4 ms·
What's not so clear is that this strategy was the right one. Particularly since the big, bold move isn't doing Windows Phone 7. (They're late to that party al
by rst 16y ago
What's not so clear is that this strategy was the right one. Particularly since the big, bold move isn't doing Windows Phone 7. (They're late to that party already; LG, Samsung and HTC already have phones out now.) Instead, what distinguishes Nokia so far is what they're not doing: fielding an Android device. And if you think Nokia doesn't have enough resources to do both, why haven't they dumped Meego yet?
There may be unannounced considerations that make this deal reasonable. But if you're going to bet your company on a single third-party platform (something that you don't need to do), it seems odd for it to be one that has yet to gain any serious traction in the marketplace.
Hence (I think) the suggestions that, to put it politely, Elop's past affiliations have skewed his judgment...
- jsnell 16y agoThe Finnish press is currently having a field day with the fact that according to filings Elop still owns a substantial amount of Microsoft shares, while holding no Nokia shares or options at all. He blames it on insider trading laws :-)
- saturdaysaint 16y agoElop gives a very credible answer to why Nokia shunned Android: http://video.allthingsd.com/video/nokia-ceo-on-choosing-windows-phone-over-android/A9024583-EBC9-4817-AD5E-A2569CA55F4B/ http://video.allthingsd.com/video/nokia-ceo-on-choosing-wind... In short: Nokia would give Android so much market share that Android would be unstoppable. Which sounds nice, but it would mean that Nokia would very quickly have almost no leverage over the ecosystem.
- rbanffy 16y agoSo, his reasoning is based on the idea that Microsoft depends on Nokia as much as Nokia depends on Microsoft. When WP7 fails completely, life will go on for Redmond, but will be over for Nokia. You have leverage when your partner needs the partnership more than you do. In this case, Microsoft has as much of it as it wants. As soon as Nokia is committed to WP7, Microsoft can do whatever it wants with them and they'll just put up with it, because they need the "partnership". Elop is not dumb. He is screwing Nokia for Microsoft.
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoHe gave a few answers that I think the average bystander would assume were being made by a Microsoft staff member. This is one of them. The one about the priority being to grow WP7 when asked about competition with other WP7 manufacturers was another.
- megaman821 16y agoMicrosoft has much tighter controls on their ecosystem than Google. If Nokia choose Android as it's platform of choice they would inevitable be compared a sea of cheap Android phones. Cheap WP7 phones don't exist. Microsoft has minimum specs phones must meet to use WP7. Nokia's arrangement with Microsoft probably allows them to be the only phone manufacturer that can dip into the value segment with WP7. There is also short-term benefits for Nokia choosing Microsoft, like dedicated engineering resources from MS and money put toward marketing the OS.