Please, this isn't about being economical and moving your labour workforce to China. As if they only just realised this; because it's not just factories in Europe being shuttered. Nokia's sales offices in Chengdu and Shanghai were closed recently and they have almost no Nokia stores left in the UK after selling most of them to cut costs. This isn't trimming the fat or any other euphemism, it's a company performing poorly and collapsing because of it.

You also couldn't be more wrong with this
It's the complete opposite, they were in charge before, now they are NOT in charge of their own devices. They rely on specs set by a third party, namely MS.

anecdotal evidence at best. If that's what you want, here's my experience, the small minority are often the most vocal about their devices. Look no further than the maemo community here. Most are happy about their devices and often vote for their device when given a chance and sometimes attack those who disagree. Remember the FoneArena vote?

It's no different for the WP7 minority, after all you must have strongly liked something about these phones to join the small minority (more often than not brand affiliation or view, though not always), so often views on a device from a minority are cemented before they even receive the phone and continue on long after. These people are still the minority though. A vocal minority.

Amazon review ratings are the same. I remember the Lumia 900 reviews coming in on the day of release. Nobody and I mean nobody mentioned the data connection bug which was quite a prevalent problem. I remember the one person who did and reviewed it 3 stars was attacked by countless other users for having an opinion. What made it worse for amazon reviews? I believe they are weighted. So even if their review had truth to it it gets drowned out by people who click "did not find this review helpful" while rating up the reviews that just say "awesome" 5*.

It is indeed trimming away fat. Fat from another age of smartphones, from when the world was a different place. They need to renew or die.

I guess it can be argued if Nokia is in control any more, and if so, to what extent do they have control. IMO that is related to a what if scenario. Nokia lost the battle, they couldn't make a viable ecosystem with nice and easy going smartphones. If they were able to make this ecosystem there would be no WP on a Nokia, that's for sure. Android was an alternative, and I would think that a combination of Android with Nokia services and Maemo would work just fine. But then again what to do with Symbian? Lots of problems pops up. In hindsight the Android alternative start looking terrible with Google themselves heading into HW and competing with price.

There are lots of unknowns here. Maybe the major stock holders also have large interests in MS? In principle making Nokia a MS company. By the looks of things that seems almost more likely than not. Pure speculations of course, but MS-Nokia looks like they are very good friends, and that blind commitment (no plan B) is a bit over the top if there is nothing more behind the curtains.

It's those main share holders that controls things. If they are happy with the situation with MS, why should we be unhappy? it's ridiculous.

Meanwhile, in NYSE:
Wednesday: bobbing around 1.66 to 1.72, compared to where it started Monday at 1.84, or 2.54 a month ago.

At this cent/month delta, $1 in little over three weeks. At a more long term cent/month delta, it's still down 0.5 per month since before the memo. That's approx. six weeks. Nokia is running out of time.

Before that, they are expected to present quarterly results below initial expectations, which usually is bad. However, real expectations below publicized expectations is the new standard now, so below expectations can, ironically, still be above expectations and give a short, positive lift.

To me it would be somewhat surprising if all of the leadership, the ownership, the strategy and the stock quotes are still in place two months from now.

Now's a good time to troll buy advice or tell anecdotes about the long term. It can't be a good time to be an Elop apologist, though.

How has Elop not been fired yet... seriously.

I think this is a followup question to the "How has the board not been replaced yet" question.

To your question I present three possible explanations:

- The board knew in advance that it was risky to switch to Windows Phone and that the point of return would be passed before the success of the strategy could be confirmed with Windows 8. Basically an all or nothing strategy from day one. This is compatible with "Plan B is to make Plan A work". This is irreversible.

- The board is just too darn stubborn or enchanted to admit failure. This is horrible but still common and can be reversible if addressed in time.

- The board don't want to kick the scapegoat CEO before he has cut down Nokia to the size they want to rebuild from. This would be cowardly and cynical but can still be a valid strategy for a huge corporation that finds itself with mainly outdated/ "wrong" resources.

I don't think no. 3 could be a main reason, but it can be a combination of all three.

...when is the next general meeting for Nokia scheduled? I would guess that the stockholders are not very pleased with current state of affairs...

Its About 9 month. The Meeting a few month ago. It Has Been Up For discussuin If You Are Reading This Thread.

They just changed three board members couple months ago at the annual meeting. Including the chairman! Last year they also switched three members. Of the 11 members only two have been there longer than three years.

Elop is the one who should go. Plus maybe from the board also Elisabeth Nelson, who has no real role apart from parroting Elop. He brought her to Macromedia's board as well. Way back when Elop set Macromedia on fire. Her only accomplisment seems to be being part of the pyrocracy.

There are very few viable alternatives for NOKIA. They are betting on WP8. Only time will tell and we don't know everything that goes on behind the curtains.