Could/Should Nokia abandon Windows Phone and get back to MeeGo?
Ville Aho wrote a blog post with an intruiging title I’ve seen more as a demand than a question in our comments,
Could Nokia abandon Windows Phone and go back to MeeGo?
http://www.villeaho.com/2011/07/29/could-nokia-abandon-windows-phone-and-go-back-to-meego/
Essentially – Should Nokia Do it? Why should they do it? Can they do it even if they wanted to?
Some questions the post asks:
- Why did Nokia abandon MeeGo?
- Is overall experience provided by N9 (Software, services, as well as hardware?)
- How important is an ecosystem. (Randall Arnold, Ex Nokian who writes on the MeeGo blog has his views on importance of ecosystems - http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/a-tech-ecosystem-for-the-rest-of-us/)
“Remember that the new strategy has three pillars: smartphones, next billion and future disruptions. Therefore instead of viewing the N9 as the last MeeGo product in the smartphone’s category you should rather think of it as the first product in the future distruption’s category. “
Though not mentioned, could Symbian still be a part of the contingency plan?
Of course, as a Nokia fan, I’m ever hopeful the three pillar strategy with Windows Phone will work. I agree with Ville’s comments that to Nokia, the sales of current WP is irrelevant – it doesn’t exist to them and they’ll be the ones restarting it – with their best effort on WP and not an afterthought (as such we have seen much more effort from manufacturers to produce new updated hardware – e.g. SGSII hardware from Sammy- would they have stepped in without Nokia?)
Looking at the bright side, there’s good progress with Windows Phone Mango. Whilst symbian powerfans used to multitude of features and customizability might have to wait until Tango or Apollo (and thus WP is not for them) it IS a good OS for new smartphone users looking for a great experience out of the box. It is a good addition to Nokia’s portfolio of offerings.
The concern of some readers are – whilst WP might be good, what can Nokia offer over other manufacturers? Great design? Great Build? Core mapping features? (though maps goes to all WP, Nokia handsets must definitely be having some extra) Great Cameras? Great Reception? Great screens? Concentrated effort? (Note – the current belief right now amongst the WP whispers is that Nokia’s leading WP might not appear until next year – the one with the Nokia stamp as that’s the one they’d have time to develop – the real fruits of the MS-Nokia partnership. The ones coming in October would be more mid-high. Not ideal, but it might be the best that could be pulled given the time of WP adoption.
Oh BTW, here’s another great read from Randall. How it’s not all completely over for Nokia, despite many already drafting their funeral speeches for the giant at Espoo.
http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/the-nokia-phoenix/
Category: MeeGo, Nokia, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Thanks for the mention Jay! I’m trying to be optimistic still…
Ah yes, as all Nokia fans have been of late. We always seem to be the hoping underdog.
Excellent blog posts btw. Just two of tons picked for this post.
They can’t take the U turn to MeeGo because Elop has already said that – “with Microsoft we have not tied in M’s it about B’s” this means the deal between the Microsoft and Nokia is Bringing Billions not just millions to Nokia but they still the thing that can be done is to extend the ecosystem with their and now our beloved MeeGo i think if they extend this ecosystem they will be on the top floor of BURJ KHALIFA.
I have read the four newspapers when MeeGo name appeared they all said this operating system is better than any mobile OS and can disrupt the market for all other os in competition with it(Times of India)is one of them.
What about the 20 billion lost in the stock market? Also don’t forget the revenues lost on smartphone sales.
Nokia executives are way too stupid or don’t give a f&@$ for Nokia. Also notice the great talents at Nokia giving us meego and Qt. The Ms deal brings life to the “third”ecosystem but death and destruction at Espoo.
As long the tiles is there.. wp SUCKS
@temeone: are you goin to masturbate if the tiles are not going to be there.
No but when i get my N9 i will sleep tight with her
simple answer,YESSSSS!! Nokia should abandon WinPho for Meego.
Today i went to Nokia to check when n9 will b available in my country (Malaysia). According to them, it will b available on Sept but he refuses to give specific date.
