It's official: Nokia bets on Microsoft for smartphones Nokia will adopt Windows Mobile as its main smartphone platform in a wide-ranging agreement with Microsoft. But it's not as wide-ranging as it might have been: the two giants won't formalise the relationship by forming a joint venture or spin-out, and there's no mention of exclusivity on any of the many areas touched on by the …
And only yesterday I was speculating HP and Nokia should partner up. Nokia's phone OS strategy is abysmal.
I suppose Windows Phone 7 is better than what they have but is it a sound long term strategy? Every damned WP7 phone is virtually interchangeable. Same form factor, virtually the same specs, virtually the same user experience. Nokia might gain a boost by going to WP7 but now Nokia is competing with 4 or 5 substantially identical other models. So what reason will anyone have for buying a Nokia phone over (for example) an HTC or Samsung phone?
I think they would have been better off with HP really, assuming HP had the sense to realise they need a major partner.
For all the talk that Android is fragmented, it does at least allow a variety of models at all price points with some corporate personality in them. WP7 really needs to offer the same.
and we're talking biblical epic level FAIL here. I've been a loyal Nokia feature phone user for the best part of 12 years, the one digression onto another brand (Samsung) still makes me shudder to remember. I've been fighting the smart phone seduction for some time but this unholy alliance of the desperate pretty much makes sure that it'll be android for me if I do. Probably once my 6500 Classic finally dies.
If I recall correctly, in using WinPho7 you can't do anything to the GUI (like HTC throwing something over Android). So as stated above, Nokia become just another handset maker. Based on that, I don't really see what Nokia are getting out of this.
MS on the other hand might be a bit happier with being able to flog more WinPho7 and maybe get a bit more market share. Though in the long run, will that be enough for WinPho to compete with iOS and Android?
Like many others I have a lot of respect for nokia hw but wont buy any more with windows running on it, just my personal choice. Think its a shame that meego is almost certainly dead- not enough community momentum and intel knows when it is beat. Qt stands more chance, hope it makes it.
No JV or similar? avoids anti-trust or maybe microsoft just doesn't need it - nokia is their bitch now and everyone knows it.
When NOKIA made a total mess of releasing and supporting what could have been their lever to open up the smartphone market, the N900, I and many others predicted that their inability to identify the differences between their posterior and their middle arm joint might indicate trouble ahead. Sadly they've now launched a rickety lifeboat (from the burning platform) into shark infested waters (with frickin lasers on their heads).
Meanwhile I'm looking at the N900 in front of me and weeping for what might have been ...
AFAICT Nokia are keeping their options open - they didn't kill Symbian or Meego (or Qt).
But since their bureaucracy stopped them creating a simple friendly UX on Symbian, over TEN years - when ten people could do that in six months, say - I don't expect their Win7 phones will be up to much. ('Successful UX *is* the end product, BTW...)
@Jah, even if Nokia got their EPOC/Series90 designers back, I fear they'd get nowhere in that bureaucracy. Nokia do have lots of talented designers still, but an insane development process / bureaucracy stifles them, AIUI. And that's something Nokia haven't fixed here. :-(
It really is a shame that its come to this but I guess with an ex-MS man in charge of Nokia it was always going to happen, I wonder what would have happened if it had been an ex google man in charge?
There are currently too many platforms and windows phone 7 has been a flop IMO. I know people with blackberries, iphones and a miriad of android phones, but I have yet to speak to any of my friends who have a windows phone 7 or even feel remotely tempted to have one. Even the tie in with xbox live isnt enough to bring people around. Its lacking in features, and doesnt really bring anything good to the table, apple, android and RIM do everything that windows phone 7 does and more. The interface with the tiles isnt too bad, but its not a patch on an iphone or an android in my opinion.
Nokia could have done something really good with android but given the microsoft restrictions where can Nokia shine against the likes of HTC or LG?
Is this is really clever or complete suicide for Nokia?
Android would be no good as everyone is doing it.
Their problem is that Meego isn't ready, probably "wrong" because it's part Intel and They messed up the GUI aspects of symbian.
Also Phones are becoming "lego" kits. Samsung, Texas, Qualcomm, Marvell lego. Not actually clever Apple, HTC , Motorola or Nokia hardware.
Thats tosh, Android is the core, you make a phone using Android, benefit if you wish from Google Services (maps, calendar, gmail, sync etc), but you can certainly skin it how you like.
HTC, Samsung and Sony have all done very different takes on a core Android OS, Nokia could have done the same.
This is bad news for Nokia, and alas bad news for Linux and various OS project (e.g. MeeGo and QT/KDE). Microsoft will destroy Nokia if they are allowed too.
For MS it's good publicity but I don't even think Nokia can save the Windows Phone platform now. Perhaps this will allow Microsoft to escape the phone business without losing face.
As others have said this is a "merger of the failures" and probably isn't going to save either of them.
Google, Apple, Samsung, LG and Motorola will be laughing all the way to the bank.
