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Smartphones and Cell Phones

Matthew Miller
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Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?

By | December 19, 2010, 11:00pm PST

Summary: Wild rumors run rampant in the smartphone world all the time and the latest speculation is that Nokia is actually talking with Microsoft about Windows Phone 7 hardware.

There are always crazy stories online about the who is making what and even though most of these are wild unsubstantiated rumors it is something to discuss when news is slow. I just read on UnwiredView.com about the latest Eldar Murtazin newsletter that stated he has information that Nokia is in talks with Microsoft about making Windows Phone 7 devices and not just about expanding their Microsoft software offerings. You may recall that Nokia and Mr. Murtazin had an issue with a missing Nokia N8 a few months back and are not on the best of terms so I take this story as more of a checkout tabloid story than anything else, but like those crazy stories it is fun to speculate at times.

I am personally a fan of the new Windows Phone 7 operating system, I have always been a Windows Mobile fan, and also enjoy using Nokia devices. WP7 is obviously a much more modern and exciting operating system than the current Symbian OS found on devices like the Nokia N8, but Nokia is working hard on future versions of Symbian and their MeeGo OS with Intel so I highly doubt they are going to throw in the towel and adopt a Microsoft OS that is in its infancy and has a long way to go. If they were going to adopt another OS, it would make more sense to go with Android that is far more advanced and selling at a much faster pace than anything else at the moment.

We have no sales numbers for Windows Phone 7 so we cannot yet state how it is doing, but I know I personally settled for the HD7 hardware. The HD7 is fine, but the screen technology is older, the specs are just the minimum required by Microsoft, the camera is lame, and the device is nothing innovative as it is just the HD2 updated with the new OS. Nokia makes fantastic hardware and I would love to see them making Windows Phone 7 devices myself. However, I am not sure this would really increase sales of WP7 or Nokia devices. Those who use Nokia devices generally like the familiarity and functionality of Symbian so a device running WP7 may turn them off.

Would you like to see a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device? Do you think there is any possibility that these discussions are actually taking place?

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Topics

Device, Nokia Corp., Operating System, Microsoft Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Windows Phone, WP7, HD7, Microsoft Windows, Sales Strategy, Operating Systems, Software, Sales, Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 125 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes an HTC Radar 4G, Dell Venue Pro, Apple iPad 2, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N9, Apple iPhone 4S, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
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For the US market this may work...
Sleeper Service 19th Dec 2010
I don't think WP7 has enough traction in Europe and Asia for this to work over here but considering Symbian has no traction in the US at all this may be an idea, at least as an experiment.
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Why would Nokia adopt WP7, which is a sales disaster?
gjafg 20th Dec 2010
Windows Phone 7 is the greatest sales disaster in mobile history.

While Microsoft refuses to let anyone see its sales data, we know there have been few sales. Few WP7 Facebook users. MobilesPlease in the UK said the N8 is outselling Windows Phone 7. In Australia, Telstra network said sales were low. Most WP7 apps have received less than 10 downloads. It's a total flop.

Nokia is not going to touch Windows Phone 7 with a barge poll.
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
UseYourHead 20th Dec 2010
@gyepera Could you please offer some links to back up your statements. Or you would lose your credit for posting FUD here.
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
illegaloperation 20th Dec 2010
@gyepera
The same troll again
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QT is Nokia's winner
guihombre 19th Dec 2010
Try QT Designer, it's beautiful, elegant, rich. I'm not just talking 'multithreading' rich, I'm talking about a full set of tools and libraries covering all areas in a well designed framework (e.g. slots and signals are a great idea).

So I don't see what Microsoft brings to the party there. Market share?.. are you kidding?
A powerful platform? Hardly!
An integrated development environment? No VC++ is a slow jack of all trades mess now.
Cross platform experience?.... HA HA HA.
Shouty fanbois on Zdnet?... Apple's & Google fanbois wipe the floor with them.

What Nokia need to do, is to identify the people that hold it back and sack them. Hire talent that delivers and empower them to make new products and just keep moving forwards steadily.

It's needs to do what Apple did when Jobs arrived. Eliminate the corporate bullshitters and empower the talent.
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
gubatron Updated - 20th Dec 2010
@guihombre what they need to do is adopt android. Android is linux, I'm sure they could make QT work on it and give android developers an alternative for native development.

