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Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

Summary: Ahead of the press event today, Nokia and Microsoft have announced a strategic alliance to build a new ecosystem - around Windows Phone.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

Ahead of the press event today, Nokia and Microsoft have announced a strategic alliance to build a new ecosystem - around Windows Phone.

Here's a condensed version of the deal. Nokia will supply the hardware to expand the current Windows Phone offering across more price points (in other words, cheaper), maps and operator billing agreements, while Microsoft brings Windows Phone and Bing to the table.

Nokia has not made any noises suggesting that it will adopt Android.

Nokia has also released a eltter to its developers, outlining the shift to Windows Phone.

As part of this, Nokia plans to adopt Windows Phone as our primary smartphone strategy, helping drive the future of the platform. This has not been a decision taken lightly by Nokia and we wanted to share some of the key points with our developer community.

Many developers aren't pleased with the move. Here's a small selection of comments:

"By this announcement, I'm afraid you've lost many faithful people (developer and consumers) like myself, who's been a Nokia user ever since I've started using cellphones.."

"Looks like Elop is right though, the man has jumped off of the burning platfform, but what he didn't mention is that the sea is cold and deep.. and the man can't swim, so now the man will sink.."

"A sad day for Nokia, hindsight will show how bad this decision really is."

"Today's announcement looks like a sabotage. And to be honest Elop looks like MS agent carrying out his mission :("

Some quick thoughts:

  • How fast will Nokia make this turnaround?
  • Why is Nokia so late jumping onto the Windows Phone platform? Why did it wait?
  • What will ahppen to Symbian?
  • Why no Android?
  • I don't see this ending well.

Press release:

London, Feb. 11, 2011 – Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.  Nokia and Microsoft intend to jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity.  As each company would focus on its core competencies, the partnership would create the opportunity for rapid time to market execution.  Additionally, Nokia and Microsoft plan to work together to integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets.   Under the proposed partnership: - Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader. - Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone.  Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies. - Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products. - Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities.  Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services. - Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services.   For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience - Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low. - Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.   - Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience. "Today, developers, operators and consumers want  compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great  experience,"  Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. "Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race." "I am excited about this partnership with Nokia," said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute."

Topics: Operating Systems, Banking, Microsoft, Mobility, Nokia, Software, Windows

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16 comments
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  • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

    Why doesn't MSFT just buy Nokia?
    tatiGmail
    Reply Vote

    • The need to save Balmers.. b....t

      This guarantees this. Is it a smart move? time will tell. Though using Palm's OS from HP, dabble with Android a little to have a backup plan would have been a smarter move, as porting all Android apps would have been easy.<br><br>Nokia makes great products (better than Samsung). They have excellent quality management and the best battery life. So from this stand point, they are looking good.<br><br>The problem here is two fold:<br><br>1) MS 15 dollar toll on every phone will mean that Nokia will be unable to compete with Android for what is now know as feature phones, making them too expensive. Most feature phones cost 20-50 dollars, taking 15 dollars out of this for MS will leave for something most wont want and no profit at all. To small of a margin for a good product.<br><br>2) Windows 7 - it did not show to have the backbone to stand a chance against Android and IOs. This give's it a market share, but turning things around will take 3-6 months, and that's an eternity in this environment. The jury is out on this one.<br><br>Will Nokia keep on losing market share, yes it wont be able to stop the bleeding.<br><br>If Nokia and MS can overcome my second point, they may stand a chance. If Nokia keeps on losing market share because Win 7 can't compete. Then they are in deep trouble, this course correction will hurt it enormously. <br><br>LG got burnt with Win 7 phones and it lost a ton of market share, but at least they were smart enough to make Android phones as well, so they are still relevant. Nokia is just squandering its market share.<br><br>This move is only good for Microsoft and Steve Balmer, whew!! that was close.
      Uralbas
      Reply Vote

  • Why dont you see it ending well?

    You take the company who sells the most phones by far and you put your fresh new OS on them...whats not to like?
    timotim
    Reply Vote

    • Yeah, everybody makes Android phones

      @timotim If Nokia makes a nice looking device, and MS keeps improving the software, they have a real chance here.
      otaddy
      Reply Vote

    • Not fresh

      WP7 is Microsoft 7th attempt at this, and the sales suggest it isn't liked by buyers. Too much better competition out there.

      NYSE:NOK down 8.73% in pretrading, yep that's what I think. Elop let his MSFT history cloud his judgement.
      guihombre
      Reply Vote

      • But their previous smartphones were good at the time

        @guihombre Way back, MS smartphones were decent...of course that was before iPhone upped the bar.

