Potatoes are more intelligent than grass because people can eat them - Gurdjieff
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Nokia asks users what excites them about the Microsoft deal
A POLL conducted by Nokia to find out what most excites its users about the recent deal with Microsoft drew what we can only assume was a disappointing answer - not much.
The Finnish phone firm, which recently hopped into bed with Microsoft, polled its customers on its blog asking them what features they are most looking forward to on a Windows Nokia handset. It asked, "Looking forward, what are the best new features you'd like to see on a Nokia Windows Phone?"
Rather than just leave the options blank, which could have been particularly unwise, the firm suggested a handful of options: Xbox games, Unique UI, Windows desktop integration, Internet Explorer 9, Rapid Update schedule, Silverlight, Integration with Outlook, a higher resolution screen, or Other, which was divided into some 100 sub categories.
Embarrassingly for Nokia it was the 'Other' category that drew the lion's share of votes with 22.6 per cent. The next most popular was the unique user interface with just over 22 per cent, while IE9 got just around nine per cent and Silverlight got a pitiful two per cent.
'Other' responses had a pretty even three-way split, which Nokia admitted was divided into three camps, none of which were particularly enamoured by the Microsoft deal. "A third agreed that Windows Phone was not what they wanted, period," admitted the firm, continuing, "MeeGo received just over eight per cent and Symbian just under eight per cent".
This unenthusiastic response is not new, it's been the trend ever since the tie-up was first announced. What might surprise Nokia, however, is the fact that its customers would prefer to see it keep hold of its Meego and Symbian operating systems and throw out Windows Phone, as opposed to the other way round.
When Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer announced the partnership few could think of anything positive to say. Nokia might have been floundering in the smartphone market, but it is the biggest mobile phone seller overall, while Microsoft seems to have the same impact on mobile phone sales as scare stories about cancer.
Elop had earlier suggested that Nokia was in crisis, more accurately he said it was on fire and considering whether to drown in icy water. It appears that the firm took the drowning option when it hopped into Ballmer's leaky dinghy, as ever since its share price has sunk further and further.
Even those people that did see the marriage as a positive might change their minds, as this week Microsoft showed just how adept it is at mis-managing mobile phone operating system updates.
At the start of the week it said that it was pleased to be rolling out the first Windows Phone 7 update, but two days later it was tackling questions about problems and by this morning it was withdrawing it wholesale on Samsung handsets, having successfully turned a number of them into bricks.
That's pretty embarrassing for a company that has a desperate need to be big in the mobile phone market and it is hardly reassuring for Nokia's customers and shareholders.
Still, the writing was always on the cards, even if Elop could never see it. However to the outsider the clues to failure were there, and perhaps most tellingly in the Elop crisis email.
"We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind," he explained.
How he expected to change this by tying Nokia to a software company that is equally years behind the curve is anyone's guess and a question that only Elop can answer. µ
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never visit this site, it is completly biased towards android and simply bashing wp7.
I have a WP7 phone, and its great. The interface is excellent and easy to navigate. My non geeky colleagues hate Android, it is messy and fiddly. Every trainee hairdresser has an iphone so absolutely no cool factor there.
Given nokia makes fine handsets, and WP7 is an excellent os I'm looking forward to getting one.
Its early days yet.
...cannot stand.
I'm putting Nokia on corporate deathwatch. Death? For the largest mobile device manufacturer in the world?
Yes, death.
Or to be more accurate, get acquired by Microsoft for a steal. But the Nokia as we know it will be no more.
i loved nokia, and has always been a nokia owner since the first beginnings of the snake game. however, as soon as i heard of the partnership with microsoft, i went and got an iphone. i hate everything about microsoft, they fail in so many ways with piss poor products and expect the customer to pay good money for them. real big shame nokia has joined the dark side. they should have signed up with google and let MS sink on its own.
A Nokia Windows phone is simply NOT interesting at all. Nokia, I will never buy a Nokia Windows Phone. "Always Nokia" turned to "never Nokia"!
