Nokia and Microsoft Partnership

Felt this warranted its own thread:



Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

Few summary points:

...meh.

 

I honestly don't know what to make of it. Part of me wants to see Windows Phone succeed in the market, because honestly it's quite a competitive OS, but part of me wants to see Bing die in a fire.

I was kinda expecting something more drastic, say, Symbian being dumped entirely.

 

Damn, say bye-bye to Linux based phones like the N900

 

Could either be a huge flop or a massive cash cow. Windows phone is a seriously good OS (so much so that I bought one), I think this can only be a good thing for microsoft, nokia I'm not too sure about.

 

Definitely agree there. Microsoft seems to have more to gain out of the arrangement.

 

Letter to Developers about Today’s News

Live webcast just started - http://nokia.ly/f3ibj5

 

Can it copy paste?

 

both companies are on the Titanic in the mobile world.

MS because is getting swamped by Android there is no way I can see WM7 succeeding in a world where Google is handing out Android for all and sundry for what is practically free.

Nokia is getting swamped by everything. They have not innovated and are largely trading on a few loyalist and glories of the past. Symbian should have died in a fire long ago. I think now days Nokia are selling more budget phones then high end high value devices.

 

MWC is coming real soon; expect announcements regarding "limited edition" MeeGo and Symbian devices.

 

You meaning paying for a beta test like the N900?

 

Bing is an admired brand??

 

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/stephen-elop-there-will-be-substantial-reductions-in-employmen/

 

you can almost sense Nokia's boardroom meeting going "OK we give up, do whatever it takes....ok windows it is then"

 

It should be able to in a couple of weeks (new update). Hasn't been a huge issue for me at the moment, although when you first set the phone up it can be a bit annoying.

 

Looks like some of the original "promises" of WP7 are starting to be relaxed by Microsoft. In the beginning, two things they said was that carriers wouldn't be able to get in the way of updates and that hardware manufactors wouldn't be able to skin or change the OS. The first has proven to not be the case as it's been said carriers have been holding up the first update to the OS. With the Nokia announcement, the second has now been back tracken on as Nokia apparently has the freedom to dig in and add/change what they wish, http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/nokia-will-be-able-to-customize-everything-in-windows-phone-7/

Not saying this makes WP7 bad, the OS still interests me. It does however make it more Android like, for better or worse.

 

Nokia can afford to have WM7 fail. If it doesn't work for them they will go to Android.

You are mistaken if you think Nokia is on the Titanic. They still innovate with their hardware and are second to none at getting a phone shipped to its sellers. They have a very enviable reputation in that regard.

 

The finnish newspapers are going crazy over this, not many articles in english but here's one.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/More+than+1000+Nokia+employees+walk+out+in+Tampere+in+protest+at+Symbian+phase-out/1135263743059

Sad day for us finns, i still remember the days of when it was for sale and Ericsson was offered to buy it to which it replied " We wont buy a sinking ship"

Nokia's stock value dropped 10% on the Helsinki stock exchange following the announcement.

 

My opinion is that this is the best outcome for both MS and Nokia. Nokia are sinking, MS are losing HW vendors for WM7.

Better Nokia go with MS than be another Android device.

I would hate to see Nokia go the way of Palm.

 

markets shift all the time, look at Motorola and its revival.

nowadays, you associate Android with Motorola, wasn't the case a few years back.

 

Can they really? Their market share are dropping fast. Can they really afford another year of failure? I don't think so, the deal smells of desperation with a hint of pride. Pride in that they refuse to recognize the new 500lb gorilla that Android has become, a spot where Symbian was once king.

And where is this innovation in the consumer space you speak of? Granted the equipment they sell for much of the back haul/back office gear in the mobile communication sector is still some of the best around but what about the consumer gear (ie. phones). By far their biggest sellers have been phones based on Symbian S40 platform, devices that are hardly on the same level has the HTC Desire HDs, Samsung Galaxy S and iphone4 of the world. Look at their current flagship phone N8, the thing had such a convoluted road to market and significant delays of when it actually did hit the market.

The biggest success of Nokia in recent years has been able to con people into paying for a beta test that is the N900.