It's tough to deny that Nokia's been having some problems lately, which includes a lukewarm reception for the N8 and the fact that Android has overtaken Symbian as the world's top mobile OS. It's not clear exactly what the company plans to do to right its ship, but new CEO Stephen Elop recently sent out a memo to all Nokia employees to try and rally the troops ahead of the company's February 11th event. In the letter, Elop says that Nokia has placed itself on a "burning platform" that they added fuel to themselves while watching Apple and Google create strong, popular mobile platforms. Nokia's own OSes weren't safe from Elop, either, as he said that Symbian is becoming "increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements" and that the lack of MeeGo devices isn't helping their situation. Finally, the CEO looks forward to the Feb. 11th event, where he says that Nokia will unveil its "new strategy."
Continuing with the Nokia news, it appears that that tasty-looking N9-00 that leaked last year has been given the axe. The MeeGo-powered device was never actually announced by the company, but has reportedly be killed off for unknown reasons. There's apparently another MeeGo device ready to take the N9's place, though, as Nokia is said to be working on an N9-01 device that's a full touch slate device with the codename "Lankku," which means "plank" or "board" in Finnish.
The news of the N9-00's cancellation is certainly disappointing, especially considering its awesome rumored specs (4-inch OLED display, 64GB memory, full metal body). Hopefully Nokia bucks its trend of not releasing smartphones on U.S. carriers and pushes out the N9-01 here when it's ready. As for Elop's letter, it's certainly one of the most inspiring memos I've ever read, and I'm sure it had quite an effect on Nokia's employees. It's tough to say right now whether Nokia will actually be able to follow through and release devices that can hang with Apple and Google's products, but I'm sure that they're going to try. Do you all think that Nokia can regain its former glory? If so, what do you think that they need to do?
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