Do you see anything positive about #NokMsft in 2011?

Hi there, folks. Its me again. Have been very silent due to various things, one of them being all these rumors surrounding the Capital markets day, and we all know how that went for us, Nokia fans. Shocking is an understatement.

" I control you! "

Yes, the above image is the echoing sentiment across many Nokia/Symbian/Meego fans.Honestly,I had been searching for answers yesterday, on how this news can be even remotely positive for Nokia. I had read so much on the interwebz about this, and one, Scobleizer’s post ,( in which he called Nokia fans nuts ) seemed to stand out in seeing some positivity regarding this whole Nokrosoft thing, but the positive was more for microsoft than Nokia. Let me explain a bit about the partnership Nokia and Microsoft are in. It is not exclusive , they are more like ” sex buddies “. I think you can imagine why i would say that. Nokia is allowed to innovate in Windows phone, meaning it has the power to fiddle around with the OS, but note that elop said he wouldn’t want to tinker with the UI. So, will Nokia add lacking features like these ? :

× no system-wide file manager × no Bluetooth file transfers × no USB mass storage mode × no Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browser × too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing × no video calls × new ringtones available only through Marketplace × music player lacks equalizer presets × no multitasking × no copy/paste × no DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software) × Bing maps doesn’t have free Navigation ( This is where Nokia ADDS value ) × no internet tethering support × no handwriting recognition support

As you can see, there are a lot of advancements needed for Windows phone 7 .Apart from the snazzy UI, browser and some 8k apps in marketplace , the OS is not featured, and definitely lacks so much. It’s like the first iPhone from 2007 . And even if Nokia adds these features, which are already present in Symbian/Meego, (which they have to, in order to be competitive) It will be available for other OEMs to use too. So, again Microsoft is the winner.

What Microsoft gained : Extreme global reach i.e entry into markets where Microsoft would have never even imagined, Best mapping solution, Hardware expertise, awesome supply chain, services like operator billing .. etc

What Microsoft lost : NOTHING

What Nokia gained : A decent touchscreen OS that is said to be very competitive in user experience, a decent app marketplace that is easy to develop for . A big entry into the U.S market and high visibility in the U.S media.

What Nokia lost : 16% of stock price,Ovi and the whole Symbian community’s mind share,  Intel’s confidence as a partner( Meego is pushed to a corner for experimentation in market disruption ) , Qt’s cross platform technologies ( which still has a role to play as Jay outlines it) etc..

Pretty big things from Nokia have been sacrificed and Microsoft has not only gained so much ,but lost literally nothing. But we should also note that Nokia’s efforts for software are indeed zero hereafter, that’s a positive and a negative to take note of.

Nokia have given the time frame for the first Windows phones to be 2012, in volumes. So, you may start seeing devices in late 2011. They still plan to ship 150 million Symbian devices, and launch 1 meego device as a part of experimentation. Do you see the greatness ? Roadmap says Nokia will develop devices for a dying platform, will develop only one device for an once exciting platform, while patiently waiting for the Windows phone to hopefully mature and then launch in late 2011 or early 2012.

I still don’t get how people are going to buy Nokia’s smart devices in 2011. Sorry, i don’t see anything positive this year. Hopefully it may bear fruit in 2012 with a new or several Windows Phone versions with all the above lacking features included for Nokia hardware, but for now, nothing seems good.I know, people will be skeptic of me calling Symbian, a dying platform, but they are in denial. Meego, it had to come, it will still come , but will it make us buy a platform which is uncertain of it’s future ? 150 million Symbian smartphones in the transition period to WindowsPhone ? How are people going to buy an ecosystem with nil future support ? I say, the number is too much of an exaggeration.Overall, i am very worried for Nokia in 2011.

I will leave you on that thought, there is so much explaining left for Elop. He is having a keynote session at MWC alongside Steve Ballmer and also remember that there is a Nokia event at 5 PM U.K time tomorrow.

P.S : Would like to hear what you guys say about this. Do you see anything positive ?

Tags: MeeGo, Microsoft, Nokia, Partnership, Symbian

Category: Rant, Windows Phone