How Nokia and Microsoft will carve up mobile services Nokia smartphones will be running Windows Phone, but the company is hoping to hang on to some of its service-provider identity even as Microsoft grabs the choicest morsels. Nokia tried hard to redefine itself as a provider of services, which is what everyone wants to be these days - hardware margins are tight and most software …
Microsoft and Nokia will both be thrilled to have a viable mobile offering three years from now, so I'm sure that "poking Intel in the eye" is about the LAST thing in their mind.
I can see that Intel MIGHT have thought their Meego effort would bear fruit, but I CAN'T see why, if this is a mission-critical business for them, they would have allowed another firm, Nokia, to control their destiny. More likely, they would *like* to be in the mobile space, but recognize they have nothing particularly interesting to offer and were happy to let Nokia flatter them.
... I would agree 100% with with the 'Poke Intel in the eye'.
Intel are increasingly desperate for a play in the mobile segment which is where the growth is but is dominated by ARM ... and ARM is increasingly invading their own back yard. I would not underestimate how much significance Intel put into trying to work with the largest phone vendor in the world (yes Nokia are still the largest - for how much longer is a valid question though!)
As an ARM shareholder, this announcement made a lot of sense following the earlier announcement of MS porting Windows to ARM. ARM share price up since announcement.
Intel got what has been coming to them for 20 years. Since the 80's, Intel has been taking unfair advantage of their market dominance to run competitors like AMD into near-bankruptcy, while they charged hardware makers inflated prices for their chips, a cost which was then mostly passed on to the consumer.
Now, they have been deliberately underpowering their Atom processor in order to inflate the price of Core i-series based chips. The industry finally has an opportunity to turn to ARM-based chips. It's nothing more than a delayed reaction that PC makers would have likely done 15 years ago had Microsoft offered consumer versions of Windows for anything other than x86 (Windows NT doesn't count). Coming from somebody who has been pro-Microsoft for many years, I'll even admit the Wintel duopoly is over, just like the Windows monopoly itself. The castle is crumbling and the victors will be Google, Apple, and anybody else who is jumping ship now. The sad thing is that with their growth, Google and Apple are becoming just like the Microsoft of the late 90's. Hopefully that dominance may end up getting stemmed by the DOJ before it's too late.
So the penny drops. Microsoft are paying Nokia to use their OS and Nokia are so desperate (not to mention they have a MS exec at the helm) that they are willing to throw away their entire heritage and hand over all the juicy bits to their new "partner"
Flames, because MS "partners" always get burnt.
"Microsoft's store will take advantage of the operator billing that Nokia has been able to put into place."
That is a key. The dumb-bit-pipe model is broken for operators. They have to share in the revenue model as in the traditional brick and mortar world of retailing or go out of business.
Nokia and Microsoft give them a far better chance than Apple (almost ZERO) and Google (following Apple without knowing why?). In Nokia they have somebody with a heritage and a deeper understanding of the operators challenges in their core business through their historic Nokia Networks business and their now (seemingly turning around?) JV of Nokia Siemens Networks.
Unliike Apple a portion of their business is selling to operators the very kit that helps operators deliver Apples, Googles - and now the Nokiasoft business model. Unlike Apple and Google, Nokia cannot afford to'sh1t where they eat'. For them, operators need to get their ROI on network rollout and this inevitably means that the value chain needs to start at the front and trickle down to the likes of MS, Apple and Google. If they don't, then their network business will suffer.
So I am not surprised to hear that operators 'welcome' the partnership as another 'competitor' - although i suspect they really mean a more sympathetic player. I suspect the large operator groups will make Nokiasoft very attractive with pricing options.
Nokia's relationship with the networks is a key part of this tie-up me thinks. It gets the not-Apple, not-Google thumbs-up from the operators that are all afraid of otherwise being reduced to being bit-shifters.
Nokia used to make great phones but was long overtaken as smartphones took root. As a former Nokia owner they wouldn't even make a shortlist now. Most people I know have an iPhone, BB or Android device.
Those that have Nokia's are clinging onto ancient devices due to being skint, nostalgic, technophobe or lazy. Imagine signing up for a 12/18/24 month contract and paying money each month for a Nokia smartphone. Like no way!?!?!
Nokia and services? Don't make me laugh. Does anyone even know anyone that knows what Ovi is?
Me neither...
My main concern is that at some point in the future, MS might want to acquire what remains of Nokia, and then it'll own a lot of mobile phone IP. They might then use that "persuade" other mobile phone manufactures to go with WinMo7 perhaps?
If that isn't their (MS's) long-term game, then surely this buddying up with Nokia is just going to distance them from all their other "partners" marginalising them even more... so that's why I'm wondering if IP buy-out isn't the real end-game.
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