While I'm also saddened by this news (although, Nokia had to do *something*, and as Android phones are a dime in a dozen, it's hard to differentiate there), I really have no fear for the future of Qt. It is LGPL, and it will be developed, at least by the OSS community if nothing else. Case in point, Phonon (a "multimediamedia abstraction layer", if you will) was originally from KDE4 but now ships with Qt as well.
It's desperate.. but Nokia had dug itself into a hole. Symbian is dying, MeeGo is a no-show. Nokia will carry some clout with Nokia, and WP7 could certainly use some Nokia input.
Microsoft get the better part of the deal though - WP7 shipments should shoot up (even if the handsets are only a modest success), they get the advantage of Nokia's input into UI design (which they can then sell on) and it's finally a significant WIN for MS in this sector.
Nokia on the other hand are taking the risks - WP7 might not sell well to consumers, but then they're still not quite in the last chance saloon.. they could always license Android as well!
Way to back the wrong horse guys!
Long been said that nokia hardware has long been held back by their software, they had a chance here to get that right.
I ditched Nokia in about 2002 and switched to Sony-Ericcson, last year I switched to android but had hoped that nokia would do the same. htc are good phones, as are the samsungs, a nokia running android would have been bulletproof, ah well.
As for microsoft, not enough phails in the world on the desktop/server level so they now persist in entertaining us all with their foray into the mobile market.
Keep up the good work guys! rofl.
This could be interesting. Nokia makes excellent hardware: the N8 is an absolutely lovely handset that is just lacking an OS/user experience/apps to unlock the full potential. Even their lower end phones are nicely constructed, just Symbian S60 is so creaky to use. S^3 is an improvement and it could potentially become even better. Nokia seem reluctant to retire it, and there is a massive existing install base that mainly just want to make calls and send texts.
Winmo 7 is by all accounts pretty nice, and I'm sure Microsoft aren't being complacent about the competition. We also have Windows 8 on ARM coming up which will probably have some overlap with Winmo 7. It will take time to build an ecosystem on par with Google and Apple, but if anyone has the cash to see it through, it's Microsoft.
Perhaps Nokia will implement a nice way of compiling apps built on Qt for all platforms (Symbian, Winmo and Meego). Perhaps some sort of virtual machine to run legacy Symbian apps on Winmo? Ovi merging with Winmo app store?
Nokia are now in a good position to emulate the success of handset makers like HTC and Samsung, with a choice of operating systems. If they allowed people to even change OS, they could win a lot of fans back. I bet tinkerers would love to be able to buy a Nokia handset and install Meego on it. But then again that would perhaps open the doors for stuff like Android ports, which maybe they wouldn't want.
Details aren't out yet, obviously, but If the "we'll use Microsoft tools" is true, and Nokia haven't insisted that WinPhone7 supports Qt, then they've missed a big opportunity. Doing this would unite Symbian, Meego and WindowsPhone under a single user interface library, and make application development easier.
What of MeeGo? Looks like it's not dead, just pushed into tablets. Personally, I think that's a good thing - Linux still is not up (down?) to the task of running on such power-constrained devices as mobiles, and its performance on non-x86 platforms has always been lacking. An Atom-based MeeGo tablet, though... that could definitely be on my shopping list.
Ironically, after all the hate, it's Symbian that lives to fight again. Mid-range handsets will continue on Symbian with Qt. As the current S^3 hardware platform moves down the price range, this could be real competition to Android, which frankly sucks on anything less than a 1GHz A8.
I guess this was a good business decision overall: Nokia have never been able to connect to the US customer the way MS do. Outside of North America, Microsoft had no traction with mobile carriers, and all the while, Google were undermining MS's previous hardware partners.
It's always worth remembering that you are not the phonemaker's customer - their customers are O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, AT&T and the like. You can bet that these customers will buy and carry Nokia phones with WinPhone7 faster than they'd carry Nokia Phones with Android. There's distrust from operators about Android - it's better than Apple, but it's still data-hungry and nothing is ever "free" - sooner or later they (and then we) will have to pay for it.
Finally, that Google VP's comment about two turkeys not making an eagle could end up having a double reading. True, neither company has been a roaring success in the US smartphone market but: eagles are an endangered species, and come the holiday season, everyone's looking for a turkey :)
You can have tablets on mips (loongson), or a variety of arm implementations, and you want atom? Just because android is sluggish on arm?
IMO nokia should fret a lot less about the US. Europe is just as big an economy and a much larger market in "unlocked" phones to boot. Now I don't know much about the market in the US but it seems to me the big players are RIM (king of email-on-a-mobile-device), apple (caesar of the UI), and google (overlords of geekiness). Every one is a very tall order to outdo, and with redmond licensing, competing on price isn't going to leave any margin. So by putting his lame duck's focus there, Elop is setting up for failure.
The problem with being a turkey isn't thanksgiving. It's that there's so many of them nobody notices which're gone afterward.
I wouldn't mind a tablet. It might replace the nasty, nasty MacBook Air that I currently try to use for casual web viewing. (Obviously, adequate thermal management comes a distant second to "magical design" these days)
I do not want something running Android, for reasons to do with Google, and its hungry hippo hardware attitude to system resources.
