

Nokia to Make WP7 Phones? - nextparadigms
http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/12/20/holy-crap-nokia-is-in-talks-with-microsoft-about-windows-phone-devices/

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fredoliveira
This was actually denied on stage at LeWeb by Nokia's design lead Marko
Ahtisaari just over a week ago. His words were something like "Nokia likes to
go into businesses where we can add real value, and that includes the
software". He was specifically talking about Android and WP7.

Not saying they couldn't change their minds between then and now, but I'd find
it weird. Then again, working exclusively on hardware might be the pivot Nokia
needs to get out of the hole they carved out for themselves in the past few
years.

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Knack
I still fail to understand why Nokia doesn't get it done with Software. I
mean, look at Meego. Maybe I'm naive but I was really expecting more progress.
I thought they were set to go. All they need is development power. Get their
Meego core run on selected hardware. Do they put enough ressources there? Are
there politics with Intel going on? It is so important to get going. They
should know it and put $$ there. All we hear from Nokia is news about Symbian
being supported more, which is not really promotion in my opinion. Look at
RIM. Look what they do with their playbook and QNX. So much more progress than
Nokia. We need diversity and competition in the mobile market. Currently Apple
and Google squeeze the money out of our wallets. (And we need more Qt ;-))

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greyman
Not at all surprising to me. Nokia is mostly a hardware company, and they just
do not have a software house powerful enough to create mobile OS which could
compete with iOS or Android.

Nokia is a good company, especially in the area of dumbphones (still a pretty
big segment), but they are just not that good at making software - I tried in
the past to use their windows client ;-)).

Nokia hardware + WP7 seems like a good combo to me.

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Supermighty
Why wouldn't they choose Android over WP7. I would think Android would offer
them more control over the user experience and Nokia branding.

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bad_user
And then have users bitching about not being able to install a bare-bones
Android on it? :-)

I don't think going with Android is good. How could they offer anything more
compelling than HTC or Samsung or Motorola, which are small players compared
to Nokia?

I also think going with WM7 is suicide, but YMMV.

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nextparadigms
The phones would be very compelling if offered with stock Android, since no
one seems to do it outside of Google, anyway. Huge market potential there, but
too bad no one is willing to take advantage of it.

Imagine if Nokia became #1 provider of stock Android phones...most Android
fans would be swayed immediately.

Oh and of course they'd also need to be on the cutting edge of technology.
They don't seem to be doing that lately, except for the cameras.

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Supermighty
I feel that we are gradually going in the direction of stock android on
phones. Motorola has rolled back it's Motoblur to just blur, Samsung has been
catching a ton of heat for the lack of updates to old BeholdII phones and the
slow pace of updates for Galaxy S phones.

If the Nexus S is commercially successful (and I hope it is as I own one) then
I see more handset manufactures moving in that direction.

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chapel
Nothing against WP7 but I think if this were true, Nokia would be digging
themselves another hole. Well they may not fall because of WP7 but I just
don't see it giving them a chance to become a super start handset maker they
once were. If they chose to make Android phones, I would be interested in
purchasing one, since the quality of their phones is very high.

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blub
And what makes you think that Android would be better? Everyone's already
doing Android and the models are becoming very similar to each other.

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mseebach
Nokia has a lot of hardware-tricks up their sleeves. One thing they could do
to Android is to make the models stop being so similar to each other. I think,
for an example, that an E72 running Android could go a long way in luring away
BlackBerry users who are reluctant to give up a HW keyboard. There's currently
only one Android device in that space (Desire Z), and it's pretty expensive.

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blub
They could, except it seems that Motorola beat them to it. :) Hardware can't
be much of a differentiator - I am thoroughly unimpressed with the recent
avalanche of Android phones. They all look the same, with geeky differences
such as dual-core, 1MP larger camera, trackball.

All these things are exciting to Engadget and r/Android but are almost
irrelevant to consumers and confusing to boot. If I had to pick an Android
phone today, I would have no idea how to do it. So I stick to my current phone
and wait for real game-changers to appear.

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mseebach
I completely missed the Droid Pro, which does dilute my argument a bit.

But: your statement that all Android phones look the same would _support_ the
idea that hardware could be a differentiator. Nokia has a long history of
shipping many different kinds of hardware to many different customer segments.
Android devices seem to have some trouble breaking out of the high-end
segments where they are competing pretty directly with iPhone. The lower end
Android devices also feel cheap. A lower-end Nokia never felt cheap.

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rbanffy
It seems that by planting Elop on the CEO position at Nokia, Microsoft has
perfected the use of outplacement as an offensive weapon.

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partypoopin
The apparent source of this information is hardly a person that is considered
to be reliable. Eldar has a track record of false rumors for the purpose of
gaining more attention to himself.

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rbanffy
Since I won't buy a Nokia phone in the near future, I think I'll just sit and
wait.

Too bad. Their hardware has always been excellent.

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madmaze
This seems like a very odd move for Nokia. I was hoping MeeGo would become
there predominant platform. I guess anything is better than Symbian at this
point.

Maemo was/is nice, but it needs some more work to really work well in all
situations, looking forward to the n900 successor

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stuaxo
There goes Meego and then Nokia I guess.

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stuaxo
Ah just seems that it's an Op Ed ... so should be taken with a large box of
malden sea salt.

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ThomPete
And while we think it's a big deal to most normal people it's a non-event.

