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By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Nokia has all but dropped the Symbian mobile operating system and has instead joined Microsoft’s Windows Phone program. Announced early today during Nokia’s much anticipated press event at Capital Market Day in London, the partnership will focus on smartphones, personal computing and gaming. Nokia’s hold on the smartphone market has slipped in the wake of the explosion of Google Android phones as well as Apple’s dominant iPhone.
Microsofties Unite: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just made the smartphone business a lot more interesting
“Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO. “Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race.” Elop, a Canadian and former Microsoft executive, joined Nokia last year aiming to shake things up and steer Nokia in the right direction.
Leading up to the announcement, speculation was high that Nokia would adopt either Windows Phone OS or the more predominant but already fragmented Google Android OS. Windows Phone is still relatively new, shows tremendous promise as an OS and can now benefit from Nokia’s staggering phone and smartphone patents.
Nokia and Microsoft are more alike than just being the dominant players in their respective markets. Both companies create products but more importantly, they create ecosystems. Nokia, like Microsoft, has wanted to participate in the portable gaming space and even backed its own failed N-Gage initiative a few years ago. With Microsoft’s thriving xBox community and the power and resources of both companies, this can now be a reality.
For Microsoft, this automatically puts them in a favourable position against Google and Apple. Nokia joins Samsung, LG, HTC and Dell as a hardware manufacturer for Windows Phone 7 but more importantly the market share once owned solely by Symbian can be passed on to Microsoft.
“I am excited about this partnership with Nokia,” said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute.”
Under the proposed partnership:
– Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
– Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
– Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
– Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
– Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience
– Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
– Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
– Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.
“Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience,” Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. “Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race.” Indeed, let the games begin.
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