WTF Nokia? (Update)

I usually don’t consider myself to be reactionary, that is respond adversely and quickly when logic would dictate otherwise. Equally I’d consider myself a decently pragmatic, reserved and generally rational individual, often overly so. In spite of this I think many of you will understand if on the back of Nokia’s recent announcement of a strategic partnership with Microsoft, I can only respond by saying WTF Nokia?!?

The company that pretty much pioneered the mass-market smartphone, the company that brought to the world features in devices like the N95 that devices today still struggle to match, the company that brought us Maemo and some of the finest mobile hardware known to man. Nokia, not a company originating out of the high-tech east or from the fast-paced life of Silicon Valley but a humble company that used to make TIRES. A company that at some point dominated the smartphone industry with marketshare exceeding 50%. A company that still makes over 1 Billion dollars in profit a quarter and sells near half a billion devices a year, A YEAR, a company sitting on Billions of dollars of cash, a company with one of the strongest mobile-related patent families known to man with the most comparable company being Qualcomm, a company that in recent years has spent BILLIONS of dollars firming up its own offerings with Navteq and Trolltech acquisitions and poured literally man-decades into these ventures, throwing it all away?

This decision was either taken too easily on the part of Elop or things are a LOT worse behind closed doors than have been made out.

In any case, I may not blog again for quite some time as I collect and try to better understand more details of this “partnership”. One this is for certain, I almost certainly won’t be buying a Nokia as my next device and I’m sure quite a few of you reading this may feel the same way.

R.I.P.  Qt, Maemo, MeeGo and most of all Symbian

Update: Click link at risk of ruining your day

Got a little background information on prior “strategic alliances” made by Microsoft and other mobile-focused companies. The content is depressing in and of itself but I figured I’d publicize the link. Thanks Horace for your wonderful analysis.

Excerpt below and the rest at the link provided

• LG. In February 2009 Microsoft Corp. signed a multiyear agreement for Windows Mobile to be included on devices from LG Electronics Inc. LG would use Windows Mobile as its “primary platform” for smartphones and produce about 50 models running the software.

What happened? LG made a few Windows Mobile devices but with WinMo uncompetitive, they abandoned the platform and moved to Android losing years of market presence and all their profits.

http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/11/in-memoriam-microsofts-previous-strategic-mobile-partners/

Tags: Microsoft, Nokia

Category: Nokia, Windows Phone