Then he ask me to leave my ctc no so once it available,he will call me. They already start taking booking n I already paid for deposit.hehe..
I cant wait to hold n9, really cant wait.
oh! damn cool man……..
It’s too late to make U-turn, but I hope Nokia continues to support MeeGo.
If I was Nokia, I would make one highend MeeGo once a year and concentrate on the pure aesthetics of the device and software (UI) each time. Not too much emphasis on the ecosystem, just put everything on the design and make people drool for it.
I agree. Possibly as Ville wrote, it’s too late to back out now. Not that it would be a bad thing to continue. Just also put support to MeeGo, just to make one high end MeeGo per year – the MeeGo community, as shown by Maemo community, will support it.
+1.
Really Jay? Nokia is putting out a MeeGo device, and Meego fans are bitching about it – If Stephen Elop had tabled the N9 efforts, THAT is abandonment; and people would bitch about it. Nokia keeps their promise, and sets the N9 for release, and guess what? People are bitching about it – i.e. ‘why only one device’, ‘why isn’t it released in my country’, etc. – just incessant bitching. And releasing one Meego device a year is not going to stop the ‘bitching’.
with regards to Meego, Nokia is damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
Same with iphone, just one device per yer, some people even asking for iphone with keyboard, or iphone mini, however the one phone per year where all you latest developments culminate is by far a success.. Maybe some people are just used to Nokia releasing a lot of phones at once, but the once a year for high end is not so bad.. That “why is it not released in my country” is not bitching, it’s a legitimate complaint by consumers who do not want to import their phones from outside their country, or want carrier subsidies from their own country’s telecom companies…
It’s better be late, than to bee completely out of options. But Nokia’s management brains are now clouded with quick MS money. That, until they’ll become more sober
Well they already started eating into that quick money. From http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/21/nokia-reports-loss
“Overall the company made a loss of €368m ($515m) despite receiving a one-off payment of €430m ($600) from Apple to settle a long-running patent dispute. “
Agree..Keep Windows, but please make at least one decent high end Meego per year..
Why is it too late? Nokia hasn’t even announced a nokia/wp7 phone and somehow it is already too late to go back to meego/maemo/symbian? If anything they should hurry to do a u turn and try to reclaim their customer base.
Disagree about Symbian.
It was the main reason harmattan fell so woefully behind.
Because of internal bickering, long boring/detailed story.
Symbian was deprecated by Nokia themselves many yrs ago.
But they just couldn’t wean themselves off it.
It is well & truly time to let it go.
WP mid-to-lower-mid.
MeeGo top-end
S40 feature-phones
Keep the current plan (or similar) for Symbian
…..
it’s too late to make a U turn but isn’t too late for supporting meego, have the capabilities for beat iOS and Android, they have to support that beauty and powerful OS!
Nokia doesn’t need to fully support meego but just do their best not to destroy it. Meego has the potential to succeed easily. Now it’s unto Nokia not to kill it.
Anyway isn’t there a contract that links Nokia and Microsoft for X years? With this, it is impossible to make a U-turn.
To me it just comes down to functionality and features. If Nokia can not bring all of that to WP then I won’t buy a WP device. It’s as simple as that.
If Nokia WP devices won’t have at least a comparable cam with xenon flash on WP as they did with the N8, won’t make SIP/VOIP calls available on WP, won’t make watching divx(.avi & .mkv) videos available with support for subtitles, won’t make a HDMI connenctor, won’t make USB-om-the-go support… then I won’t buy a Nokia WP device.
But if it will have all this.. then I will consider about buying one.
At the end it will all come down to functionality again.
We don’t want a half device.. we want it fully working
It would be nice if they could but the problem, is they are not making enough money to be able to subsedise something as high risk as MeeGo plus Nokia is in a way are already quite behind the competition already. Dont get me wrong Wp7 is also high risk but at least you have microsoft also pushing it. Symbian has no chance to come back the tech media have tainted it to death. Changing strategy atbthis stage of th game could be fatal I think. What nokia needs is a clear stratrgy, mixed messages will only kill nokia
“Symbian has no chance to come back the tech media have tainted it to death”
Stephen Elop did far more damage, IMO.
