Afterthough​ts on the Nokia - Microsoft deal

If these concept phones are a sign of things to come then I am very excited for this partnership.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/exclusive-nokias-windows-phone-7-concept-revealed/

I'm liking it. Let's hope they can get something out the door this summer.

Sweet.

I wonder what is happening over at Opera right now ?

It looks like to me like Nokia is riding on the coattails of Microsoft. Nokia lacks direction so they need a more successful company to "guide them". Articles on the net seem to imply Microsoft had a major part in the actual hardware of the WP7 Nokia phones. So it doesn't just seem to be a software thing. They basically handed their company off to Microsoft.

I'm sure it will result in short term profits for Nokia, since Microsoft tends to be very generous in the short term in their deals. Long term it will be bad for Nokia and good for Microsoft. Microsoft tends to play the long term game.

So, at the moment I can walk down to the supermarket and buy a pre-paid Nokia with no contract for $25. How the hell can Nokia do that in 3 years abandoning Symbian?

LOLz, I didn't know I replied already. Anyway, hope Nokia bring good MS phone. They need some cool exclusive apps, like an exclusive free game, photo editor, etc.

5 hours ago, Max Power wrote

So, at the moment I can walk down to the supermarket and buy a pre-paid Nokia with no contract for $25. How the hell can Nokia do that in 3 years abandoning Symbian?

AFAIK, Nokia's low end phones (and maybe even mid ranged) don't use the Symbian based S60 OS, they use a Series 30 or Series 40 OS

Also I think the low end market is pretty much lost to the chinese 'phone on a chip' suppliers.

Afterthoughts?

Looks like Apple, all over again.

Apple bought NeXT because their operating system strategy was in tatters. 

Jobs returned and took over, replacing key Apple management with people from NeXT, effectively devouring Apple from the inside until only the name was left. Now, looking back, no one can say that this wasn't a good move.

Nokia's operating system was in tatters, so they take on an ex-Microsoft man to get steer them back to relevance. He junks Symbian and MeeGo, turns his nose up at Android, and goes to Microsoft for an operating system. A few days later, the head of Nokia US is shown the door and is replaced by…another ex-Microsoft man.

Yes, it's a conspiracy theory, but I think Nokia is slowly being assimilated from the inside. 

Arguably, Microsoft's biggest successes come when they can emulate Apple: control both the hardware and the software. Look at the XBox Kinnect, for example. But they also have to watch their relationships with their partners. This distant control of Nokia will allow them to go out and make their own phones on the sly.

Brilliant.

@CKurt:and the Others, Your Comments are interesting and I agree with Kurt that what Nokia and Microsoft need very soon is a Mid-Market Product. About IDE's like QT and others I Hope that MS will Open Up and make it Possible for Device Independent Applications.

Uncle Sam

Ray7,  I served with Steve Jobs, I knew Steve Jobes, Steve Jobs was a friend of mine. Ray7, Elop is no Steve Jobs. ; - )

I just realized they actually can customize WP7. While they said the GUI is the last thing they will change, but, I feel bad about it. Sure, they need to differentiate with other WP7 devices, but, I just don't like the thought that what I am getting is not exactly the same MS offering.

I will see what they really did.

I think Nokia has the license to customize WP7 now, which is a good thing. Actually, they claim they'll be working in partnership with MS to that purpose. So, I'm already assuming that the WP7 OS we'll find on Nokia phones will be to some degree different (albait compatible, I really hope) from the one on other hardware producers.

I also think it will be quite likely we'll see other features I can't really understand why are currently missing in WP7, such as thetering and Sync with Outlook.

In other words, I think this degree of exclusivity may be enough to generate that uniqueness that is indeed needed to compete against the iPhone.

Check this to see what other developers have to say:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfWFvCJJaNs

Two monumentally big heaps of bureaucracy, two years behind are going to attempt join force to catch up with Android/Apple
Oh, by the way. Will this be greeted with Hurrah! by the other handset makers?
This looks like a big win for google and Apple.
It provides cover for Ballmer for two more years - "he did something!"
In the long term, it means more drift for MSFT and more shareholder wealth destruction for BloatFarm shareholders. (Did I mention that it will mean still more Bloat in the BloatFarm?)

To say that MS "does not get" the mobile space is the understatement of the century( remember The Kin?) on the other hand Nokia IS a commodity phone manufacturer. That's how they became the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer. Mass producing decent quality phones on the cheap is the one thing they do well. Had they gone Android, they would be able to undercut the competition very effectively and take share. The problem is, there ain't even any market share to take in WP platform. I mean It's not like MS is a new entrant. They have been trying to enter the mobile space since the late 1990's. The fact that two new market entrants (Android & Apple) have remade the entire mobile space in under two year's time. And M$ has failed repeatedly for over a decade in the same space.

I'll give a few examples:

• Ericsson (ERIC). Sept. 2000. What happened? Ericsson divested itself of the mobile division, forming a joint venture which would go on and make more strategic alliances with Microsoft over Windows Mobile, culminating in a loss of profits and eventual flight to Android.
• Sendo. Feb. 2001. What happened? Sendo, after litigating IP issues with Microsoft, went bankrupt in 2005.
• Motorola (MOT), Sept. 2003. What happened? Motorola launched a series of Windows Mobile phones culminating in the Motorola Q "Blackberry killer." As Motorola hit the rocks in profitability, new management reached for the Android life raft. The company now relies exclusively on the Droid franchise.
• Palm (HPQ), Sept. 2005. What happened? Palm shipped a few Windows Mobile, famously dismissing Apple's potential entry as something "PC guys" could never achieve. A new CEO, a private placement and an acquisition later, the company is a division of HP making its own operating system.
• Nortel, July 2006. What happened? Nortel declared bankruptcy two years later.
• LG, Feb. 2009. What happened? LG made a few Windows Mobile devices but with WinMo uncompetitive, they abandoned the platform and moved to Android, losing years of market presence and all their profits.
• Verizon (VZ) Jan. 2009. What happened? Bing did ship on some devices, but in October 2009 Droid came to Verizon.

And finally,

• Nokia. No, not this deal, but the Aug. 2009 plan [announced by then Microsoft business division president Stephen Elop] to bring Microsoft Mobile Office to Nokia's Symbian devices. What happened? Two and a half years later the same Stephen Elop [now CEO of Nokia] announced that Symbian will be deprecated.

This was some really stupid decision Nokia has made. This switch to inferior mobile platform will only bring more delays until their next smartphone and it will not be what users were waiting fore. They should just step up their existing strategy of moving to MeeGo and phasing out Symbian. It would bring new smartphone faster and would enable them to differentiate in the market.

Hard not to read this as both an indictment of Nokia and Microsoft'ssoftware as a game-changer.

I'm guessing this was NOT the market reaction that Nokiawas hoping for.

2 hours ago, CyberPunk​News cut and pasted...

That list sounds awfully familiar.