Putting an end to speculations after Nokia’s honest assessment, Nokia and Microsoft has announced their collaboration. It is as real as it can get. Nokia will be adopting Microsoft as its primary OS for smartphones, stick to Symbian for low-end phones and abandon Meego. Nokia’s choice to finally get away from Symbian and Meego for high-end smartphones is a welcome move. Some might be disappointed that Nokia hasn’t gone Android way. Which only makes sense because Nokia will be getting in to the clutches of Google and the mobile world will be left in a Apple-Nokia duopoly. Competition is needed, even if it means Windows as a mobile OS.
Bing will be a standard presence on future Nokia phones and Ovi Maps will become the core of Microsoft’s mapping products. A lot of synergies are already being leveraged, and a perfect win-win for both Nokia and Microsoft. Nokia is struggling to get a good mobile OS going and Microsoft is struggling to put its OS on more phones. Nokia sells more phones than anyone and Microsoft would be on the high-end phones. This should also boost Microsoft’s mobile ecosystem. And then there is the app store. Nokia’s app store will be integrated as Microsoft’s marketplace.
An interesting partnership is building up and Nokia is finally going into the fight with the right armor. Apple’s dominance will not be under threat because Apple really doesn’t care about Microsoft’s and Android’s. The OS which has to watch out is Android.
There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.
There will be challenges. We will overcome them.
Success requires speed. We will be swift. (open letter from Nokia and Microsoft)
If this move pays off, I hope it will, then this would be a perfect case study for management studies. What can a new CEO do? Fresh thinking is what a new CEO will bring. Abandoning Meego and pushing Symbian as a secondary choice aren’t easy decisions. But they have to be made.