        Have you used a WP7 device? If so, you have to admit that MS has raised the bar with its UI design. Of course, they need to move faster to update and improve the platform and convince customers that this will be a premium product. They havent done so yet.
        otaddy
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

        @guihombre The sales might also suggest that the hardware WP7 is on is somewhat ho-hum. Lately I wanted an N8, but to me Symbian felt like a too-old, dead-end OS. Not that I'm a WP7 cheerleader, but I do feel it narrows the gap between Nokia and the competition. I'll definitely keep an eye out for what they announce. Nokia makes some *great* hardware, so this might be enough to sell me.
        bmgoodman
        Reply Vote

  • I guess the Internets

    Will be a ****storm of haters today. <br><br>I fail to see why WP7 is so hated. Yes, it's an uphill battle, but this now means Microsoft has to be on their toes with the platform, and <B>AGRESSIVELY</B>, go after Apple and Google.<br><br>WP7 is a beauty once you really sit down with it.
    The one and only, Cylon Centurion
    Reply Vote

    • That's one opinion......

      @Cylon Centurion 0005
      My fiance and I went to look at phones, to replace hers. Neither one of us liked any of the Windows phones. And from the response of the other shoppers, most of them didn't either.

      The Blackberrys and the Android phones were getting all the attention, with my fiance upgrading to a newer Blackberry. Next month my gets replaced and I will be deciding between an Android or Blackberry myself.

      If the reaction of the shoppers in the store, is any indication, Windows phones are already dead.
      linux for me
      Reply Vote

      • Rofl you can't be taken seriously

        Specially when you state you consider a doodleberry for a smartphone. Just shows a lot right there!
        Uralbas
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

      @Cylon Centurion 0005
      WP7 is hated because Microsoft is pathologically hated by a lot. And those haters represent a very vocal minority. Moreover, WP7 is not really helped by OEM partner much more focused on producing better Android devices than WP7 devices.
      Hopefully Nokia will design devices which will enable WP7 to show off. Especially as expect to help Microsoft significantly improving WP7 in some key directions.
      timiteh
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

    Great partnership in the making. If we can get more OEMs to use WP7 that would be great.
    Loverock Davidson
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

    Sooner or later HTML5 or its successor may make all mobile operating systems irrelevant and native applications obsolete.

    http://inlevel.com/search
    inlevel
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

      @inlevel
      Perhaps that html6 will achieve such a feat but i very doubt that html5 can.
      Btw, it is not sufficient to have html5 providing features which enable web apps to almost compete with native apps.
      Fast and reliable web connections need to be widespread worldwide too.
      And last but not the least operating systems and native apps will not stand still.
      timiteh
      Reply Vote

  • A one-way suicide pact? Maybe YES, maybe NO...

    At first glance, this looks exactly like the death of Palm:<br><br>(1) Create a "new platform" to replace one which is manifestly inadequate to support a viable for high-end and mid-range smartphones. (BTW, Palm did this positive step WAY BETTER than Nokia did.)<br><br>(2) Provide absolutely no migration tools to authors of sophisticated Apps.<br><br>(3) And even more important, provide no capability to run *OLD*, un-migrated Apps within phones running the new OS.<br><br>(4) Maintain both product teams for years and years, and let each spend a lot of time and effort making "the other guys" look bad in corporate infighting.<br><br>(5) continue to release products under the old OS. (e.g. Palm Centro; and vast numbers of Nokia phone models).<br><br>And the final killer:<br>(6) Destroy them both by announcing a "strategic alliance" with Microsoft, and turning your two-teamed corporate fight into a 3-teamed "everyone in the cage with your weapons, NO RULES" fiasco.<br>- - - - -<br>But we can't really tell. If Nokia is truly made "more strategic" than other, existing "Strategic partners" such as HTC (i.e., if Microsoft absolutely burns their bridges with everyone else), then it works. But if HTC is given access to Ovi maps and other location-aware resources, then Nokia is dead. They won't have any unique features, it becomes a battleground of hardware -- and even if HTC sells lots of hardware with "issues", future competitors from the Mainland will be capable of creating and selling good hardware- at a price Nokia can't match. And within that competition, Nokia remains hobbled with the effort of supporting not just one, but TWO "legacy, non-strategic" software houses.<br><br>Under those circumstances, Nokia is likely to go the way of Compaq. That was also a "lion of the industry", widely considered to be so dominant that it's death was inconceivable.
    Rick S._z
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership

    dear Americans microsoft products are respected more by foriegnors than Americans. Nokia is big overseas and is sells a lot of phones out side America. what microsoft must do is quickly is to add miltitasking and flash video support and a few other features to the Windows phone 7 OS and Nokia will sell lots and lots of phones on a<br>international level where their phones are popular.
    gregnewm7
    Reply Vote
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