Nokia - Commercial Suicide?

[Tom]

Embattled mobile phone firm Nokia has signed up to a "broad strategic partnership" with Microsoft in an effort to rebuild its fortunes.

Stephen Elop, Nokia's recently appointed chief executive, said Nokia will use Windows Mobile 7 as its primary smartphone platform. Elop has also shaken up the senior management team, having warned staff this week that the company was standing on a "burning platform".

"Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward," said Elop, as he announced the company's new direction.

"Today, we are accelerating that change through a new path, aimed at regaining our smartphone leadership."

Under the plan, Nokia said it would use its expertise in hardware design, imaging and mapping to improve the Windows Mobile platform. The two companies will work together on marketing, and develop a common roadmap. Bing, Microsoft's search service, will be integrated into Nokia devices.

SOURCE http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/11/nokia-microsoft-sign-strategic-tieup

 

[Mr Pants]

Did you see the memo Elop sent out to staff? Was a good read.

 

[Revels]

It must just be badly worded. They aren't going to have Android handsets too.

Too much steam is making him confused.

 

[Tom]

Did you see the memo Elop sent out to staff? Was a good read.

It was a great memo. But he's no Jerry Maguire.

WM7 is a bad choice, came to late to the party and they don't plan on making any money on this deal until 2013!
The game will be over by then.

 

[Revels]

They're a long long way from taking the top of the tree but they'll sell a s**t load of the cheap phones that people who don't care about phones buy. Taking a lot of sales away from Android.

 

[Sym0n]

I'm not surprised Nokia are close to going bump tbh, they've not put out a good phone since the 5110i.

 

[Darren S]

Yep, they've appear to have dropped the ball in recent years. It will be a shame if they do go under tbh - or simply a footnote brand to some MSoft phone division.

D.

 

[jenic]

Remember 10 years ago when everyone had a 3210 or 3310.

Brings back the memories, i actually preferred the older 32 to the 33 looks wise too.

 

[poopipe]

unsurprised tbh, symbian's been a joke for a while now.

win7 will do well in the corporate sector because Android is next to useless on a business phone and Iphones are even worse.

You can't underestimate the importance of exchange integration/synching and built in office compatibility that comes with windows mobile OSs - my mobile work life was a crap load easier with my windows phones than it has been with the desire.

 

[Mr Pants]

Bring back the 3210 with a new version of Snake and the mission impossible ring tone.

 

[ilovewilly]

Any new phone that they bring out will still have a screen like an N gage.

 

[Mwindow]

They're a long long way from taking the top of the tree but they'll sell a s**t load of the cheap phones that people who don't care about phones buy. Taking a lot of sales away from Android.

Aren't Nokia still the market leader in 'global sales' due to the sheer volume of cheap, tatty phones that they shift in the far east?

Not owned one myself since the 8210.

 

[H182]

Was talking with my boss about this earlier. We reckon it's a good thing as they needed something to replace symbian. Nokia are already establish in the business market for standard company phones, but more and more companies are wanting smart phones these days. WP 7 will theoretically be more business orientated and easier to implement than android or an iphone.

 

[Tom]

WP7 is marketed as a consumer product with little business support.

 

[Revels]

Was talking with my boss about this earlier. We reckon it's a good thing as they needed something to replace symbian. Nokia are already establish in the business market for standard company phones, but more and more companies are wanting smart phones these days. WP 7 will theoretically be more business orientated and easier to implement than android or an iphone.

Based on what?

 

[sn00p]

They had no choice, using android would have presented a massive future problem should google decide to go into mobile phones in a big way, how could you possibly hope to compete with the maintainer of the platform. Ms was the only real option, it presents both companies with a massive opportunity to claw back space which has been disappearing at a truly scary pace.

I wonder what happens to Qt now, seeing as in the last year its basically been all out to make it the symbian UI toolkit, I really don't see what value it has for nokia now. My crystal ball must have been in overdrive because I forsaw this 6 months ago and asked them what was going to happen when nokia finally stopped flogging their dead horse and moved to another operating system, funnily enough none of the Qt engineers responded, but many developers who use Qt replied, I think they thought I was being melodramatic! Hah!

 

[sn00p]

Based on what?

Presumably the fact that ms are the dominant enterprise supplier of desktop software and the maintainers and licensors of exchange.

 

[sneeks]

win7 will do well in the corporate sector because Android is next to useless on a business phone and Iphones are even worse.

I hope you're joking, WM7 is poor and in no way considered to be a business phone OS. A iPhone or Android handset will do a much better job.

 

[Craigus]

Remember when everyone had one of these? I mean everyone.

 

[Tom]

This is about nokia's smart phone business. No the conventional phone business. But yeah that was a game changer. (Well 3210 was really, thats just an upgrade,)

 

[Revels]

This is about nokia's smart phone business. No the conventional phone business. But yeah that was a game changer. (Well 3210 was really, thats just an upgrade,)

It won't be long until there is very little left of the non-smart phone business.

