4 ms·

Nokia to Make WP7 Phones?

11 points by nextparadigms 16y ago

rbanffy 16y ago
It seems that by planting Elop on the CEO position at Nokia, Microsoft has perfected the use of outplacement as an offensive weapon.
stuaxo 16y ago
There goes Meego and then Nokia I guess.
- stuaxo 16y ago
  Ah just seems that it's an Op Ed ... so should be taken with a large box of malden sea salt.
partypoopin 16y ago
The apparent source of this information is hardly a person that is considered to be reliable. Eldar has a track record of false rumors for the purpose of gaining more attention to himself.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  Since I won't buy a Nokia phone in the near future, I think I'll just sit and wait. Too bad. Their hardware has always been excellent.
ThomPete 16y ago
And while we think it's a big deal to most normal people it's a non-event.
greyman 16y ago
Not at all surprising to me. Nokia is mostly a hardware company, and they just do not have a software house powerful enough to create mobile OS which could compete with iOS or Android. Nokia is a good company, especially in the area of dumbphones (still a pretty big segment), but they are just not that good at making software - I tried in the past to use their windows client ;-)). Nokia hardware + WP7 seems like a good combo to me.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  I wonder if the Microsoft past of its current CEO would have anything to do with it choosing to go WP7 instead of already market proven Android.
  - Knack 16y ago
    Microsoft needs more then a horde of clone phones. Maybe MS and Nokia can create something special that helps both? (Yes, MS wouldn't do HTC, Samsung etc. a favour with special Nokia treatment). But you're right, Android is certainly more market proven, but also more ordinary.
- Supermighty 16y ago
  Why wouldn't they choose Android over WP7. I would think Android would offer them more control over the user experience and Nokia branding.
  - bad_user 16y ago
    And then have users bitching about not being able to install a bare-bones Android on it? :-) I don't think going with Android is good. How could they offer anything more compelling than HTC or Samsung or Motorola, which are small players compared to Nokia? I also think going with WM7 is suicide, but YMMV.
    - nextparadigms 16y ago
      The phones would be very compelling if offered with stock Android, since no one seems to do it outside of Google, anyway. Huge market potential there, but too bad no one is willing to take advantage of it. Imagine if Nokia became #1 provider of stock Android phones...most Android fans would be swayed immediately. Oh and of course they'd also need to be on the cutting edge of technology. They don't seem to be doing that lately, except for the cameras.
      - Supermighty 16y ago
fredoliveira 16y ago
This was actually denied on stage at LeWeb by Nokia's design lead Marko Ahtisaari just over a week ago. His words were something like "Nokia likes to go into businesses where we can add real value, and that includes the software". He was specifically talking about Android and WP7. Not saying they couldn't change their minds between then and now, but I'd find it weird. Then again, working exclusively on hardware might be the pivot Nokia needs to get out of the hole they carved out for themselves in the past few years.
chapel 16y ago
Nothing against WP7 but I think if this were true, Nokia would be digging themselves another hole. Well they may not fall because of WP7 but I just don't see it giving them a chance to become a super start handset maker they once were. If they chose to make Android phones, I would be interested in purchasing one, since the quality of their phones is very high.
- blub 16y ago
  And what makes you think that Android would be better? Everyone's already doing Android and the models are becoming very similar to each other.
  - mseebach 16y ago
    Nokia has a lot of hardware-tricks up their sleeves. One thing they could do to Android is to make the models stop being so similar to each other. I think, for an example, that an E72 running Android could go a long way in luring away BlackBerry users who are reluctant to give up a HW keyboard. There's currently only one Android device in that space (Desire Z), and it's pretty expensive.
    - metageek 16y ago
      There's also the Droid 2 Pro.
    - blub 16y ago
      They could, except it seems that Motorola beat them to it. :) Hardware can't be much of a differentiator - I am thoroughly unimpressed with the recent avalanche of Android phones. They all look the same, with geeky differences such as dual-core, 1MP larger camera, trackball. All these things are exciting to Engadget and r/Android but are almost irrelevant to consumers and confusing to boot. If I had to pick an Android phone today, I would have no idea how to do it. So I stick to my current phone and wait for real game-changers to appear.
      - mseebach 16y ago
Knack 16y ago
I still fail to understand why Nokia doesn't get it done with Software. I mean, look at Meego. Maybe I'm naive but I was really expecting more progress. I thought they were set to go. All they need is development power. Get their Meego core run on selected hardware. Do they put enough ressources there? Are there politics with Intel going on? It is so important to get going. They should know it and put $$ there. All we hear from Nokia is news about Symbian being supported more, which is not really promotion in my opinion. Look at RIM. Look what they do with their playbook and QNX. So much more progress than Nokia. We need diversity and competition in the mobile market. Currently Apple and Google squeeze the money out of our wallets. (And we need more Qt ;-))
madmaze 16y ago
This seems like a very odd move for Nokia. I was hoping MeeGo would become there predominant platform. I guess anything is better than Symbian at this point. Maemo was/is nice, but it needs some more work to really work well in all situations, looking forward to the n900 successor

11 points by nextparadigms 16y ago

It seems that by planting Elop on the CEO position at Nokia, Microsoft has perfected the use of outplacement as an offensive weapon.

stuaxo 16y ago

There goes Meego and then Nokia I guess.

stuaxo 16y ago
Ah just seems that it's an Op Ed ... so should be taken with a large box of malden sea salt.

partypoopin 16y ago

The apparent source of this information is hardly a person that is considered to be reliable. Eldar has a track record of false rumors for the purpose of gaining more attention to himself.

rbanffy 16y ago
Since I won't buy a Nokia phone in the near future, I think I'll just sit and wait. Too bad. Their hardware has always been excellent.

