Microsoft Denies any Home-Grown WP; Still Believes in OEMs (+ Random Thoughts on Meego)
No beating around the bush here, when Microsoft announced it’s own home-made line of tablets alot of minds (mine included) went down the “Nokia is screwed” route; but thankfully we’re all a bit hyper-imaginative, since MSFT have confirmed that they are currently no plans to create a Microsoft phone to accompany their pretty impressive surface tablet.
Senior Marketing Manager for Windows Phone has denied the rumor that they are making their own phones. He also said that they have a strong ecosystem of partners that they are very satisfied with them
NOTE: Jay beat me to the original post but as my thoughts got carried away and diversified a bit I thought I’d stick with it and share my ideas.
Of course this is great news for Nokia (and any other OEM for WP) as it puts to rest that little annoying voice that was whispering doubts into their ears, after all how can you compete with the people who make the OS itself? Which on a totally unrelated subject was the reason why I don’t think Meego could have made it as a 3rd/4th ecosystem- who in their right mind would choose to be an OEM competing against the N9 WITHOUT swipe interface on their phones (as that is a custom skin that wouldn’t be part of the licencing deals)?
Anything and I mean Anything that anyone pushed out would look like a troll in a beauty pageant (don’t bother searching for that phrase I just made it up). At the risk of sounding cliched Meego was a victim of it’s own perfection in the N9 (although a bit pre-mature). If perhaps Nokia had a slightly less investment in Meego (meaning Intel or some other SOFTWARE company was the main developer) there might have been a glimmer of hope, but it’s no use competing against the people who coded the whole OS; where they know every line of code and have a huge head start, it just doesn’t seem reasonable.
Honestly I couldn’t see Microsoft going down that same route of pushing out their own phones at the risk of alienating their OEMs; not because that would be mean, simply because WP doesn’t have enough of a userbase to be abandoned by it’s OEMs. I can see Microsoft pushing out their own phone somewhere down the line once WP has established a PROPER foothold in the smartphone market (at least 15-20%), hopefully if that time comes Nokia will be well back on it’s feet and kicking diversifying into multiple strange new worlds (maybe the concept UI we saw yesterday).
The tablet market could be considered as if Microsoft didn’t encroach on any of it’s OEMs as really none of them ever put some serious effort into a tablet (except Samsung) and those who did make a tablet pushed it out under the Android Banner (HTC Flyer), but phones are a whole nother story; when an OS manufacturer knows how much effort a company such as Nokia went through to get those WPs up and running and the number of services they’re providing for their WPs under the Lumia name they probably will think twice before messing with them. Also it would seem that MSFT have slightly dug themselves into a commitment with Nokia by the amount of air time they inadvertently gave to the Lumia range, using the Lumias as their phone of choice in the “Smoked by Windows Phone” competitions as well as using mockups VERY similar to Lumias in their presentations and bringing Nokia on stage in their Dev meets has made Nokia/Lumia Synonymous with WP; meaning when someone mentions WP they would conjure a picture of a lumia their brain, if MSFT were to make their own phone they’d have to tone down the subliminal advertising of Nokia’s first.
Category: Nokia, Windows Phone
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Heyyo, names Ali- Currently a fourth year Dental Student from Chicago; studying in Jordan. I love all sorts of gadgets almost as much as I love my cookies! (Have: Green Nokia N8, Cyan Lumia 800, Black N9, Stormtrooper White Lumia 900, Black 808 PureView, Red Lumia 920). Follow my twitter handle '@AliQudsi' - no pressure. Thanks.Subscribe
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“currently no plans” currently is a keyword
Msft run and buy the Nokia and throw a Surface style of this mock up headset in
http://yronimus.deviantart.com/art/Microsoft-Surface-Phone-8-310437910
“He also said that they have a strong ecosystem of partners that they are very satisfied with them.”
Yeah, this could also be applied to their PC and tablet OEMs.
Oops.
Oops what? Oops as in “oops, I was trying to be a wiseass but didn’t realize that there actually are no decent windows tablets on the market, nor has there ever been?”
No, ‘oops’ as in, don’t believe the corporate line from Microsoft. Watch what they do, not what they say.