The iPad is okay but it's bland, and in the form of iTunes it's got baggage I don't want to deal with - plus, I believe that I should have the right to do what I want with my property. Oddly enough, this is the reason I like MacOS X...
Anyway, Nokia's MeeGo offered the chance of something that was elegantly designed, and functional enough for me to use for more than just mindless consumption.
Yes, because that's the only way that anyone could differ from your opinion about MS is if they are paid by them.
Well, I like my Windows phone, the only people I've met who don't like Win Phone 7 are people who haven't tried using it. It's not perfect but it's pretty good.
Oh and guess what? I don't work for MS, nor am I ever likely to.
Me too, I've already posted positively elsewhere on this thread and will continue to do so.Given how much anti WP7 vitriol is thrown around here, it's amazing anyone will stick their head above the parapet and claim to like it. It's testament to just how good the software is that people still choose to do so.
Oh, and when *did* this "shill" trolling start for when people have an opinion which goes against the grain? It's a recent phenomena, but is it still only prepubescent boys that do it, or are the girls copying them as well now?
Honestly I totally understand the reasoning for going for WP7, rather than Android. Nokia would be late to market with an Android phone and there would be absolutely nothing to differentiate themselves. The other WP7 manufacturers all seem to be putting out Android phones too, and possibly that is where their focus will be.
If Nokia can carve a niche as the dominante WP7 phone manufacturer then that might mean lower sales, but more profits than jumping in with Android - apart from anything else Microsoft is not going to want to see Nokia pinning their hopes on WP7 as a failure.
I don't want to deal with Google, I don't want them to leech my information and I don't trust them more than I don't trust MS.
I like my evil multinational corporations to be up front about it.
My partner has an Android phone and the amount of information it (at least initially) sent to Google was really shocking.
Ex-MS man tells company how wonderful MS is. Doesn't he remember why he left?
I was going (today) to buy a new, simple phone for my son. It would have been a Nokia, but now I'm not so sure. The same applies to mine, when I replace it, assuming it ever wears out, which seems unlikely so far...
your simple Nokia phone will likely work well for a long time no matter what MS or Nokia does in the future. But I do know someone with a Nokia 6700. Works well enough, but the settings menus are a nightmare and it doesn't have manual screen brightness control. And it's never off the charger. And it's their third one because they took the first two back for not holding a charge.
Joking aside, I've made it very clear in the past, I don't trust Google's growing omnipresence global spying plans, I hate it and I hate their bosses for being so two faced about it, (as my previous posts shows), but that said, even I have to admit what Google are doing with Android is basically the right thing. (I could write pages on the ways Google are spying on the phone, but that's another issue for another time).
It is the right way (more or less) to build an open platform that everyone supports. Even better its basically Linux based. Apple keep showing they are building walls around their platform restricting developers (and Apples prices are way to high) whereas Android is very open and ever cheaper Android phones are starting to appear. It won't replace the desktop for everyone, (desktop, why am I talking about a desktop!?), yes its a phone OS, for now, but the tablets show its got the potential to even erode into the desktop market in time, (imagine a tablet for say just £50 (in a few years from now) and then tell me that won't help the majority of non-technical users).
Ironically this very simplified Android UI could be the way Linux finally takes over the desktop market as well for the non-technical users. Its the simplified UI that's been called for by some for years, (as non-technical is the vast majority of the market, it just does what they want) but in the past, every time its been called for to be simpler, the die hard people have shot it down, wanting a more complex UI (that's ok for us technical people, I want that!). Well now Google's done what's needed with the UI. Its certainly going to mean within a few years more Linux computers are going to be running in people's homes than Windows computers! ... that's bloody good news for Linux. :)
If I was working at Microsoft I would want to make deals with people like Nokia to try to hold off the growth of Android, but it won't work. I wonder what the hidden details of that deal are?
Also all the mobile phone OS's highlight and destroy the myth that every home user must have compatibility with Microsoft and Intel, so that's a direct threat to their market dominance. They are talking about 850M Android devices within only a few years from now. Soon after that it will be easily well over 1B+ devices.
Just a few days ago we were reading that great TheReg article about DEC founder Ken Olsen and back when DEC were so dominant, it would have been utterly unthinkable to suggest that DEC could ever fall, yet times change. Linux fans have long suggested the end of Microsoft dominance and secretly even Microsoft have worried about Linux. Well now, Microsoft have very good reason to be worried.
I don't give a shit if I'm the only person on the planet that thinks this, but I'm very happy that Nokia have climbed on board the WP7 bandwagon. This will help WP7 become a true contender with iOS and Android in terms of sales - WP7 is in my opinion already a contender in terms of UI. I like it a lot and think it deserves to succeed and turn the marketplace for smartphones into a 3-horse race. The increased competition can only be good for consumers in the end, after all.
I don't understand why anyone would want the market to be dominated by one OS or another. Let's make sure the consumer has CHOICE. Today's announcement will help that happen.
Nokia make outstanding hardware and that will help them obtain a lead over the other WP7 phone makers.
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