Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer have shaken hands on it but reaction is mixed; some think this can propel Nokia back to the top but others suggest this move comes too late
Coleago senior consultant Robert Filkins:
“Nokia is between a rock and a hard place. None of its decisions are terribly appealing. It’s current operating systems for smartphones is not really going anywhere – Symbian is looking dated and MeeGo is proving to be problematic. It had to do something and this is the obvious solution.
“I don’t think its going to be a huge success though. It’s going to ‘sort of work’ but I don’t think its going to necessarily save Nokia’s market leading position. It will have some success with it in North America, and some other markets. In the rest of the world, the jury is out.
“One of the problems of Windows 7 is that its a fairly new operating system. Its not terribly mature yet, its going to take a couple of years before it becomes successful. Windows Mobile 7 relies on the Microsoft App store, it also relies on Bing, and the Xbox store. Looking at those features and capabilities, although they are available in the US at the moment, their availability in the rest of the world is really very patchy. There are some countries where they are not really available at all. So if you had Windows Phone 7 in say India, half of the features are not going to work.
“Its not going to be a ticket back to the top. There is just too much competition from Apple and Android. The market has changed completely. It is being squeezed at both ends. At the low end it is being squeezed by cheap Chinese manufacturers and at the top end are being squeezed by some better products like iPhones and Android products and to some extent BlackBerry handsets. HP has just announced two new handsets with webOS which is a development of the Palm operating system, providing yet more competition in the smartphone market.
“Microsoft is traditionally slow at development. Its not an organisation that is terribly responsive to the market. Android is much faster moving, so I think it is going to have difficulty keeping up with that. I don’t think it will be the end of Nokia, whether it is going to continue a slow decline or whether it is going to hang on there, I am not sure. I think the quality of its hardware design is something it really does need to focus on because that is its major strength in the handset market. It has got a very big loyal following so it will hang on but it depends what it comes up with over the next 12 months.”
Next Communications managing director Mark Finlayson:
“Microsoft has no real traction in the mobile market and an organisation that has failed there, teaming up with Nokia, another organisation that doesn’t have any traction in our industry either and is also a completely failed business too. Nokia is clutching at straws because it is looking for help from a company that doesn’t have a reputation in mobile. Nokia should have got into bed with Android because it could have rolled it out with real market penetration straight away because Android will probably be the biggest smartphone platform very soon.
“It’s taken Nokia three years not to respond to the Apple iPhone and this move probably comes too late for it as it could take up to a year to get a Windows Phones 7 product to market, by which time it will have a close to zero percentage share of the smartphone market.”
Expansys chief executive Anthony Catterson:
“It’s great news for retailers and customers. Nokia is the biggest device manufacturer in the world as it builds fabulous devices which customers understand and want to upgrade on. If you combine that with a more open-plan operating system that gives publishers and customers more flexibility, which Windows Phone 7 does in a far better way than Symbian, then that can only benefit Nokia and Microsoft.
“Nokia has needed stronger device partners and a more flexible operating system. I think this serves both companies and their respective customers incredibly well. I look forward to the competition between that combination proposition and what we are going to see from Apple, Android and its partners. The one that might have to step its game upwill probably have to be BlackBerry, which has done a great job over the last 18 months and will now have to evolve again to ensure it is at the top when consumers make their decisions.”
Fone Doctors proprietor Faisal Sheikh:
“It’s a positive move. However it’s a poor decision to hang on with Symbian and MeeGo. Nokia could have been more ruthless, getting rid of both of these and teaming up Windows Phone 7 or even Android also. I don’t think it has gone far enough. It would have instilled more confidence if it had admitted it has made a lot of terrible mistakes and totally dismissed Symbian and MeeGo and putting everything behind Windows Phone 7, which would have shown a real commitment. Nokia should also have kept the Android window open.
“However this is still beneficial for both parties. It’s good move for Microsoft because now it can gain even more traction in the mobile market. Nokia still has the best hardware on the market and it now has software that people are taking notice of so from an innovation point of view this move makes sense. Android may be slightly ahead of Windows Phone 7 but I think the latter is definitely here to stay.”
Christian Lindholm, partner and director at service design agency Fjord:
“This will be a considerable relief for all developers as it will answer the question of which is the third platform to expand to. We have had this question multiple times in the past months, and there has not been a clear answer. Now it is clear – it is Windows.
“The developer angle is incredibly important and the big guys have made life much more simple for developers and that is what matters. Only if these giants serve the developer community will they get a chance to prosper themselves. The game has changed.”
Outsourcery chief technology officer Mark Seeman:
“From a business perspective, both Microsoft and Nokia have been historically strong but their market shares have weakened lately. RIM’s BlackBerry devices have seen continued success within the business market, Apple and Google’s market share continues to grow and Microsoft’s excellent new Windows Phone 7 operating system should bring it back into the game. For Nokia to compete it is going to need to dramatically up its game and it can only achieve this with a monumental change to its organisation. Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop’s message to his staff was a public recognition of this fact.”
TMTI chief executive Crispin Thomas:
“Nokia had to do something in order to arrest its decline, but it does surprise me it has gone to Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 7 sales have been very flat. Before Christmas, numbers were down so it has got to be a great thing from Microsoft’s point of view. As a team together I’m sure they will be very strong.
Whether it is the right choice for Nokia – we will have to wait and see. I still think it would have been better to partner with Android. The Android train is already going so fast. You also have all the other big names taking on Android – Motorola, LG, Samsung and HTC using it already. Saying that it will now be a very interesting battle between these two systems. Its a very interesting twist.”
Complete Communications proprietor Adam Nyman:
“Dealers’ sales are mainly based on Android handsets so if it had gone in with that platform it would have been a lot better for us all. Despite that the Windows Phone 7 platform is impressive and not such a bad move for Nokia. For the high-end smartphones the Symbian platform simply wasn’t up to scratch. If the N8 had Microsoft or Android software on it, then it could have been one of the best phones out in the market, so this move will hopefully put Nokia back on the map.”
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