You can adapt that to fit any company, really, about the PR front office line. You can pretty much discount it in most matters.
PC yes, tablet no. Only Axer had expressed any interest in a Windows RT tablet.
Ali i think that you are wrong abut MeeGo Nokia did not have to create another ecosystem. Yes they need to do the core apps, as they did for the N9, the rest could be borrowed from Android open source. You do not need create a new ecosystem, you can just join on, and ensure that you are able to differentiate your product, and the N9 had plenty of USP’s, and MeeGo it self was/is the biggest on..
And RIM already joined Qt ecosystem.
You just don’t get it, do you? Nokia keeps repeating that they don’t want to be left in a low profit hardware business, but are instead focusing heavily on the high profit (and risk) services (“ecosystem”) business. Still hardly a post goes by without someone suggesting Android, which totally rules out this route.
Nokia should not go Android, just the apps, i am sorry but you don’t get it do you?
Apps which are using Google services. No, I really don’t get why Nokia would want any of that.
Nokia should not use Google services other than the ones that mandatory in a smartphone from both Google Microsoft Gmail, hotmail Google search etc. The only thing they should borrow from Android 1:1 is 3rd party apps, apps for local banks, shops internet blogs etc. ( this i the only thing missing with the N9 today) Nokia would end up with a offering including Best UI, Best integration of services and more apps than Android… No offering tin the markte would be better. in my view ..
the 3rd party android apps should of cause be integrated in the Nokia store…
Please tell us where all the high margin ecosystem cash-flows are?
Nokia music? Offering EA games for free? Mapping solution?
There is no indication whatsoever that nokia would earn from the MS deal except lost sales payments (which are paid back in licenses) and hardware. They may get some from Microsoft store, if Lumia is used to pay the apps.
They would be legally obliged to reveal any other significant earnings opportunities from the MS deal where there any. The other OEMs – yes, OEMs as MS calls also Nokia – would not approve too big payments to Nokia that they dont get. Afterall it is all about MS ecosystem.
Mapping revenues are primarily from car manufacturers.
please, show us the high margin earning potential before opening your mouth.
Location based advertising alone is a $20 billion business, and is expected to grow enormously over the coming year. Add to that everything else that could be provided by the “greatest location platform” in the world, and we’re talking numbers way larger than the entire smartphone industry.
Really absurd comedy that is painful to watch. Nokia contractually obliged itself to use WP as their sole platform, but they got nothing in return, they apparently even don’t have the guarantee that MS wont develop own phone HW, when demanding the status of sole HW supplier to MS probably even didn’t cross Elop’s mind.
Nothing in return?
Yeah apart from the marketing budget, access to the WP marketplace and the money from MS that’ll keep them afloat for a while.
Let’s have some facts please.
The budget is wasted on promotion of MS product, so it would be only logical for MS to pay for it. But as was pointed out million times by now, the platform support is offsetted by licenses royalties from Nokia, so MS isn’t paying for anything. If there are any real money flowing to Nokia now, it’s sort of loan, Nokia will have to pay it back and then more.
If ms makes its own phone how is it different from Samsung making windows phone or htc? if their hardware is unique and good people will buy it.
Ummm, by the shear fact that nobody knows WP better than Microsoft themselves? By knowledge of future internal plans for it? Why do you think that Nokia was left with Symbian alone in the end? Because Nokia controlled 90% of its development and nobody else could compete with them sitting at the stream spring.
Your conclusion?
WP is a big mistake cause Nokia have no control of its development and Nokia just the same with other competing OEMs that use WP?
While I would agree with that ‘conclusion’, I was merely answering benjimola on how it is different when Microsoft makes WP devices, and when Samsung or HTC make the said devices – in the first place, Microsoft is by default a preferential contender and there is no way any other OEM would be able to compete with Microsoft unless they let them.
All I can say you don’t really know what you are saying. When Nokia and Symbian was no.1 Nokia always had the best hardware and they have the name. Then I prefer sonyericsson and Symbian uiq. But when iPhone got to the market that is when competition started before then HTC was on top with hardware. For PPC. Now it has changed. Sony can’t compete Nokia is behind etc. If windows works differently on me platform than other oem platform then there will be lawsuit. Its simple. I used sendo x. While it was a good phone hardware wise its poor.
