Nokia and Microsoft Announce Strategic Partnership
by Mithun Chandrasekhar on February 11, 2011 11:28 AM EST- Posted in
- Nokia
- MeeGo
- Microsoft
- Smartphones
- windows phone 7
- symbian
- Mobile
Today Nokia and Microsoft have announced a partnership that will collectively leverage Microsoft and Nokia's strengths and resources. Although the fruit of this long-term partnership will primarily affect Windows Phone 7 and Nokia's smartphone line-up, other areas of either companies business' will also be getting some of the good stuff.
The partnership primarily aims to leverage Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform and eco-system along with Nokia's hardware expertise and market/carrier reach around the world to build a new line-up of Nokia branded smartphones running Microsoft's mobile OS. But things aren't as cut and dry. Although the software driving these devices will be WP7, Nokia will be integrating some of its own software components into the platform. Primarily, this will be the excellent 'Maps' application, which moving forward, Microsoft will also be using in its own Bing eco-system.
Although Nokia insists that Symbian and Meego will not die, it is quite clear that Symbian will eventually be put to rest and whatever core Symbian IP Nokia has, could be absorbed into the Windows Phone codebase. Meego on the other hand will continue to live the existence as Nokia's 'expirmental platform' of choice, with a Meego device expected sometime this year. Nokia has also mentioned that it's 'Qt' framework will not be coming to WP7.
Clearly, the mobile devices market in 2011 is going to be much more interesting (and potentially beneficial) for the consumer. Apple and Google will seriously have to re-think their stratergies now that they have three very strong and able competitors in HP's excellent webOS, RIM's promising QNX and now Nokia-Microsoft's extensive partnership.
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saf227 - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
I haven't bought a Nokia phone in a looooong time - and it looks like I'm still not going to be. The less Windows is in my life, the better.Taft12 - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
No offense to you Mithun as you've turned out some good content on this site so far such as the WebOS 2.0 review, but I question the value of a 4-paragraph news blurb on Anandtech's front page. You have a sister site (Dailytech) that is a better venue for an article like this, and in fact this is kind of a "dupe post" since there's a news article there on this same subject with even more meat than thisAnandtech is known for high-quality in-depth reviews, and this is not one of them. Am I alone in this opinion?
bplewis24 - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
I agree that I come to Anandtech for analysis and reviews, but I do recall an announcement (in 2010) that they would be incorporating more "news"-style reporting into their website going forward.I really don't have a problem with it, but I'd prefer it act as a placeholder to a more in-depth analysis/review of the news item rather than a stand-alone report. Even still, we can always overlook it using their filters :)
Brandon
mythun.chandra - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
Taft12, I hear you loud and clear! :)Whenever possible, at AT we try our level best to do a technical analysis of any announcement made. This is why in case of the iPhone on Verizon, Honeycomb and HP webOS announcements, we followed the quick blurb with a detailed analysis of the days events. However, unfortunately, no one from AT could be present for the Nokia-Microsoft announcement. And since it is in fact a very important announcement, with the possibility of changing the mobile landscape in the near-future, we thought it would be a good idea to inform our readers of this event and what it meant.
Thanks :)
synaesthetic - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
I don't get Nokia. It's like they're bound and determined to cut their own throats.We get it. Symbian is outdated, but you know, that's fine. It runs great on slower hardware, so relegate it to the mid-range and entry-level smartphones.
WHERE THE HELL IS MEEGO, NOKIA?
WHERE'S THE N9?!
You screwed up your only chance for salvation! With MeeGo and Myriad's Alien Dalvik letting it run Android apps, we could have had something amazing going on here.
But... really?
Windows Phone 7?
... really?
I guess we'll never see a true hacker's-dream-superphone, if they're going to forget the N9 and MeeGo.
PubFiction - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
Look honestly at the market any player that is trying to be a sole software and hardware defender is running into issues retaining market share, apple will be next. Apple already sees the writing on the wall that is why they opened up to verizon and why rumors are spreading they will intruduce a budget iPhone. History is repeating itself. This is the best thing nokia can do focus on putting out high end hardware and let M$ focus on the OS. Nokia has tried for years now to make symbian relevant and the mass market just has not cared. M$ badly needed a big partner to go with them exclusively no one else was willing to commit. Now google has motorola whom used to be the 2nd biggest phone maker so it makes sense that Nokia and M$ would really want this to go through. Nokia needs to compete with motorola and other phone producers and M$ needs an exclusive hardware vender to offset android.Stop thinking about what might be right or what might be awesome Nokia cannot be an amazing hardware and software vender. Even apple cannot do that all of their hardware is basically designed by foxconn. At the heart nokia makes hardware and they need to stick with that or they will be in trouble.
FunBunny2 - Saturday, February 12, 2011 - link
They hired a M$ refugee as CEO. What else would you expect? I wouldn't be at all surprised if Elop didn't demand this before taking the post.Anato - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
This is bad, Nokia and Finland will let all of its OS talent and skills to go away and demolish structures supporting it. Nokia don't have any competition advantages of own platform.Then Nokia will lock itself to .NET, SilverSomeThing and XNA. They should have kept backdoor open by making MeeGo and using Qt. This would have helped in negotiations with MS and keeping some own talent.
Personally this is close to treason. Tho Nokia was in bad position but I have hard times to believe this was the best in long run.
But now the decisions are made and need to make best out of them.
LostPassword - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
Merging is still on. Just wont be flagship anymore. They still got a deal with Intel after allLostPassword - Friday, February 11, 2011 - link
Meant meego. Damn auto correct