Nope you are wrong Symbian was tainted by the media way before that Elop just gave it the last tiny bit
Oh really? That graph disagree couldn’t disagree with you more : http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/images/news/smartphoneshipmentsq211.jpg
Actually that graph told you that Symbian sales started tailing off during Q3 2010 and Q4 2010. The same time Android devices started becoming cheaper than Nokia devices.
You can blame Elop all you want but I will whole heartedly disagree with you. Yes 11 Feb had a part to play but not as much as you want it to believe.
“Actually that graph told you that Symbian sales started tailing off during Q3 2010 and Q4 2010. The same time Android devices started becoming cheaper than Nokia devices. ”
Look again. The sales tailed off in Q1 2011 (they were still better than Q1 2010 so YoY growth in Q2 2011). In Q2 2011, they suffered around 30% drop QoQ and YoY. A total collapse.
“You can blame Elop all you want but I will whole heartedly disagree with you.”
Even if the facts disagree with you?
“Yes 11 Feb had a part to play but not as much as you want it to believe.”
In Q1 2011, the handset division posted $1bn profit and in Q2 2011, they posted a $700m loss. It’s just a coincidence. Just like the shareholders stampeding out since that fateful Friday.
I think its hard to abandon WP now!
but it would be enough if Nokia says that they will reles a MeeGo device once a year and keep updating this catugre so they keep it up to date and give them selfes a good other plan beside WP
also moving Symbian to be a mid\low range device and marge it with the S40! better than working on porting Qt to it n developing browser, maps ……?
Too late now. Symbian’s floating like a log in the water, not going anywhere and thus unacceptable. The other options, MeeGo and WinPho are quite as untested as well, but at least they show a way to future.
Mind you, I love Symbian, but it wasn’t viable anymore, not after Feb11.
Well if I was Elop, I would have carved that “floating log” into a boat instead of just pouring gasoline in it and setting in on fire.. A smart and dedicated CEO could have turned everything around for the better… Talk about exposing your weaknesses to the world…
Well Jay let’s not kid ourselves here. I think we all know better than that. In response to the three questions asked above:
No Nokia should not abandon Windows
Why? Well a diverse smartphone portfolio is good for Nokia, it just makes business sense (revenue, sales and traction in different market around the world).
However, even if Nokia wanted to I think they will not be able to pull it off certainly due to high financial penalties if there is breach of contract;
Remember a contract is still a binding agreement. “you do not tell the whole school that you are going to the prom with the best girl while you do not have a mutual understanding with her”.
Finally guys, In my world Nokia should use Meego to challenge and disrupt the high end of the market for years to come.
BTW I’m getting the N9 anyway. Black for me and magenta for my wife
Yep Nokia should continue it as an experiment, they should use it to create crazy designs like the Nokia 7700, 7750 or even an N-gage sucessor. Basically designs that are unusual but futuristic.
Lets face it the market are creating phones that are “safe” and no one is doing the completely ludicrous.
Nokia can continue doing the safe phones with Wp7, Symbian etc, but MeeGo should be used for the completely crazy designs.
I mean imagine a Nokia N90 running MeeGo and a 15 megapixel camera.
Nokia should have redeveloped symbian from scratch into a whole new OS. They should not have left it to die.
But it’s too late now, can’t turn back.. frikin morons
+1 on developing from scratch.
Symbian ^3 was developed for last generation processors giving it a big handicap. The second main trouble was trying to support compatibility with s60 3rd and 5th edition apps.
I blame things on the untalented or stupid development roadmap. But now Symbian has become the scapegoat OS of Nokia executives.
Absolutely!
I don’t think Nokia is stupid enough to kill Meego. They will be focusing on wp7 from now on, as a U turn at such a time could be fatal, but I’m sure they will continue with meego. The best thing would be to release one meego handset every year to keep the platform alive.