Nokia maps as the default apps in WP8. All HTC and samsung WP users will get it for free for lifetime. Now, Nokia will have less advantage than the others. Till now, what has WP give back to Nokia except the loan that Nokia have to pay back in term of loyalty. Plus the products, patterns and companies that Nokia have lost forever…
Microsoft doesn’t have enough of a user base to be abandoned by its OEMs…lol
Pretty soon its OEMs will not have enough of a user base to worry about
this post is a joke or what??
the way I see why it was abandoned in meego my point of view is: Elop is exmicrosoft, and he loves windows, meego is linux , nokia saw the problem of applications and intelligently thought : android is the most used right now why not use android apps ? this created a danger for microsoft . meego remember that not only was for mobiles but it also tablets desktops . and right now we see that smartphones have made desktop computers fall in sales and I wonder which is the main business of microsof ? they had to be in the smart phone business if not eventually would die . Microsoft saw this nokia is an excellent hardware , software Meego ‘s amazing , beautiful and with android application swhat had been achieved ? in my view would have been a perfect smartphone . Nokia did not know what they had, what could be achieved, then comes this guy (we know who is this idiot ) brainwash all and now we see the result of death imminent nokia . What do think about this? I want to see your opinion
agree 100% as you can read further up in the comments
“currently no plans” well that’s a great stable platform for Nokia to build their long term security and future on. Not knowing from quarter to quarter when or if your Platform owner (dealer) is going to cut you out of the loop and take all the money for themselves (they’ll already be taking 50-75% of it). How the hell is Nokia going to be able to make any long term investments or attract funding in that environment.
They no longer have any platform to defend themselves from Microsoft with (unlike every one of their rival, more successful OEMs) and don’t fool yourself that there’s some wonder skunworks OS in the labs all that just got canned if it hadn’t already been scrapped. There is nothing Nokia can fall back on if MS turn ugly with them – in fact Nokia is more analogous to a zombie company doing their master’s bidding or the in thrall victim of a vampire.
If we go with this logic, then we should not expect any Nokia Tablet. Since this will be like competing against Microsoft’s own surface tablets.
I do think that Nokia has lost its independence. It now has to rely on MS for its business.
The reasons are:
1. Nokia can not compete with MS as with so much of commitment to WP its in a vulnerable position to switch.
2. With Elop’s press release, Nokia has lost credibility in stock market. Nokia cannot survive any new strategy change. Hence Nokia has no option B, Option B is to make option A work.
Perfect.
Nokia go to all in
‘…still believes in OEM’
Tell that to HTC.
More scuttlebutt about this over at Forbes…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/06/25/microsoft-must-risk-billions-develop-a-phone-to-beat-apple/
@Ali
You’re making big assumptions as-to-what elements of SwipeUX may or may not have ended-up in MeeGo proper.
I’d recommend chatting to one of the devs at TMO intimately involved in that side before making some of those (convenient?) assumptions.
You’re also making other big claims when you don’t seem to know how it was all to come together.
Kate Aloha is the girl you’ll want to get some (informed) Q&A’s from…
Correction: Kate Alhola
Actually I spoke in person to the former product manager of the N9 (jason Gregory) who is now the product manager of the Lumia range, he told me that Swipe would not be part of deal, the thing being licensed was just harmattan/meego
Well, that’s not my understanding from past communications from Kate.
SwipeUX Qt components could gradually/easily be shifted to vanilla meego, that was part of the the whole framework planning.
It was far too early to decide how exactly & if that would happen, as we never got even close to that point.
Sooo, I hardly see how your “person in the know” could even claim that.
And I’m surprised they supposedly did, given all that….
Kate is the person you need to be speaking to, & then relaying her feedback.
Nokia’s overall strategy may be just fine but the execution has been terrible. Elop is chief executive so he should take responsibility for pr nightmares and abandoning old platforms before new one is ready and rolling.
Wp is nice system but it was far too early to put all eggs in one basket. If ever WP only approach should have been implemented after Wp8 not before.