Nokia is missing the Android boat and it's gonna cost them a lot, by the time they're done with what they're doing Android will already be nearing a 4.0 release, with a lot of manufacturers, phones, and an army of developers behind it.

Oh, and i've done plenty of Cross-OS Qt development and lately a lot of non-trivial Android development, so I'm not a fanboy talking nonsense.
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
pauldavidgilligan 20th Dec 2010
So we admit that Nokia has failed with modern mobile devices? They simply lost the plot despite wasting billions of dollars on trendy software development (ovi) and releasing crap mobile device after crap mobile device. As the development manager said to me once, I am not interested in f***king quality.
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
RonanSail 20th Dec 2010
would be a good move for MS - the more hardware they can get Wp7 on the better

for Nokia - they should do what HTC, Samsung etc do - make devices for every OS going and let the market decide - so android, WP7 and maybe even symbian
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Well this could be interesting
timiteh 20th Dec 2010
Nokia clearly need an appealing O.S asap and even if Symbian is powerful, Nokia seems to have a hard time to release a powerful enough U.I for this O.S.
Meego is rumored to be quite sophisticated but as it is taking quite a long time to be ready, it could be interesting for Nokia to consider either Android or WP7.
Android is mature enough but there are simply too many Android devices available and upcoming.
Morever Nokia would need to develop a customized U.I as Android default U.I is quite boring and if Nokia was strong with U.I development, Symbian would already have a very powerful U.I by now.
On the other hand WP7 is quite a young O.S with a bit too many limitations so it is perhaps not interesting enough for Nokia whom smartphones don't have these limitations.
So i don't think that even if Nokia is interested by WP7, this O.S will become mature enough before Meego is ready. And Meego will be ready, Nokia shouldn't need either WP7 or Android.
So all in all, i don't think that Nokia will release either Android or WP7 devices in a close future.
However, nothing prevent Microsoft and Nokia to co-develop at least one WP7 device that Microsoft could use as a showcase for a significantly updated version of the WP7,a bit like Google did twice with the Nexus series.
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
gubatron 20th Dec 2010
@timiteh Nokia should not go all in with Android, all they gotta do is release one device and see how the market reacts. I'm sure after they see how it flies off the shelves they'll think about going all in on the next round.
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Agree with author about HD7...
empirestatebuddy 20th Dec 2010
I agree with Mr. Miller about the HD7. I kinda wish I would've bought the Samsung Focus instead. I do love WP7 though. I just can't figure out why Microsoft isn't showing what this phone can do in the commercials. They keep showcasing the hardware... but the hardware isn't what sets WP7 apart. It's the software.
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Qt on WP7?
gilee 20th Dec 2010
This will work only if Microsoft allows Qt apps on WP7.
It is technically possible. Qt already runs on WinMo6 devices. It might even be beneficial for WP7 adoption at least in the short term because it adds tons of apps.
For Nokia, they got to keep the Qt developer base.
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I think that this ends in tears for Nokia.
Theseus 20th Dec 2010
Giving up their OS to Microsoft? At least with Android, they would be able to differentiate with a custom UI and skin. Microsoft doesn't allow a manufacturer custom skin for WP7. They would truly be a phone 'box mover' with Microsoft making most of the profit from the software and app sales.

If this is true, it's not the best idea/strategy that I've heard.

Although the WP7 UI is nice, I'm not a big fan of the locked down aspect of the OS (no microsd expansion, currently limited to only 8gb of storage, only able to sync with the Zune software, no mass storage mode possible).
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
sergeyt22 Updated - 12th Feb 2011
WM was a popular platform and ahead of its time just few years ago. The same is about Nokia -few years ago it was extremely popular. Both brands are strong. Up to me I would like to have Nokia Windows Phone 7. I believe in Nokia superior hardware and i just don't want to be iPhone/Andoid crowd. I don't need million of software titles which are mostly underdeveloped and don't attract any attention for more than few minutes. This ecosystem BS doesn't mean anything. If some smart thing is invented like Angry Birds it will be available everywhere.
0 Votes
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RE: Would a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device improves sales for either company?
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
Hey what a extraordinary publish We have run into and think me I've been discovering out for this equal type of publish for previously for each week and barely learned this. Thanks an awesome offer and will hunt for a great deal more postings from reebok jersey you.

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