And Nokia used to sell 300x as many phones as Apple did at one point. Giants don't tend to adapt well to paradigm shifts in the industry, and make no mistake, switching to EVs is a huge paradigm shift. Everything from factory tools, supplier partnerships, type of employees, and even business model is different here.
Everyone keeps saying that EV's are a huge paradigm shift, but they don't explain how - in the end its a car - and not much more inherently high tech than many other cars - replacing the method of propulsion, does not fundamentally alter how you build it, or how you source the parts to build it.
> replacing the method of propulsion, does not fundamentally alter how you build it, or how you source the parts to build it.
There are fundamental changes in car design. No need for a huge tunnel and axle in RWD cars, and no huge, loud, hot and vibrating engine in the front. In addition the battery pack shifts down the centre of gravity (thus making the car way better in handling curves), and the now free space in the front (what Tesla calls "frunk") is a huge crumple zone.
Also, with the engine there goes a huge complex part with many different highly specialized suppliers - granted, it's replaced by another set of parts, but fundamentally it's orders of magnitude less parts, and easier to install.
It's a big change - but neither fundamental or a paradigm shift.
I replace one set of complimented parts from specialized suppliers, with another set, we've had flat panned cars before, both rear engined, and front wheel drive, both the Corvair and the Beetle had a frunk, and the Prius has a big heavy battery under the floor, changing the center or gravity.
I'm not downplaying the significance of the technology, but its a evolutionary development, of early electric cars, rather than a sea change.
This is not true. Nokia sold over 450M phones per year in 2007-2010, but started to lose marketshare quickly, and from 2010 onwards the number of phones sold dropped fast. Then Nokia sold it’s phone business to Microsoft.
Now it is returning, but it’s not anymore core focus of the business and the numbers are small.