I remember years ago when you had that massive SE thing. Nobody had smart phones unless it was essential for work. Now I couldn't not have one. People want their email/facebook/angry birds while they're out and about.

We're just used to thinking of smart phones as the top of the range expensive things, which obviously some are, but I bet Nokia are fully intending to bring out cheap versions to fight with the cheaper Android powered sets. They'll really have to up their game to get to the top of the tree which has never really been their business model.

 

[Tom]

Yup, P800, P810i, SPVM2000 o) P910i and P1 (E51 for a bit) Before i moved to iOS

 

[sideways danny]

Well to give them credit, as least they've given in and realised symbian wasn't upto it. Should have really got the message when the 5800 was a total piece of s**t

 

[Tom]

5800 and N97 were terrible products. Really Really bad.

 

[H182]

Based on what?

Custom applications that integrate with .net and SQL server products. Or at least that's the case with WM6.5, if what Tom said is true then maybe not :S

 

[Tom]

WM6.5 is Microsoft's business mobile OS. WP7 is the consumer one.

 

[sneeks]

Windows Phone 7 does not follow the same path as WM6.5 did. It is a consumer handset offering features which do not compete with Android or iPhone.

Nokia were knocked out of the game as soon as the 1st gen iPhone was released. Phones that had appeared useful and functional suddenly looked rather boring and limited.

 

[@Spoonie]

WM6.5 is Microsoft's business mobile OS. WP7 is the consumer one.

Why do you think that? I am interested because I have had both and find WP7 a lot easier to manage my work side on.

 

[Tom]

Its what they have said. i dont really agree either.

Microsoft is positioning Windows Phone 7 primarily for consumers right now, which means it has an interest in keeping Windows Mobile alive and well supported for the enterprise

 

[word_easy]

I'm not surprised Nokia are close to going bump tbh, they've not put out a good phone since the 5110i.

They aren't exactly close to going bump!

 

[BRUN]

Nokia go bust within 10 years, or bought by Microsoft, what odds would i get for that ?

they lost the plot years ago and i dont think they can get it back

 

[Bodge!]

I like my N8.

 

[PinkoCommie]

What happened to Maemo? I thought that was Nokias new smartphone platform.

Yup, P800, P810i, SPVM2000 o) P910i and P1 (E51 for a bit) Before i moved to iOS

I really liked those. I had a P800 back when they first came out. It was pretty pimp. I used to love the bluejacker app in bars in central london back when everyones bluetooth stacks were horribly insecure and would just display any unsolicited messages sent to them. I would set it going with some weird cryptic message like "I want to touch your shoes" then just leave it running as I went drinking after work round London Bridge

 

[Krispwee]

Based on what?

Microsoft could easily implement a killer feature in MS Exchange/Windows which would only be supported on a WP7 handset. Admittedly someone could release an App to make said function work on an iPhone or Android based phone but a business user won't want to mess around with that. He/She will just want it to work out of the box which MS and Nokia could promise.

I think this is a good move from Nokia who have been struggling with an OS that is 3 or 4 years too late (Symbian 3) and really was their only option to turn it round. I can't see them converting many iPhone users but they will be in a position to convert Android users and obviously their own customer base that trusts the Nokia brand. One of the biggest issues they have to overcome is making phone salesmen/women sell the Nokia handsets over the other smartphones which seems to be a major issue at the moment for WP7 devices.

 

[joebristolgym]

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of smart phones or any of these touch screen devices.

I had a Nokia N95, and got an N95 8GB to replace it even though everyone is going on about Iphones. I like a nice solid phone with a good camera that can take plenty of drops. God knows what I'll get when I finally destroy my current phone.

Same can be said of my Ipod Nano Gen2 - the battery is screwed (so going to fork out for a new battery to be fitted) - I don't want the latest Nano as it's touchscreen and apparently very sensitive to getting damp.

 

[Ms_Technical]

Their phones really went downhill quality wise after 2003 when they started making those novelty type phones in weird shapes. (remember the square shaped one, and the one that looked like a makeup mirror? LOLz) The battery life of any of the phones I bought after that was atrocious, I lost count of the phones I had to return in the end I switched to Sony Ericsson and my trusty K750i. Nokia then traded on their long established good name putting out the most dire phones for the next 5 years. Its no wonder they cant compete in this current market, consumers dont trust them anymore I suspect.

 

[Turkish]

I've not seen them as a viable company to buy a phone from in years. I switched over from Nokias to Sony Ericssons and then subsequently binned them off when they seemed unable to write firmware which didn't cause the phone to freeze, crash, reboot frequently.

 

[GiT]

N82, Nokias final decent phone.

 

[Ms_Technical]

This was the square one, couldnt remember the model number


It was utter poo anyway

 

[Charlie.]

The N97 was without doubt the worst phone i have ever had.

Remember when i first came out, and was supposed to be an iphone killer, lolllz.

Complete and utter toilet. The touchscreen was shocking, had 2 replacements in the year and half i had it. The app store was laughable also. Still, Mazuma gave me £80 for it 2 weeks back.