It's official. Dismissed as a silly rumour by many, Nokia and Micorsoft have just announced a very comprehensive partnership in which Windows Phone 7 will become Nokia's prime smartphone platform. It goes a lot deeper than that, though. Update: Qt will not be available for Windows Phone 7. Qt will remain the development platform for MeeGo and Symbian. Update II: During its Capital Market Day event, Elop confirmed Nokia will not make a comprehensive MeeGo product line. It will be a platform to learn from, but it won't become a competitive platform. Update III: Android was not an option because it would be difficult to differentiate there. Update IV: There will be 'substantial reductions in employment' in Finland and around the world. Also, before I forget, thanks Engadget for the live-blogging where I get this stuff from!
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Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2008-07-01
Member since:2009-02-11
The fact that it was (probably) the right move doesn't make it any less true, or sad.
The fact is that, given the insane delays of MeeGo and that Symbian was not aimed at the high end, Nokia's move was probably right. But this doesn't leave Nokia on a very good place.
Stephen Elop's memo talked about how Nokia needed to move away from the 'hardware-only' mentality and focus on the whole ecosystem around the device. Today's news though seem contradictory. Nokia will essentially become another WP7 hardware manufacturer, with the only differentiating factors being hardware, Ovi and NAVTEQ. Mobile hardware has become so standardized these days (CPU, RAM, Flash, Sensors etc.) that the only thing Nokia can do is slap a higher MP count camera. Ovi will be yet another WP7 app store. I don't know if NAVTEQ is so good that people are going to buy Nokia it, but I doubt it.
So the way I see it is that right now Nokia has nothing going their way. They are simply a WP7 hardware manufacturer, like many others.
Member since:2007-04-23
Much of the delay with MeeGo was just that, the transition from Maemo which was a relatively stable and complete platform, to MeeGo that is a significant departure and in need of significant changes.
Without their own OS, nokia will be reduced to just producing hardware and having to compete with the asians who can produce the same hardware more cheaply... Also to choose windows phone 7 over android is another black mark, windows mobile left a bad taste in many peoples mouths and while windows may be a well known brand, it also has negative connotations and is not generally associated with phones.
I liked the idea of meego/maemo, an open linux based platform for your phone.. Android requires significant effort to turn it into a regular linux system, and while the iphone can have a bsd userland installed you need to jailbreak it in order to do that.
Member since:2011-02-11
Member since:2006-02-15
Yes, because hanging on to an outdated platform and a platform that has been delayed like crazy and MIGHT be ready this year is totally not going to mean their demise.
All this time Nokia has been pushing for devs to use Qt, they've actually invested a helluva lot of money to it and the whole point with pushing people for Qt has been that they'd be developing for MeeGo in the future. But since WP7 doesn't support Qt they not only seriously shot themselves in the foot with this, they also instantly alienated all those Qt-devs they've attracted so far!
This has been a downright terrible move on their part.
Member since:2006-02-23
Thom, are you an OS enthusiast or a business strategist? You do realize they have just announced the death of Qt and the death of the only true open platform for mobile phones? Are you really so clueless that you think this is a good thing because YOU are a WP7 user? How shortsighted can you possibly be?
This reminds me of when Palm bought Be. There were people which reacted enthusiastically, thinking Palm would continue development of BeOs. We all know what happened there.
As a Qt developer, when Nokia bought Trolltech I was very apprehensive and feared for the future of Qt. Nokia however proved to invest in Qt and foster a community around the project. There was a bright future for Qt. But now they have just raised a giant middle finger to all the devs working with Qt. I am deeply, deeply saddened by this news and quit angry as well.
Member since:2008-03-27
Do you actually read before you hit "Submit"?
You can't even compare the two: There are many many many more "dumb" phones sold than smart phones (which need charging at least once a day - yeah, really smart that crap).
Aside that little detail (how good's a phone when it's out of battery?), MeeGo was a great migration plan to a modern phone OS. WP7 just simply doesn't fit.
I guess, the dude from Microsoft did his job.
RIP, Nokia.
PS: I do like WP7, don't get me wrong. But it just doesn't fit in Nokia's portfolio.
Member since:2010-04-27
Member since:2005-06-29
Doubtful. While I've never been a fan of WinMo 6 and earlier, I've heard some really good things about WP7. Given Nokia's long history of great phone hardware, as well as their marketing experience around the world, I have a feeling we finally have some honest competition for Android. In fact, Apple may lose even more market share to Nokia/Microsoft than they have been to Android.
I'm also excited to know that MeeGo will stick around for MIDs and tablets, and will remain open source so it can grow and flourish. As for Symbian? Well, I knew my Nuron would probably be the only Symbian phone I'd have, and now I think I will try a Nokia/WP7 device when it comes to T-Mobile USA.
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2008-07-01
Nokia announced its own demise. Nice...