Nokia is marrying Microsoft and the world isn’t happy. A huge backlash is expected over the blogosphere, editorials over editorials telling whats wrong with Nokia would be the flavor for days to come and we are still to digest what really happened. In Nokia’s words, MeeGo and Symbian remains and Windows Phone 7 would be the long term bet. But did Nokia really need to announce this now if it isn’t happening anytime soon? They basically just killed the expectations from MeeGo!
However, not getting into that, its hard to ignore that Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop who is the first non Finnish to lead the worlds largest mobile phone maker, was picked up from Microsoft last year. Given the Microsoft roots of Elop, a question sure arises in our mind: was it easier for Microsoft to push WP7 to Nokia?
We have heard that Eric Schimdt tried his best to take Nokia the Android way (which IMO is a better bet than Windows Phone 7 at the moment), but then we all know what eventually has happened. While we will have to wait and see what really happened (and we might never know the inside details), we know one thing for sure, its not the first time that Microsoft and Nokia are coming together.
Both Microsoft and Nokia know that their primary and biggest market is the US and both these cos are trailing way behind the competition. While their last deal was just a software deal brining office mobile and enterprise stuff from Microsoft on Nokia, this time they have gone the full way.
So while the speculations would keep flowing, we wonder to what extent did the Redmond roots of Elop, encouraged this deal!
Update: Elop answered why WP7 and not Android during the press conf. Android is crowded and they didn’t want to be a commodity player. A mix with WP7 looked good to them. Well we will wait and see how that turns out, but isn’t standardizing product / commodity player the reason Sony Ericsson gave for missing Windows Phone 7?
The fanboy inside you is serving up conspiracy theories to your mind and your mind is mindlessly telling you to publish conspiracy theories on your website.
Now, I didn’t know Elop was from Microsoft! This explains everything. I have been thinking ever since this news got out that it might have been Microsoft who approached Nokia, and it might be true. Well, surely a bad decision, unless they make WP7 more open than it is currently with all its limitations. I love you Nokia, or rather, I loved you..