All over the technosphere this morning is the news of Nokia's deal with Microsoft: Nokia will compete with the iPhone and Android by using Windows to power its smartphones.
This came as no surprise and had been speculated about for months. Here are the high-level bullets and general outline of the deal:
Nokia chose Microsoft's operating system in part because it was credible and because Nokia CEO Steven Elop is a former Microsoft employee and has a good relationship with the company. He may have also been offered "hundreds of millions" in support from Microsoft (and to not adopt Android):
Most Nokia smartphones run on the much-criticized Symbian operating system. To get Nokia to switch, Google and Microsoft are offering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of engineering assistance and marketing support, according to a person who has done consulting for the company and was told of the talks.
Android might have been a better choice for Nokia from a consumer standpoint; Android has more traction, more apps and bigger developer ecosystem and so on. However adopting Android would have turned Nokia into "a commodity" provider of Android devices. It would have diluted Nokia's brand. With Windows Nokia can retain some measure of "proprietary uniqueness."
It will be very interesting to see how Asian Windows Phone partners (e.g., HTC, Samsung) react. My guess is that Windows Phones have not sold well for them vs. Android. This move may alienate them somewhat. I'm speculating.
The Nokia-Microsoft deal is probably better for Microsoft than it is for Nokia as my comments above suggest. However the interests of the two companies are well-aligned; they sink or swim together. I suspect, in the end, this will marginally boost Windows' share of the smartphone market and will arrest Nokia's slide to some degree.
I doubt whether it will be the "game changer" that both companies are looking for however.
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