Microsoft Lays Off Another 2,850 Employees From Its Nokia Acquisition, Totalling Over 30,000 So Far

[Lucian Armasu]

Microsoft announces new smartphone division layoffs, as the company reaches over 30,000 employees being fired from the old Nokia division that Microsoft acquired in 2013.

Microsoft Lays Off Another 2,850 Employees From Its Nokia Acquisition, Totalling Over 30,000 So Far : Read more

 

[Samer1970]

poor Nokia destroyed by Microsoft ....

I hope That this was not their plan from the beginning. Just to Destroy The Finnish Company

 

[NoobSauce368]

I guess the Finnish Company is finished!

 

[Martell1977]

When it came time for a phone upgrade I really wanted to get a Windows 10 Phone because I really like my WP8.1 Nokia. The problem was that AT&T didn't have a single decent phone and there are compatibility issues like my Pioneer car HU wont connect to it, only apple and android.
MS hasn't put much effort into expanding compatibility for devices like car bluetooth setups and their hardware is all low end.
I can barely stand android, but ended up getting a Galaxy S7 anyways. Guess MS just gave up.

 

[captaincharisma]

windows phones are about to get worse when MS updates them to make you use skype for everything messaging including texting. and their app store is almost as bad as blackberries

 

[falchard]

But with Windows Mobile, you can pretty much download any Apple iOS application if you have the know how. There is a site that converts popular Apple iOS applications into Windows UWP applications. Since it's not technically legal you can't get them on the store, but you do have that option now thanks to Microsoft's converters. If the application developers wanted Windows Mobile users money, they would have taken the couple minutes to convert it themselves. Things like Fallout Shelter and Pokemon Go are playable on Windows Mobile as a result. However, these are coming soon to Windows Mobile anyway. Steam is also now on Windows Mobile.

In the grand scheme of things, it may be better that Microsoft is getting rid of their smart phone hardware arm. They have the Nokia Patents that allows them to get something like 15% of every smart phone sale. It also alienates any hardware partners they have to use Windows Mobile since they would be competing against Microsoft. Windows 10 Mobile has had more hardware partners than Windows Phone 8. There is also the fear that Microsoft is going to a closed platform similar to Apple. Spinning off some of their hardware should alleviate some of those fears.

 

[captaincharisma]

But with Windows Mobile, you can pretty much download any Apple iOS application if you have the know how. There is a site that converts popular Apple iOS applications into Windows UWP applications. Since it's not technically legal you can't get them on the store, but you do have that option now thanks to Microsoft's converters. If the application developers wanted Windows Mobile users money, they would have taken the couple minutes to convert it themselves. Things like Fallout Shelter and Pokemon Go are playable on Windows Mobile as a result. However, these are coming soon to Windows Mobile anyway. Steam is also now on Windows Mobile.

In the grand scheme of things, it may be better that Microsoft is getting rid of their smart phone hardware arm. They have the Nokia Patents that allows them to get something like 15% of every smart phone sale. It also alienates any hardware partners they have to use Windows Mobile since they would be competing against Microsoft. Windows 10 Mobile has had more hardware partners than Windows Phone 8. There is also the fear that Microsoft is going to a closed platform similar to Apple. Spinning off some of their hardware should alleviate some of those fears.

the only people who would even know how to convert IOS apps would be computer geeks and developers and not the mainstream cellphone user. plus no doubt people would pirate the IOS app just to get a copy of it to convert. either way if you can't compete in the app would your Mobile OS is useless

 

[10tacle]

poor Nokia destroyed by Microsoft ....I hope That this was not their plan from the beginning. Just to Destroy The Finnish Company

Nokia destroyed themselves, chief. They were one of the leading global mobile phone makers of the late 90s to mid-00s alongside Motorola. However, they did not see the impending threat from Samsung, LG, and especially Apple. It was not Nokia that came out with the first "smart" phone as we know it today (that was Apple).

Microsoft just poured more water into a sinking ship and dead business. Apparently MS just can't learn from the history of other failed acquisitions by corporations that sometimes have sunk said corporations themselves. You do NOT go outside your element. MS had no business getting into the mobile phone industry from day one. They thought they were going to make money and failed.

Finally, I know of no company that spends money only to HOPE that the division the company bought out fails (to the tune of nearly $8 BILLION in this case). Nokia doesn't compete with Microsoft. That's ludicrous to even think about that MS would intentionally nuke Nokia. This was just an extremely poor management decision.

 

[sizzling]

Such a shame, Windows phone and 950XL are my favourite phone to date including multiple generations of iPhone and Galaxy. I think the media is partly to blame as MS actually tried a lot of good ideas but the media just kept pumping out "it's not apple" when in fact it was just as good, just different. There are things my 950XL does better than the wife's 6S but hey ho, the writings on the wall and I genuinely feel it is the public who will loose out by not having another competitor in the market.

 

[nikolajj]

Such a shame, Windows phone and 950XL are my favourite phone to date including multiple generations of iPhone and Galaxy. I think the media is partly to blame as MS actually tried a lot of good ideas but the media just kept pumping out "it's not apple" when in fact it was just as good, just different. There are things my 950XL does better than the wife's 6S but hey ho, the writings on the wall and I genuinely feel it is the public who will loose out by not having another competitor in the market.

100% agree. It is my favorite OS by far, but public perception blocked it from a breakthrough.

 

[chalabam]

Microsoft tried to turn the PC into a phone, and failed. Nobody pays for a PC to get a phone, and nobody wants a Windows phone.

 

[ilhazard]

I wouldn't mind having a windows phone...if it had a full blown, desktop version of windows and you could plug in peripherals and treat it as your primary computer, but with phone features for when you want to use it as a phone. Unfortunately, they didn't do that, so I had and have no interest.

 

[wifiburger]

Microsoft has only one product to sell Windows on the Desktop and their goal with any other products is to get you back in the ecosystem to buy Computers with a windows liscence,

no matter how hard they try to fool people with their tactics it never works and will never work

 

[Narciso Palma]

Windows Phones.... at first, a refreshing new UI; elegant, minimalist, and very functional. Large credit to the Nokia design, eng, and R&D team for making such a sturdy, reliable phone in the modern market.

Sadly, it (the os) was burdened with a litany of enormous oversights in compatibility, functionality, outright inexcusable software failure (factory, not 3rd party), and a piss poor app store (a real nail in the coffin).

I've never been traumatized by a UI experience until using their phones. And I understood that going with the underdog would come with a price, but not the price of my sanity. Perhaps the Win environment is for some, but for professionals who work in the media/ent industry, they will want to avoid it like the plague. A nightmare I hope to never relive again and will warn people against for as long as I live.

 

[CoNk3r]

The day they finally release a full Windows Phone... They will return in to glory...

 

[jonathan1683]

bundle a smartphone nobody wants with an os nobody wants boom. 7 billion down the drain. They should have hired me as a consultant I would have saved them billions.

 

[falchard]

You would have pretty much told them not to get into mobile phones. If they wanted a phone, touch, IoT, and desktop OS, you would have told them not to bother. That's the only way to save those billions.
But, you are wrong on nobody wants to buy what you mentioned. Nobody wanted the Nokia Lumia phones even if they were paired with Android instead? Of course they would have. They would have clawed their way to ATT to get those 41 MP phones. There is no smart phone manufacturer that has matched what Nokia has done in the last several years in trying to capture the smart phone market. They have all been pretty much mimicking each other. To say no one wants the OS is to ignore millions of consumers.
The pair failed for several reasons, but the bulk of the reasons are they were the 3rd ones to the party.