> They are very cheap noname phones, branded with the name Nokia
I thought only HMD [0] had the right to put the Nokia brand on a phone, and had several former Nokia executives in their leadership able to validate whether a device is "worthy" of that brand. Which made sense since Nokia as a company and brand still exist albeit in a different field, and junk branded with this name can tarnish the image.
Edit. I see HMD may transition away from the Nokia brand. [1]
Corporate quality standards only work if a company is MBA-proof. Something no western company can withstand. Sooner or later, a financial genius will point out the margins that can be made on white label products and it snowballs.
I'm curious what would need to change to fix this? Because enshittification has become so ubiquitous and terrible that it's in the dictionary now. Is it regulation? Antitrust? Obliterate every board and private equity firm? There must be an actionable set of steps out of this because we had to have stepped into it somehow
Unconventional corporate srructures are the only possibility. Co-ops that empower rank and file employees is one way to keep the financial engineers from raiding the henhouse.
Having a leader who isn't driven by lust for profit helps a bunch. Sam Walton was that way and Chouinard of Patagonia has tried to build an ethical legacy through a trust. Walton failed. It remains to be seen if Chouinard does the same.