A couple of days ago, there was a leaked internal memo from Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, saying that the company has fallen behind in the mobile phone competition. Symbian could just not compete with the iOS and Android and thus, the need to rethink their strategy to reclaim their spot on top of the chain.
Today, Nokia announced their partnership with Microsoft and their plans to build a new global mobile ecosystem. Here’s a quick summary of things to come from Nokia.
- Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader. Think N8.
- Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will 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 will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
- Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
- Nokia Maps will 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 will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
- Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
- Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.
- Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.
What will happen to Symbian? It will be a franchise platform and will continue to harvest additional value for the company. Think of feature phones and mass-market mobile phones. Nokia is looking at the opportunity to retain and transition the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners and they are expecting sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the future. However, it won’t last as they would devote R&D to WP7 in the future and pull the plug on Symbian once WP7 hardware requirements gets cheaper for the mass-market.
I personally think it’s a good move for Nokia but more specifically for Microsoft. With this partnership, Microsoft can really compete with Google, locally at least, not just in terms of apps but they can also leverage on Nokia’s still strong brand here in the Philippines. Also, Windows Phone will adopt Nokia Maps which is always a strong suit of Nokia handsets and Bing Maps just can’t compare with Google Maps.
Can’t wait for the first Nokia Windows Phone to come out. Hmmm, I wonder how long for Nokia to release one. They need a lot of catching up to do.
Source: Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft