Advantages to Nokia adopting Windows Phone 7

There have been a ton of negative comments from Nokia fanatics, me, enthusiasts or some general tech writers on the news and rumours that Nokia might announce a WIndows Phone 7 powered device to conquer the decreasing market share that Nokia is experiencing right now.

So thought I might post up some advantages to Nokia adopting WP7 because I think there are some and actually think its really nice OS.

Now I have played around with Windows Phone 7 devices so I know what to expect, so here it goes

• First off its amazingly pretty, some people have disputed that, by saying it looks like a dumbphone OS or whatever, the thing is its different to anything out there right know in terms of the UI. I really like the fact that the UI shows you want you need and not unnecessary things. The transitions and smoothness will surely impress any customer, especially current Nokia owners who are in a position to upgrade and are considering fleeing to another platform.
• XBOX integration is huge it still hasn’t taken off as I expected but then again Microsoft hasn’t done much in terms of advertising XBOX integration to consumers so we will have to give it a bit off time to see if it really takes off, its still better than the games Ovi store has, well almost they need Angry birds :-D.
• E-mail on Symbian is a JOKE !!!!! I don’t care what anyone thinks, UI is terrible it never syncs properly with my e-mail services even Ovi mail !!!, I don’t even use my N8 for e-mail anymore because it is so annoying and unreliable. Enter WP7, E-mail on it is amazing the snazzy transitions and the focused UI lets you do whatever you want to do straight away, in fact I think its the best E-mail client on any Mobile OS today.
• Music, I am a pretty huge music fan, so its an important area for me. Music on Nokia devices is average at best, iPhone rules on that front but Zune comes close second in my opinion. Again the Zune integration with the store and subscription is top notch, for years Nokia have tried that with Ovi music but it is hit and miss. The Ovi music store is not even an app , when you click on the icon, which is only a link BTW then you have to navigate through the weird UI which does make the buying process awkward.
• Apps. WP7 might not have as many apps as Apple has or Google or even the Ovi store, but the most important thing is, it has all the mainstream apps you would expect which is way more important. I don’t care if the Ovi store has 30.000 apps and is growing the fact is Ovi store has literally no mainstream apps. Where is starbucks, facebook for the american folks where is netflix streaming, pandora and very big one which I am pretty angry about is Amazon kindle it virtually on every platform except of Symbian, the worlds most used OS on the frackin planet !!!!!!!!!!!! not Mars. If scale doesn’t get you apps then there is surely something wrong with the OS or its perception I think I will go with the latter.
• Hardware wise the current WP7 device are a joke in fact I would as go as far as saying that Samsung, LG and HTC didn’t want to build any WP7 devices they just felt obliged and let their Industrial design interns handle those devices. The point is that Manufacturers are soo into Android right now because of the possibilities of differentiating the UI as a primary factor there. I have a crazy theory here, if Nokia released a WP7 device that is so good that it it becomes the best selling WP7 device (hard to imagine but hear me out) squeezes out Samsung, LG and HTC just like Nokia did with Symbian and will likely do with MeeGo if it ever comes out, Nokia could become the sole OEM, I mean lets face it the current OEM’s for Windows phone 7 aren’t making it a priority, Android is their priority right now and the foreseeable future, they might realise there is no point on continuing with WP7 if Nokia does become the dominant WP7 selling partner so to say and thus in turn could start dedicating where the OS could go if they become the biggest OEM making WP7 devices, now Microsoft might not let this happen but then again. Current OEM’s are so busy with Android that I don’t think that some of them might want to continue because it is not adding anything in terms of revenue as of now it might pick up and my theory sounds complete nonsense.
• Stephen Elop, probably the biggest reason why we are even talking about the possibility of a WP7 Nokia device, well as we all know he came from Microsoft so he knows them pretty well, he knows their strengths and weaknesses and he knows Nokia’s strength and weaknesses so something can definitely be done.
• Being in the USA is a pretty big thing now, it doesn’t seem to matter that Nokia is the worlds largest phone maker, The fact is the American tech writers influence is pretty huge. The number of devices that have been sold by the media and blogs such as Engadget, Gizmodo or even the general publications like Wall street journal, New york post have sold due articles to people must be huge. For last 3 years EVEY article  about Nokia that I have read in those big newspapers or blogs are all about shrinking market share, when are they going to switch OS’s and you get the idea. American networks HATE Symbian its a fact, it looks alien to them, two devices have been cancelled, the X7 and Nokia Neuron 2 it makes sense now. Pitching a Windows Phone 7 is soooooo much easier for Nokia to American networks, it might look like another WP7 device, but it is at least something they are familiar with.
• Adopting Windows Phone 7 will allows Nokia to fully concentrate to turn MeeGo into a ultimate OS. Because OS development is handled by Microsoft Nokia can concentrate on optimising Symbian for the low end and MeeGo for Superduper end. Nokia have always said that MeeGo devices will be device that are beyond smartphones, look at the N900 it doesn’t feel like a phone and not because it has limited portrait capabilities or because it looks like a brick but because of its raw power, I am still amazed on how cool device it still is,in some ways it makes my N8 look ancient. BTW I think Nokia will not abandon MeeGo there are way too many job postings plus they snapped up Peter Skillman from Palm to work on their own UI so all is not lost for MeeGo
• And finally people don’t buy Nokia devices because of the OS, they buy them for their reliability, their amazing cameras, good reception issues, what harm does it make adopting WP7 not much, if you are a normal customer though. If you are an enthusiasts probably a lot

I just thought it was important to highlight the benefits of adopting WP7. I actually like it, the problem is while it looks amazing for geeks we will get pretty boring after a day or two unfortunately, but Nokia’s typical customer is even more normal than a say a normal iPhone user, so I dont think that it will matter much.

My prediction

My prediction for tomorrow is  as much as I don’t want Elop to do is, he will announce a “strategic alliance” with Microsoft that will involve Wp7 devices and some boring service announcements which will lead to nothing.

Ultimately I think WP7 will cover the high end, while Symbian will be pushed down even lower, and MeeGo which clearly isn’t ready yet will cover my new buzz word superduper devices.

For MWC I dont think Nokia will announce the N9, but I but I do think that Nokia will show of a sort of finished version of the UI on video or something like that, because they have to, people are getting impatient when it comes to MeeGo, it is already being called the biggest joke of the tech industry if you listen to the biggest jokers of the tech industry by that I mean Analysts. Intel certainly have to they have no presence in the mobile market and they need Nokia as well because of the sheer size of Nokia and potential to reach a huge demographic, oh and ARM is killing them in that area.

What do you think ? Do you agree with my advantages of adopting WP7 or my predictions at MWC ? let us know 😀

Category: MeeGo, Nokia, OVI, Rant, Rumours, Samsung, Symbian