ThomPete 16y ago

And while we think it's a big deal to most normal people it's a non-event.

greyman 16y ago

Not at all surprising to me. Nokia is mostly a hardware company, and they just do not have a software house powerful enough to create mobile OS which could compete with iOS or Android. Nokia is a good company, especially in the area of dumbphones (still a pretty big segment), but they are just not that good at making software - I tried in the past to use their windows client ;-)). Nokia hardware + WP7 seems like a good combo to me.

rbanffy 16y ago
I wonder if the Microsoft past of its current CEO would have anything to do with it choosing to go WP7 instead of already market proven Android.
- Knack 16y ago
  Microsoft needs more then a horde of clone phones. Maybe MS and Nokia can create something special that helps both? (Yes, MS wouldn't do HTC, Samsung etc. a favour with special Nokia treatment). But you're right, Android is certainly more market proven, but also more ordinary.
Supermighty 16y ago
Why wouldn't they choose Android over WP7. I would think Android would offer them more control over the user experience and Nokia branding.
- bad_user 16y ago
  And then have users bitching about not being able to install a bare-bones Android on it? :-) I don't think going with Android is good. How could they offer anything more compelling than HTC or Samsung or Motorola, which are small players compared to Nokia? I also think going with WM7 is suicide, but YMMV.
  - nextparadigms 16y ago
    The phones would be very compelling if offered with stock Android, since no one seems to do it outside of Google, anyway. Huge market potential there, but too bad no one is willing to take advantage of it. Imagine if Nokia became #1 provider of stock Android phones...most Android fans would be swayed immediately. Oh and of course they'd also need to be on the cutting edge of technology. They don't seem to be doing that lately, except for the cameras.
    - Supermighty 16y ago

fredoliveira 16y ago

This was actually denied on stage at LeWeb by Nokia's design lead Marko Ahtisaari just over a week ago. His words were something like "Nokia likes to go into businesses where we can add real value, and that includes the software". He was specifically talking about Android and WP7. Not saying they couldn't change their minds between then and now, but I'd find it weird. Then again, working exclusively on hardware might be the pivot Nokia needs to get out of the hole they carved out for themselves in the past few years.

chapel 16y ago

Nothing against WP7 but I think if this were true, Nokia would be digging themselves another hole. Well they may not fall because of WP7 but I just don't see it giving them a chance to become a super start handset maker they once were. If they chose to make Android phones, I would be interested in purchasing one, since the quality of their phones is very high.

blub 16y ago
And what makes you think that Android would be better? Everyone's already doing Android and the models are becoming very similar to each other.
- mseebach 16y ago
  Nokia has a lot of hardware-tricks up their sleeves. One thing they could do to Android is to make the models stop being so similar to each other. I think, for an example, that an E72 running Android could go a long way in luring away BlackBerry users who are reluctant to give up a HW keyboard. There's currently only one Android device in that space (Desire Z), and it's pretty expensive.
  - metageek 16y ago
    There's also the Droid 2 Pro.
  - blub 16y ago
    They could, except it seems that Motorola beat them to it. :) Hardware can't be much of a differentiator - I am thoroughly unimpressed with the recent avalanche of Android phones. They all look the same, with geeky differences such as dual-core, 1MP larger camera, trackball. All these things are exciting to Engadget and r/Android but are almost irrelevant to consumers and confusing to boot. If I had to pick an Android phone today, I would have no idea how to do it. So I stick to my current phone and wait for real game-changers to appear.
    - mseebach 16y ago

Knack 16y ago

I still fail to understand why Nokia doesn't get it done with Software. I mean, look at Meego. Maybe I'm naive but I was really expecting more progress. I thought they were set to go. All they need is development power. Get their Meego core run on selected hardware. Do they put enough ressources there? Are there politics with Intel going on? It is so important to get going. They should know it and put $$ there. All we hear from Nokia is news about Symbian being supported more, which is not really promotion in my opinion. Look at RIM. Look what they do with their playbook and QNX. So much more progress than Nokia. We need diversity and competition in the mobile market. Currently Apple and Google squeeze the money out of our wallets. (And we need more Qt ;-))

madmaze 16y ago

This seems like a very odd move for Nokia. I was hoping MeeGo would become there predominant platform. I guess anything is better than Symbian at this point. Maemo was/is nice, but it needs some more work to really work well in all situations, looking forward to the n900 successor