Nokia's 'Burning Platform' Memo

9:50 AM -- Talk about having a low-self-esteem day. Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) employees worldwide received an internal memo from their CEO, Stephen Elop, on Wednesday with a brutal, yet honest, assessment of the company he has inherited. In short, "We are standing on a burning platform," he said.

If you haven’t read it already, the full text of the memo is on The Wall Street Journal or here on Engadget, which first reported on the leaked memo.

We know things are bad for Nokia right now, but Elop's memo spells out just how bad. He is frank about how Nokia is being squeezed at the high end of devices by Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)'s Android as well as at the low end by Chinese manufacturers. (See Top 5 Candidates for Nokia's Exec Shakeup, Nokia's History of Change, OS Watch: Will Nokia Embrace WP7?, Nokia's Flagship E7 Delayed in the UK? and Android Dethrones Symbian Globally.)

Here's a sample of what's in the memo: "The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable."

Elop doesn't give away what new strategy he will announce on Friday, Feb. 11, at the Investor Day in London. But the changes have to be big.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile