Nokia adopts Windows Phone

The companies in question (Nokia and MSFT) had two options - watch as their respective products sank into oblivion (handsets for NOKIA & Handphone OS for MSFT) OR, do something about it. As I commented here on Feb 10 [before the Nokia-WP news "broke" ], this is merely a natural progression of Elop from MSFT taking up Nokia CEO position way back in September 2010. In other words the 2 companies are firm on the "do something about it" option and have been working at it for a while. I firmly beleive they can deliver a high quality product that has great hardware and user-friendly OS.

However, such can materialize only under 1 condition - if they can keep their respective bureaucracies off this project. Such bureaucracies develop as a result of sustained large success. See General Motors as an exemplar. GM can still teach the other automaker kids a thing or two, but rarely produces anything that is not noisy and fuel-guzzling.

One option Nokia and MSFT should consider is spinning off a separate joint venture [JV] firm for this project. A JV that is independent as far as making product decisions are concerned [features, roadmaps , technologies], backed by deep pockets and repuations of Nokia and MSFT, and staffed with the better engineers and R&D folks. Eventually this can turn out to be the best investment these firms ever made.

Else , as someone commented, there is every possibility that one of these firms will just be a dry corpse in not too distant future- and I will add, ANY one of the firms or BOTH.

Having had a look at the wikipedia entry on Sendo Nokia have really shat in their nest.

I just went on Sendo's wikipedia entry - looks like M$ have done this before!

Hope it works out for you as well as it did for Sendo!

Nokia makes good hardware phone unfortunately I cannot say the same about the software, and this move is not the exception to that rule.

Well done Mr. Elop, you gave the final blow to Nokia.

Nokia VP Anssi Vanjoki: "two turkeys do not make an eagle"

Think about the possibilities of this totally "unholy alliance". With the next Nokia you can pay your xbox360 games and something else without your dad's creditcard etc.. :)

I really cant see this is bad move. Having used recent nokia hardware you have to say that while the phone build quailty is still miles better than nearly everyone the software is horrible to use.

I am not saying Win7 mobile is the best out there but I am sure it willbe a huge jump.

What other opions did Nokia have, Android, wouldnt have been bad but you and mixing it with everyone else. Prices now are already silly cheap which makes it a very difficult market. Apart from that everything else is either propiatry or untested.

MS obviously gave them a huge discount per handset on licensing fees (if not free) to try and jump start win mobile sales. So they got a great deal from MS, a modern OS with a developing ecosystem, and a world class software developer to push foward the platform. Anyone who sniggers at MS really should grow up a bit, win 7 on the pc is a great example of what they can do when they ned too.

People say this will b the end of them, I say utter bull. The smart phone OS market is so imature now and no one knows what will be the state of play in 2 let alone 5 years time. Andriod and iOS will be there thats for sure, beyond that we really dont know. I think the OS these machine run isnt so important, decent developer support on the OS is. Sales bring deveopers to an OS and nokia sell more phones than anyone.

Enough said

I think this is the best move Nokia could make and I am pretty sure it's going to be successful.

They will loose some of their faithful, but I think as a whole, it's a good move.

They needed to partner with someone else that was late to market to bring something different. Since WP7 has not been out very long, it's the best platform. If they went with Android, they would be competing with much more established vendors.

I think WP7 is a bit immature, but I think with the combined effort, they should be able to pull this off.

NO, NO, NO.

And BING?!? Are you serious, Nokia?

Android Nokia, ANDROID! And put QT under it, you'd have hundreds of thousands exclusive apps in no time!

Sheesh!

Why? A financial incentive, a rescue, I'm sure.

Worst deal since... since... um, since Time Warner was acquired by AOL?

10 years from now this will be used as a illustrative example in business strategy text books as the best clear example of how to kill a good business with a poor strategy.

Every business analyst in the land, plus every man with dog, in fact even the dog itself, can clearly see what a horrendous mistake this is.

It reminds me of that scenario where you desperately try to stop your mate, who has had too much to drink, going home with the fat cross-eyed bird with a wart on her chin. Everyone is motioning and mouthing "Noooooooo! Don't do it!" but he is too far gone to notice.

I was going to say that this is the worst business decision since.... but I can;t think of an example that comes close.

Microsoft will suck the last bit of blood from Nokia's legacy, after which the cold dead corpse will float off into the history books, and the business text books.

I'm going to keep all my old Nokia boxes now as I think they may be collectors items in a few years ;)

Nokia said that there were too many makers of Android handsets. It was just too popular.

So instead, Nokia looked around for a company that has a failed mobile strategy, and Microsoft fitted that description perfectly.

Harakiri is viewed as an honourable way to suicide, though.

Seems that I am not buying Nokia anymore. Pity, as nokia was the other word for mobile phone.
Considering that they had Maemo - an OS that is still unmatched in terms of graphics beauty.

My first mobilephone was a Nokia (5110) back in 1998. It was great for the time, easy to use, with great sound quality and an incredible battery life.
Everything they were releasing for a decade after that was really exciting and then came the N95
For the first time, I could see significant drawbacks on a Nokia phone, it was nice but heavy, the e-mail was too hard to set up, the internet was pants.
Then came the N97. WTF was that, Absolute rubbish, unusable.
At that point, I knew it was over for Nokia as a phone company. Even RIM does better FFS.
I had some hope Elop would just abandon the phone business altogether and concentrate on something new. But No he did the obvious thing, chose WP7 which nobody wants and committed Business HaraKiri.
Bye Bye Nokia I even wonder if you'll be missed..

No where does this announcement indicate why they're doing this. Ah well, I guess the next shareholders meeting will be interesting for Nokia, and for that matter Microsoft.

When I heard the news this morning, I laughed my socks off.

Nokia have demonstrated their inability to deliver Media Internet Devices. It is that same ineptitude that is behind the deal with Microsoft: they just do not get it.

Nokia has jumped onto a platform that demands significantly more hardware, i.e. a price premium. They have aligned themselves with software that has a proven record of failure and is generally held to be hopeless. Even Microsoft was giving away a free Windows phone for every one bought, recently.

Whose next for a Microsoft deal? Kellogg's? Free phone in every packet of cornflakes!

Nokia and Microsoft are textbook examples of ageing companies that are stymied in the past, devoid of imagination.

People will vote with their wallets.

THIS IS GOOD: people will be able to compare products side by side. Watch for the subsequent drop in market share for the dominant desktop OS (hello, ChromeOS).

I love the giggles that spew forth from this hilarious situation but I am thankful that I can also buy good products that run iOS or Android. We have choices. Life is fun :-))

WHY! Who thought this was a clever sodding idea? . Nokia can and has produced some of the best handsets ever released over the years .

Yes they committed the cardinal sin of smug idleness with Symbian and made an abortive attempt to right it with Meego.

A name only carries so far if you dont improve it .

So maybe its time for them to duck out of the operating system game and concentrate on the hardware but why for the love of all things tech choose windows phone a platform thats buggy and just as unpopular as a fart in a spacesuit.

Nokia plus Android is a match made in heaven you would have to be mad not to realise this .

Two bottom runners together do not make a killer combination . Its more a quick grope down an alley than the start of a beautiful relationship.

NOKIA JUMPS FROM A BURNING NORTH SEA OIL RIG
TO THE WINDOWS PHONE 7 SINKING SHIP!!

Sink Nokia, sink..

Until you wake up to a market share
that has fallen below 3rd place worldwide
as Androids take over the entire planet.

Then you will wake up and join the Android army.

Until then, Sink Nokia, sink..

I cannot understand why Nokia doesn’t realize that
Microsoft is good only for Windows on PCs.

The disappointing WP7 sales, the tetris like WP7 interface
and less than 10,000 Apps compared with close to 300,000 Android Apps
will keep WP7 at the bottom of the
worldwide market share for years to come.

Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Sony Erickson
went Android and became successful.
Why not Nokia?
With an innovating, custom, eye candy
Android user interface they can easily
penetrate the US market.

It would have been better for Nokia to go
BOTH Android AND WP7
and see which one will sell more.

ff