Nokia Windows Phone? Is Microsoft the Right Partner? - Digital Space

Friday, 11 February 2011

Nokia Windows Phone? Is Microsoft the Right Partner?

After the long awaited announcement of Nokia's future strategy, I can't really say if this is what fans of the world's largest phone maker were expecting.

Background
There's so much to be said on the subject. Nokia's new chief was a former Microsoft exec. Nokia's share of the smartphone market has been dwindling for a while now and more especially with the rise of the iPhone and Google's rampaging Android. Nokia's share of the smartphone market fell from 38% to 28% in 2010, according to monitoring firm IDC.


Nokia's Stephen Elon and MS's Steve Ballmer (r)


What's next?
In an attempt to solve the problem of dwindling market share, Nokia has just announced that they are going into partnership, well an alliance, with Microsoft to use Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system to power their smartphones. 
While there has been many raving reviews about WP7, I'm not sure if this is the best strategy for Nokia. What happened to a well established OS that's got everyone excited - I'm talking about Android. Most industry watchers were expecting a sort of team-up with the rising star.


It's too late to go back on it now since the announcement has been made. But WP7 is a fresh ecosystem (I'm thinking apps and such) and this alliance, like any other, has its disadvantages but definitely its benefit would show itself when a Nokia phone that hits stores sports the new OS. It is availability of applications and how they are accessed that make smartphones tick. Nokia should have considered that before jumping into bed with MS, IMO.

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