Nokia’s presence in Barcelona for MWC 2011 is subdued to say the least. Their Friday announcement regarding having Windows Phone software as their primary platform has ruffled up more than a few feathers. Today Nokia tried to shed some more light on the matter and FoneArena was there live to witness Stephen Elop put up a brave face in front of the media.
Steven Elop started his speech by talking about the options that Nokia had. This was basically the ‘build, join and catalyze talk which he presented at the Capital Markets Day event. The basic premise was that keeping Symbian for the mass market, pitching MeeGo and Windows Phone Software in the high end, Nokia would then be in a position to compete with the growing giant that Google’s Android is. The three horse race which Nokia implies is that it will have 3 platforms competing against one ie Android. Seems like a winning formula ? Not really but more on that later.
“Becoming a hardware manufacturer and paying royalties to Microsoft would be balanced by the opex” said Steve. What is important to note here is that unlike partnerships with HTC which specifically state that the operating system has to remain exactly the same as intended by Microsoft , Nokia has been given complete freedom to modify the OS as desired by them . In fact our discussions with Nokia team members after the event led us to believe that Microsoft is playing a very important and deep role in resurgence of Nokia with the new OS. Indeed, development started two months ago with Nokia’s hardware engineers and Microsoft’s software developers working on an extremely close level. The recently revealed concept images of a Nokia – Windows device are a result of this.
Not only is Nokia adopting the Windows Phone system but it is playing an active role in giving it the best that Nokia has to offer in terms of software as well.The excellent Ovi Maps navigation system is being ported to the Windows Phone eco system which will benefit all manufacturers of WP devices equally. Talks are also on to bring Ovi Store content to the Microsoft App Store. This greatly expanded eco-system adds another revenue stream for Nokia. Advertising as an additional revenue stream holds great value for Nokia keeping in mind the volume of devices pushed out by Nokia every day. Elop was quick to point out that this would add billions in value to Nokia.
Jo Harlow voiced her enthusiasm regarding the response that the leaked concept images had generated. In line with the now infamous “Elopacalypse” speech. Jo said that “We are making substantial short-term investments that will allow us to harvest the value the Symbian platform offers “. This means that Symbian is not going anywhere in the short term. In fact a slight glimpse of what the next generation Symbian could look like was shown in a brief slide.
Expect 1 Ghz + processor enabled Symbian devices in the future. Nokia is working on the hardware and will be bringing much faster Symbian devices with significantly increased graphics capabilities soon to the market. This statement led to Elop taking the stage again while paying emphasis on the fact that with 100million devices out there capable of running Qt apps, support for Qt has not changed. The reason that Qt is not a development choice for Windows Phone developers is because it would lead to confusion among the developers. The first MeeGo device from the Nokia stable would also be revealed sometime this year. The plans regarding that haven’t changed in fact Intel was consistently updated regarding the developments with Microsoft. Nokia believes that launching a MeeGo device is imperative because it brings with it a series of new and exciting technologies however it would not be the lead platform for Nokia. Windows Phone as an ecosystem offers much more to consumers and with Nokia’s hardware is poised to be competitive with Android and Apple’s iPhone. However this does not mean the end of the Ovi Store. The Ovi store coupled with Qt applications for the current Symbian phones and upcoming MeeGo devices will continue to co-exist with the Microsoft offering.
Our take on the Nokia – Windows event.
Nokia’s shift to the Windows Phone operating system shows their lack of decisiveness in the upper management. More than an year down the line from the announcement of the Intel – Nokia MeeGo partnership , we are still several months away from an actual device launch. In the middle of it comes a massive shift from the Symbian , MeeGo ecosystem bound by the Qt layer to Windows Phone as the lead platform and Symbian , MeeGo left hanging in between.
We agree that Windows Phone could be great for the company but will it ? And more so when ? Nokia is known to take several months to bring even the simplest handset to the market. We heard at the event that development started about 2 months back and the first prototype images just got leaked. This means that we cannot expect a launch any time before Christmas. When other companies are releasing phones with dual core processors and cameras capable of capturing 3D Full HD video , do you think Nokia has it in it to be able to differentiate itself from the lot ? Fire off in the comments below.