Being ahead of time 'caused Nokia's failure': Ex-CEO
Nokia realised the significance
of smart phones "too early", the Finnish company's former chief
executive says in a new book, countering the view that the brand's
failure to remain a world leader was due to it being late to spot the
market shift.
In "Mahdoton menestys", or "The Impossible Success", an autobiography
published in Finland on Thursday, Jorma Ollila rejected the idea that
Nokia failed to foresee the popularity of phones connected to the
Internet."We believed in the arrival of smart phones. We believed in it so strongly that we even created a new organisational unit focusing on smart phones," 63-year-old Ollila wrote in the book.
Nokia launched a reorganisation in 2004 to "reflect over what was about to happen on the phone market," according to Ollila.
The former chief executive recalled that the mobile phone companies didn't have much to offer the early smart phone users before the withering success of Apple's iPhone.
"It later turned out that we had invested in the right idea, but far too early... It wasn't until much later that the operators were ready to offer services that accelerated the rise of the smart phones," he wrote.
When the iPhone arrived on the market in 2007, Nokia presented the successful N95 -- without a touch screen. But the follow-up, the N97 -- with a touch screen, wasn't launched until 2009, becoming "a total failure, just when Nokia needed to succeed and change its direction," wrote Ollila. "We did the right things, but the results were still weak. We tried to do exactly the same things as what Apple, Google and Microsoft already would do later," he wrote.
Nokia will hand over its mobile phone handset division to US giant Microsoft in early 2014 for 5.44 billion euros ($7.4 billion), ending the Finnish company's in the segment in which it was long a global leader.
Ollila also regretted having missed out on software design, especially the development of the operating system Meego. "Even though 1,800 employees" worked on Meego, the results were "very poor", Ollila told media in Helsinki.
Finally, Nokia went for Microsoft's new Windows mobile operating system, after "exceptionally careful" planning.
The ex-chief executive also noted achievements, like the decision not to buy American telecommunications equipment company Lucent in 2005.
Nokia concluded the company had "too high fixed costs and too much staff," and that it needed a worldwide reorganisation. In 2006, it was bought by French Alcatel, since then with shaky results.
"It was clear pretty soon that Alcatel didn't get the expected benefits. Like in many business acquisitions, the synergies didn't show," said Ollila.
Samsung is working on ‘Active’ versions of the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S5 according to reports.
Sources speaking to Korea’s Electronic Times have said that the company is happy with sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. It is understood that the company is keen to repeat that success with newer models.
The next phone set to receive the Active treatment is – perhaps unsurprisingly – the Galaxy Note 3.
There is no word on when an Active version of the Galaxy S5 would arrive. Rumours currently suggest that the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S4 will arrive in April next year.
Read more: Samsung Galaxy S4 Active review
The Galaxy S4 Active is water and dust proof according to Samsung. The phone is seen as a direct competitor to Sony’s high-end Xperia Z range.
It traded power for a more bulky casing and studier body. In addition to many of the features that are available in the Samsung Galaxy S4, it also came with a mode that improved photos taken underwater. <iframe src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=ranrovspo201-21&o=2&p=12&l=ur1&category=consumerelectronics&f=ifr" width="300" height="250" scrolling="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review
Samsung has found itself at the centre of benchmarking scandal in recent days. Last week, technology site Arstechnica accused Samsung of cheating in benchmark tests.
It put forward evidence which it claims proves Samsung coded the Galaxy Note 3 to look for popular benchmarking tools and max the phone’s performance in ways normal apps can’t.
Samsung denied that it had fiddled the figures, but did not explain why Arstechnica had found a file that appears to change the phone’s performance when a benchmarking tool is detected.
The ultra fast Samsung Galaxy S4 life partner has many really cool features and apps, such as the Dual Camera which Allows both rear and front cameras to take simultaneous photos & videos. Sound and Shot Stores sound and voice all in one as the picture is taken so those special moments are captured. And many others. I would like to share two quick & helpful tips with you using easy step by step tips which may be a requirement and useful. 1. Problems for not getting email in notification bar: First select the email app now select menu key bottom left & select settings select your email & and put check in box which says sync all mail go back to home screen and use drag down option from top bar slide finger right and select sync make sure this option is selected to green as shown in image below.