In my opinion, nokia should make the “normal Smartphones” with WP7. But once a year (oder less) a MeeGo-Market-Distruptor, like a pendant to the iPhone.
This would be nice…
Why should they? There is nothing as great as disrupting itself and giving up the control of its destiny to a third party. Go Nokia!
I agree! HTC is tanking. They should just stick to their htcOS
HTC had any success with their own OS? You think that if they could stop being an OEM they would not jump on the opportunity? Look at Samsung. They are working on their own platform.
they don’t have to. they shouldn’t have to ditch any os(meego,symbian or wp). together they can success
I dont care anymore. Elop destroyed Nokia thats a fact. Will never be the same.
Elop destroyed Nokia? Are you drunk?
Oh yeah, Elop’s a saint..
Don’t know if they could or should. But i sure as heck want them to do so..
I don’t mind WP to be there .. it’s a good OS with a new UX and would be a good addition to Nokia’s portfolio.
What I wish for actually is to not fully abandon MeeGo, make it iconic (or in this case “iPhonic”) .. release one device every year or year and half, yes make WP your mainstream OS, with devices that come in volumes and different form factors, and make MeeGo the OS that comes once in a while with a new device, an “iPhonic” approach, but it seems to be working just very well for Apple, and from what I saw in Harmattan, it could be just as successful!
It would certainly boost their brand image..
They could make Meego the Ferrari, Porsche, and Audi of the smartphone world…
Seems highly unlikely they’ll convert fully to Meego. They might bring out a Meego product once in a while but never fully commiting themselves to it.
Just a question i wanted to know for some time:
Is nokia making only the devices for WP or are they helping with developing the WP os?
The latter. They’ll be helping in part shape Tango/Apollo with maps and navigation and improve store billing.
So basically they wont do nothing with the os?
Like someone said, they really should implement some new seen features from Meego to WP… We will see…
“here’s another great read from Randall. How it’s not all completely over for Nokia, despite many already drafting their funeral speeches for the giant at Espoo.”
Not far off my view, there is room for Harmattan/Meego as a niche platform, that can continue to develope while Nokia pushes a heavily branded Mango/WP7 ecosystem.
That does not mean that Nokia should reverse course however, unless someone can point me towards a great revelation that replaces the current truth; that Meego was on course to deliver no more than one device a year for the next few years……….?
http://jedibeeftrix.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/meegoharmattan-a-woefully-misunderstood-platform/
yep, that was utterly refuted
http://felipec.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/my-disagreement-with-elop-on-meego/
Elop had no right to claim that as one of the “main reasons” for dropping meego.
T’was outright misleading…
At fist I was a die hard Meego fan, but now, when the hype has settled somewhat, I see thigs more clearly. Imagine if Nokia was to add the multitasking window to WP and the swipe technology. So WP would have three home views just like Harmattan; tiles, list of apps and multitasking. They get rid of the ugly three buttons and that’s it! Combining this with Nokia maps and Windows 8 (which is by far the best UI for tablets I’ve seen), then you have a winning ecosystem. Let’s hope Nokia and Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8 with Meego-influences at MWC next year!
I’m afraid there will be no NOKIA anymore
Let’s hope Nokia will not abandone MeeGo. Why Samsung can keep Bada and sell more Bada phones then WP7 phones?
Do you have a source for that info? …No you don’t
Yes he does have a source, Q1 showed Bada outsold ALL WP7 devices 2 two 1, look it up, I forgot if it was Canalys or Gartner, look it up.
well, i don’t want to be part of an ecosystem. i want to use an ipad for newspapers and books. windows 7 for my notebook. an meego for my phone.
and it’s definitly not the ui. it’s a kind of philosophy why i want meego. compare it to cars – on the one side big cars, with a big engine and high use of petrol
on the other hand european cars with the love to detail and efficiency.
that would be an OPEN ecosystem if you could share between devices.
anything that is “winning” for m$ is a loss for everyone else. they are the charlie sheen of s/w piracy.