MeeGo was the right direction for you! You still have the possibility to give MeeGo a clear chance for the future! Give a clear roadmap! Keep the roadmap!
For good reasons, please see the petition to Nokia: Reconsider MeeGo as strategic platform!
http://getsatisfaction.com/nokia/topics/petition_to_nokia_reconsider_meego_as_strategic_platform
SERIOUSLY, WHAT THA SMURF IS SILVERLIGHT?
I LITERALLY DONT KNOW WHAT THIS IS.
THIS ONE TIME I WENT TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS AND THE BUS DROVE PAST NOKIA THEATER IN L.A. AND I WAS LIKE, WHAT THE SMURF? NOKIA LITERALLY BOUGHT A THEATER IN LOS ANGELES.
SO I'M LIKE, PFFT! WHATEVER.
A deal to bring on W7 would only marginally benefit Microsoft and Nokia. W7 phones just don't sell, and the applications and functionality aren't really there. Ditching Symbian is a very good idea... I've given up trying to find Symbian apps I can use on my Nokia. W7 won't really help the issue, as targeted W7 apps are also thin on the ground.
I've been a loyal Nokia customer for almost ten years now - but I'll ditch Nokia for a company that will give me a chance to truly use my phone as a sort of electronic Leatherman. I was so excited about the N8... until I saw that the phone still had Symbian. W7 wouldn't exactly sweeten the deal for me.
With HTC out there producing great smartphones with similar capabilities to Nokia's phones, why doesn't Nokia wake up to the idea that their customers want to stay with them, but also don't want to be stuck with a buggy or limiting O/S?
Nokia should have invested more in their own technologies. Qt and Symbian was not bad, if you consider it had the OVI store, where people could at least some decent apps.
Good Alternatives would have been Maemo ,or Meego (Nokia's Maemo + Intels Moblin). Nokia always had Symbian, and offered something different than windows mobile, IOS and android. Thats why customers picked Nokia in the first place. Maemo and Meego should have gotten more funds and attention, so that it comes out of the shadows. With good developers, a good marketplace, social media integration Meego could do just fine.
The view on Nokia to me right now, is that Nokia will be a handset manufacturer only, selling their phones to microsoft. It feels like a kick in the butt for Symbian, Maemo and meego developers, who have put all their efforts into their creations for nothing.
In answer to the headline: "F*ck all."
And that's the bottomline. People are attracted to the iOS UI, they want to play with it, even if they don't really need it.
WP7 does not have such an attraction, it's very bland, very square and very monotone. The tiles interface is bad.
It's not appealing and it shows in sales.
Then there is the lack of functionality, it's like a modern feature phone.
Nokia made a HUGE mistake of switching to WP7 or any other OS, they finally had a good plan on improving Symbian, which they finally got under their roof, working on Maemo/MeeGo and S40 for low end.
You know it'll be amusing when Nokia WP7 sales tank and they will, trust me. WP7 does not have the magic.
2% actually WANT the silverlight trojan? Man oh man the world is messed up.
The real morons here are the Nokia board that choose a Canadian, Microsoft CEO.
Canadian CEO's that are not part owners (by stock options does not count) of their business can not run a hot-dog stand. (I am Canadian).
Microsoft was known to be incompetent-, at least in the phone business so why get a CEO from there???
The whole lot of them are going down the drain.
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 has already failed, with decreasing sales. Actually, it's a bit sad that Nokia has to go down with Microsoft's phone, but Nokia is just unavoidable roadkill in this experimental Windows Phone 7 disaster.
It excites me to know that Windows Phone 7 is now in an unrecoverable position, destined for doom.
May we ask that you insert a proper link to the Nokia blog in question? At least your readers could see first-hand and make up their own minds. Thanks.
And I wrote here about that before the iPhone launch: just add cellphone functions to your N800/810 commumicator and may be remove excessive bezel and there will be an ideal phone.
Can anyone imagine to have godlike 4.5" wide VGA screen, slim design, good processor onboard like not many phones still have now before the first iPhone launch and not having all that till now???!!!
Impossible.
Good article, btw.