone, alone! was 37.4%. The share price had fallen 60% over the previous year.

“Elop should be investigated for fraudulent behavior”

That year, 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, the first phone from Apple, which had previously manufactured computers and little else. The skepticism of traditional industry was absolute, and Nokia also, who despised the power of the Apple brand and its marketing . of no worth to say that Nokia already had smartphones wonderful, as the Communicator or the N8, and its application store and their maps and their music. Faced with the simplicity and clarity of the software (operating system) Apple, consumers suddenly discovered that your phone Nokia, Symbian, was tortuous and infuriatingly cumbersome. Three years later, Nokia still did not react and they signed it Elop.

When he Elop, Nokia had sold in the last quarter to 39% of all smartphones , a total of 24 million units, more than their pursuers Blackberry, Apple and HTC together (Samsung just had 5%). In all that 2010, the smartphones of Nokia rose from 68 million to 104, while the iPhone only 25-47, ie Nokia’s decline was evident, but relative.

In the quarter

Elop goodbye, a thousand days later, Nokia does not appear among the top five manufacturers; just sold 7.4 million smartphones, less than 4% of the market.

Regarding his reviled

operating system, Symbian had 44% market share, followed by 18% of Android, Blackberry and Apple 14%. Thinking revolution smartphones, Nokia had launched its Meego system, adapted to tablets and mobile computers. Meego even had the acceptance of Chinese operators to incorporate their phones and so shake off pressure duopoly Android-Apple began.

In this scenario, a February 11, 2011, Elop announced that Nokia abandon Symbian and that their devices will only work with software of Microsoft. The announcement had an immediate impact on sales of Nokia, a negative effect that lasted, as Microsoft would take almost a year to take out a mobile operating system, the Windows Phone. In a quarter went from selling 28 million smartphones to 16 million of its new Lumia, and manufactured in Taiwan.

In hindsight, this is the absurdity of decisions Elop, all wrong and in the same direction, some go beyond qualify as the “most useless CEO of Forbes 500 history” and awarded by Tomi Ahanen, former executive of Nokia and author of a dozen books on the telephone industry. The medium online BGR speaks of the Great Conspiracy Ballmer, Elop. According to his theory, Microsoft sent his employee to lead Nokia to lower its value, as has happened. Just remember that last year Google paid triple for Motorola, which sold 15 times less mobile than the Finnish.

“Elop must be investigated for fraudulent behavior and to break their duty of loyalty. I think that all the agreements should be carefully scrutinized, “he writes in his blog Ahonen Communities Dominate Brands. “If Elop caused all this damage, how is allowed to sell to him what was destroyed?”, A question that is not explained Ahonen gratification nor its Board of Directors.

Finland symbol loss has not been taken as bad for the country’s economy minister, Jan Kapaavuori, who saw it coming. “We are pragmatic people. Nokia is a great symbolic value, but the impact is more emotional than financial. “

Finnish Minister

not worried, the European Vice President Neelie Kroes, yes. Europe lost the last cellphone maker, as he lost to last decades computers. He has also lost the possibility of software Continental (operating systems like Symbian, MeeGo or Linux, also Finnish) is extended by other continents. It is true that two years Nokia phones were as European as American as Apple, but the U.S. dominates the software and social networks. “We should re-occupy the driver’s seat,” said Kroes. “Europe has been a leader in 3G, we have lost in 4G, we need to be ahead in 5G”.