Nokia recently unveiled its new strategies to reclaim their overall leadership in the mobile phone industry. Surprisingly, their newly outlined strategies highlighted their “pre-nuptial” plans with Microsoft with the ultimate goal of beating Android.
Under the proposed partnership:
- Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
- Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would 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 would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
- Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
- Nokia Maps would 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 would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
- Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
- Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.
Essentially, the said partnership will make Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform and Symbian as its franchise platform. Surprisingly, Meego is not yet out of the picture as it will become its primary an open-source, mobile operating system project. In this regard, Meego-hopefuls will still have the chance to see and probably buy Meego-related products this year.
Check out the picture below if you’re itching to see a concept Nokia Windows Phone:
In my opinion, this new partnership will totally bring forth good things to Nokia. However, with a lot of new Android-powered devices and rumors about the upcoming iPhone 5 and iPhone Nano looming to be released before the year ends, the path for Nokia to reclaim its overall number one is still quite far-fetched. I am however optimistic in their goal of outwitting Android, given the time and blended effort of Nokia and Microsoft. I guess though, whatever Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was thinking when he said “Our first priority is beating Android”, he probably thought, “At the end of the day, if we can’t beat them, we’ll then have to join them”. For us, consumers, wouldn’t it be nice to see a plethora of Nokia phones with Windows Phone, Android…. oh, yes, even Meego? Hit the comments!
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
