Posts tagged symbian
Nokia announces strategic alliance with Microsoft: Windows Phone 7, Bing, Xbox Live, Office
Feb 11th
Nokia just dropped the bombshell we predicted yesterday: a wide-ranging “strategic alliance” through which:
- Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS will become Nokia’s “principal smartphone strategy”
- Microsoft’s Bing and adCenter will provide search and advertising for Nokia Windows Phones
- Nokia’s Ovi Maps content will become part of Bing Maps
- Nokia’s app and music stores will integrate into Microsoft’s (Windows Phone / Zune / Xbox) Marketplace
- Like all Windows Phones, Nokia handsets will now also feature Xbox Live and Office
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (former head of Microsoft’s Business Division) and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said:
“There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them. There will be challenges. We will overcome them. Success requires speed. We will be swift. Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.”
Read on for more about the Nokia-Microsoft deal.
Reports: Nokia may use Windows Phone 7; Microsoft India, Google execs hint at partnership
Feb 10th
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (L), then head of Microsoft's Business Division, with Nokia VP for Devices Kai Oistamo (R) in 2009
Observers have been wondering what Nokia’s next step will be following its CEO’s Burning Platform memo yesterday. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported this morning that Nokia is in talks with Microsoft to license the latter’s Windows Phone 7 operating system for use in its devices and that a deal may be announced at an event in London tomorrow. The company has also been in talks for several months with Google about its Android OS, which seem not to have panned out. Google’s flamboyant VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, posted a tweet yesterday presumably bashing Nokia and Microsoft after the Android negotiations fizzled:
Nokia CEO to employees: “We poured gasoline on our own burning platform”
Feb 8th
Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop, formerly of Microsoft, just sent out a fairly devastating internal memo to all Nokia employees. It’s a brutally honest portrayal of the mess the company is in and an interesting example of how to kickstart a company that on the surface appears to be doing fine (positive growth, still the largest market share globally) but actually faces serious threats that it has failed to address.
On the smartphone front, Nokia’s lead has severely eroded thanks to modern platforms like the iPhone and Google’s Android OS, which Nokia’s Symbian platform is still not competitive with and its Maemo OS has yet to battle. In emerging markets, its long-standing lead has been eaten up by Chinese manufacturers (many based on the city of Shenzhen, a famed hub of knock-off electronics).
Some tidbits:
- “Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, ‘the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation.’”
- “The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.”
- “Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.”
- “We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning.”
- “They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.”
- “Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.”
Full memo after the break- it’s worth a read.
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