Microsoft bricking lesson bodes badly for Elop's Brave New Nokia
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Not to heap more misery upon Nokia employees, but if you are a depressed Finnish employee, we recommend you stop reading now and turn to this adorable story about a rabbit adopting some kittens. What you are about to read throws Elop's challenge to the company into a whole new light.
Earlier this week Microsoft issued, and then withdrew, a software update for its Windows Phone devices. According to Microsoft it affected "a small number" of users of Samsung WP7 phones. For some users the consequences were serious - the phone was "bricked", meaning it was not only non-functional, but couldn't be restored into a working state by the user.
It's a nightmare for the manufacturer, because it requires an expensive return to a repair centre, and the customer, once burned, is much less likely to become a repeat purchaser. That "small number" may be as high as ten per cent.
Bizarrely, the patch didn't contain any new features. It was a notification about new features to come, the equivalent of that little alert you get in XP telling you that there's a new version of Software Update available - which really means you're several hours (and reboots) away from having an update to the system.
How this managed to create such severe (and for the OEMs, expensive) consequences is a mystery I won't try to explain here. But it does shed light on the magnitude of the task Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop has set the company. I'm not sure the risk has been fully factored in by analysts.
Elop has bet the future of Nokia on Windows Phone, and destroyed the alternative options to ensure that there can be no turning back. There is no Plan B. This means Nokia's fortunes are entirely tied to the quality of Microsoft's system software. So far, WP has received warm reviews, but it's very much at version 1.0, its limitations are well known, and there's a long, long way to go. And one of those small things buried halfway down a "to do" list is firmware updates.
Don't touch that cable...
Until fairly recently, only one manufacturer - Sony Ericsson - allowed firmware updates to its smartphones. The others considered them too risky. If the user knocks out a cable, or the device (or PC) runs out of battery, the device is bricked. Nokia began to introduce them (via a PC) in mid-2006. It was for hardcore users only.
OTA, or over-the-air updates followed in late 2007. In each case the update required the user to backup and restore; it was only in 2009 that Nokia introduced "user data preservation" across most of its devices.
In 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone, which was umbilically tied to iTunes software - and suddenly millions of users were doing firmware updates without even realising it. Even Apple has avoided OTA firmware updates - or for that matter, wireless sync. Something might go wrong.
COMMENTS
Microsoft are to be applauded.
They have managed to get the full desktop experience of using Windows onto a mobile device, other manufacturers will be so jealous... or not.
Re: Microsoft bricking lesson bodes badly for Elop's Brave New Nokia
"I don't think Elop really cares. If Nokia succeeds at selling Windows phones then great. If the company fails, then MS will buy them out ala Novell."
Indeed. MS get their grubby mitts on "intellectual property" to extort cash from others and threaten the competition, whichever way it goes. Anyone who flushes the high-margin product pipeline in such an apparently cavalier fashion and trashes the company's publicly-estimated value is either clueless or wants to bring the company to a state of desperation where an acquisition just looks easier for everyone involved.
And that wouldn't be the first time Elop has been involved in getting a company acquired.
Harmony
10% is a huge percentage. It's like a 10th!
These are phones that have to be fixed by the phone manufacturer that installed the WP7 badness. Their cost not Microsoft's unless Sammy ask for their money back.
This was a massive fail.
To say otherwise is to try and spread Harmony. Only someone paid to do so would do so.
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