So we’ve heard what Nokia’s Stephen Elop and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer have to say, but we’ve cut through the business jargon, to look at how this partnership will pan out. Who’s doing what, and what’s getting canned? Click through to find out everything you need to know about the Nokia Windows Phone partnership.
So, a quick word on the basics: Windows Phone 7, as Elop repeatedly said, is going to be Nokia’s “primary smartphone strategy”. That means that the focus of Nokia’s efforts will be in smartphones running Windows Phone 7. Symbian will take second place to this, although how far back in the cupboard it’ll be pushed has yet to be seen.
Why not Android?
Stephen Elop, Nokia top bod, said that Nokia assessed three options when making this decision. MeeGo, Android, odr Windows Phone 7. MeeGo and Symbian were rejected because Nokia decided it could not expand rapidly enough, or create the new ecosystem that success in MeeGo would demand.
On the subject of Google, Elop said: “We explored the opportunity with the Google ecosystem. We would have had difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem, and so Microsoft represented the best opportunity to build and lead and fight through with a new ecosystem.”
A big factor in the Nokia Microsoft deal is access to markets for both parties. Nokia has always struggled in North America, which is where Microsoft can step in, and Microsoft wants to make a bigger dent in Europe, and Nokia is the perfect partner to do that with.
Who will do what?
Roughly speaking, Nokia will be focusing on the hardware side of the deal, and Windows Phone 7 will be taking on software responsibility. Within this though, there’s a lot of areas where the two will be benefiting from one another, so Nokia will be using its mapping and navigation smarts, for example.
What will happen to the Ovi Store?
There were some definite avoidance tactics at play when it came to questions about the fate of the Ovi Store. There’s been no hard and fast answer on what will happen to Nokia’s existing app store, but Elop said: “The thing that’s known as Ovi Portal today will be an important contribution to the [new] eco system….at the same time we will avail ourselves of Microsoft Services…our capabilities and services will be part of a shared environment.”
What it means in practice to say that the Ovi Store will be part of a shared environment with Windows Phone 7 isn’t clear. It could be left with few developers and no development, leaving it in a sort of accessible state of cryogenics, or some areas of it could be integrated, alhtough we can’t imagine how that would happen, and why.
When will we see a Nokia Windows Phone 7?
Nokia says the first Windows Phone 7 devices are in the offing already: Elop said Nokia was working “faster through this partnership than we’ve ever done before”. Ballmer said engineers were working together right now. However, there’s also no specific date, although Ballmer said we can expect to hear more in the coming weeks and months.
What happens to Symbian and MeeGo?
Nokia is still expecting to shift 150m more Symbian devices, but as for MeeGo, it doesn’t look good. Elop said that Nokia will be shipping the first MeeGo device this year (presumably the Nokia N9), although it sounds like it will be the last. Elop described it as “an opportunity to learn”, about user experiences and about future platforms. After the first device, the teams working on MeeGo will be shifted into looking at “future devices and future platforms”.
What else do you want to know about the Nokia Windows Phone 7 team up? Shout out in the comments!
