This internal memo from Stephen Elop at Nokia has garnered a fair bit of attention. It’s a startlingly honest account from a new CEO to his troops of where he thinks they’ve gone wrong; refreshingly free of PR-bullshit and corporate-speak. Or, as Tim Bray put it: “whatever you think of Nokia’s chances and choices, that’s a fucking good memo”.
Tomi Ahonen, a noted industry pundit and ex-Nokia exec, takes issue with much of Elop’s assessment. So much so that he can’t bring himself to believe the memo is genuine.
I agree with Gruber. Ahonen’s is the incumbent view, responsible for sailing Nokia into the doldrums in the first place. Like much of their executive management, he’s is in denial. What I can’t understand is how, as an ex-company man, Ahonen believes the memo is a hoax.
Mine is an admittedly single and unverified source, but I have it on good advice that Elop’s words were published on the company intranet and originated from an address given to Nokians late last week. Apparently the memo is being being openly discussed within Nokia and, while not generating consensus, has been successful in lifting morale.
Windows anyone?
(Note: I don’t actually agree with Vic Gundotra’s characterisation, but it’s a good indication Google won’t be Nokia’s partner of choice.)
UPDATE: Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem.
Accolades for Pixelmator’s extraordinary App Store revenue are inevitable, but well-deserved. Mind you, their success didn’t happen overnight. The Dailide brothers have been actively developing their product since 2007.
It all makes for nice press, which ignores the thousands of independent developers struggling to make an impact in Apple’s marketplaces. This is particularly true in the original App Store, with over 300,000 apps vying for customer attention. Getting noticed is tough. As is turning a profit.
Meanwhile, the stalwarts of the platform are conspicuous in their absence.
Shortly after Pixelmator’s announcement, Microsoft introduced a free trial period for Office 2011. That’s something they couldn’t have done on the App Store.
Indeed, Microsoft and Adobe can’t currently offer their flagship products on the App Store, even if they wanted to. With private API calls, license keys, non-standard installers and UI elements (to name but a few), they contravene many of Apple’s Guidelines. For now, both companies have enough brand awareness and demand to drive customers to their own distribution channels. But will this last?
I suspect so. Apple priced Aperture and iWork aggressively, and made them available from day one. It will be interesting to see how they fare against Lightroom and Office over the coming months.
I think the Mac App Store will prove transformative rather than disruptive. By making it easy and compelling for OS X users to discover, install and pay for software, Apple are expanding the ecosystem; creating new customers for independents. That’s a good deal, even at 30%.