I know that fans of both these camps will say I am an idiot and this whole idea is stupid and won't lead to anything fruitful. They will say it is a desperate act of two long time smartphone companies trying to figure out some way to compete with Android and iOS. You might picture Microsoft and Nokia as two old retired super heroes huddled over in the corner with their wrinkled capes on trying to figure out how to best fight the bad guys while iOS and Android lead the group to victory. Well, I think those two old super heroes just put together their wonder twin powers and will join the Justice League when the first Nokia WP7 device launches.
As you may know I am the editor of the Nokia Experts website and write there as a venue to express my passion for Nokia products. I seriously considered giving up that site at the end of 2010 after attending Nokia World and not seeing much innovation or forward thinking coming out of Nokia. Symbian^3 fixes some UI issues in the Symbian OS, but as Stephen Elop even said it doesn't even come close to competing what we see in iOS and Android. It is very customizable and like other Nokia fans I tried to justify its existence beyond what it really deserves. I purchased an orange Nokia N8 and the hardware is fantastic with innovations in it not seen on any other device, but the UI is not competitive with the latest and greatest smartphones.
Windows Phone 7 is relatively new to the smartphone world and if you read in nearly every review on the Internet the author's generally love the operating system. It is fun, fast, stable, and unique. It is not perfect, but neither is any other smartphone operating system. Developers are actively rolling out applications at a rate exceeding 400 apps a week in the Marketplace so this OS is going places. The current hardware is a bit lame with HTC and Samsung basically just adding the OS to existing devices. As I just wrote, Dell has a great device in the Venue Pro, but earlier builds seemed to have issues.
Here is my breakdown of what each company brings to the partnership and why I am so excited:
If Nokia and Microsoft can combine all of these great things that each brings to the table, please explain to me how this can be a bad thing.
According to the press release, this is what the proposed partnership consists of:
So, as you can see there are some positive aspects of Symbian that will be adopted in Windows Phone 7, including the fantastic Ovi Maps capability. Nokia will also help with services, which is excellent because right now there is a fragmented Windows Phone 7 service experience that needs to be addressed to have a global impact with Windows Phone 7.
HTC and Samsung have shown that you can succeed with multiple platforms so I don't know why people think this kills off Nokia and other platforms they want to support. I also think this deal helps push HTC, Samsung, and others to step up the game for quality Windows Phone 7 devices.
Microsoft and Nokia just saved me lots of money as I no longer see any reason for me personally to buy an iOS, BlackBerry, webOS, or Android smartphone since a Nokia Windows Phone 7 device will meet and exceed all of my needs and desires. I will still test out these other platforms, but I can't see them offering anything this partnership platform won't. Apple and Google may not be nervous about this announcement, but HP and RIM might want to think hard about their future plans.