So which is it? Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT) announced a partnership today. Both lumbering companies have been in some trouble with their smartphone divisions. Both have been loosing market share to Apple, Android and Blackberry in recent years.
WindowsMobile (previously PocketPC and currently WindowsPhone) once the dominant mobile OS, yes folks before the iPhone came into power Microsoft slowly but surely killed of it’s main competitor palm OS, which was acquired by hp last year and is now barely a sliver of a shadow of it’s former former former self.
Just this week hp/palm unveiled 2 new smartphones the palm Pre 3 and Veer, as well as their entry into the tablet space with the TouchPad. hp being one of the top computer manufacturers at the moment has the resources to use and spread webOS like a creamy peanut butter across all markets they are in. By being one of MSFT’s biggest customers now suddenly not using Windows7 (still MSFT’s tablet OS of choice) and churning out competitors to the rebooted WindowsPhone mobile OS. It is no surprise that MSFT chose to partner with NOK.
If we look at Nokia the biggest and still number one mobile phone maker at this time. The company made a partnership with Intel to develop MeeGo but it looks like that has fizzled out. Symbian just isn’t competitive vs the other modern mobile OS. So with a burning hatred for Android (Google) and next to impossible to deal with Apple (APPL), Nokia has decided to ally itself with Microsoft one of the few companies that may have a deep enough bench (and/or billfold) to possibly put a dent into the iOS and Android armour.
We have yet to see how both companies will leverage their strengths to create a compelling ecosystem to sustain their products.
MSFT has WindowsPhone7, Office, Bing, WindowsLive, Zune & Xbox
NOK has NavTEQ and a lot of hardware experience and very strong presence in most markets (except North America actually) actually Nokia has a lot of very very good operator relations in a lot of territories.
How would this new partnership affect the Nokia and Intel dynamic? Microsoft and Intel dynamic? What about the Microsoft and HTC, Samsung and LG (et al) relationship?
So on paper this partnership is a match made in smartphone heaven. One of my dream devices in the recent past was a Nokia E71 with touchscreen and Windows Mobile 6.x this time around imagine an N8 and E7 running WindowsPhone7. This mythical narwhale or unicorn of a device may not be so mythical for long. Chew on that for a bit.
I’m sure all technology enthusiasts are watching this partnership and the potential repercussions it brings about with much interest. I know I am.
**special thanks to @radrad for coining Elopocalypse hehe
Nokia has attached it's wagon to a stumbling tech giant that has little vision and even less success with the consumer market. Can Nokia convince the generally and profitable high end consumer (where the iPhone rules the roost) that the WinPhone is sexy, smart and right for them? Is Nokia ready for building phones that Microsoft dictates? Nokia no longer needs to innovate and develop technologies that might not be on spec with the WinPhone requirements. The only thing Microsoft gets out of this is bragging rights to the number of phones "shipped" running their very late to the game, me too platform.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't a lot of details yet on how this partnership will work but I wouldn't count either Nokia or Microsoft out yet. If both can use their resources to create a competitive ecosystem to challenge iTunes then it would become a very interesting shakeup of the smartphone wars.
I really hope they do good. Apple & Google could use the competition.
I like Nokia for its hardware, man look at the 5110, some are still in use till today. I like windows as a phone OS. Its literally blast iOS and Android. Windows OS is or was a beast. It can run ANYTHING but it was hard to use for most of the consumers.
ReplyDeleteSo this partnership will only bring good. Cant wait for the first Nokia qwerty bar phone running on windows to come out!
I actually think WP7 can be competitive once it matures and Microsoft develops a good ecosystem for it.
ReplyDeleteThis partnership w/ Nokia really has a lot of potential. I imagine RIM & hp/palm are pretty worried now.