Co.DESIGN: “After attending CES earlier in the month, I felt something major had happened: The iPhone had finally met its rivals in the form of Nokia’s Lumia 800 and 900, equipped with Windows 7’s Metro UI.”
Nokia could be the kick Windows Phone(I hate that name, they should’ve called it Metro) has been looking for. Only time will tell, but I think they’re great looking devices. Maybe I’ll be able to put my hands on one soon?
Nokia Plan B: “We are a group of nine young Nokia shareholders. All of us have worked with Nokia in different capacities in the past. We plan to challenge the company’s strategy and partnership with Microsoft in the next Annual General Meeting scheduled for May 3, 2011.”
Based on a preview of MeeGo, Plan B doesn’t look so good.
Computer World: “IDG News Service – Nokia on Sunday hinted that Microsoft essentially won a bidding war against Google to supply software to the world’s largest handset maker and that the software giant agreed to pay “billions†of dollars for the privilege.”
That explains a lot.
I was preparing to write a post based on some tweets by Robert Scoble. I thought Nokia had kind of lost their minds based on those tweets. They definitely have the talent to make Android do what they want, it would take time to do it, but they could do it. If Microsoft is supplying them custom builds of Windows Phone that will take time as well.
Microsoft has essentially bought a hardware company to help push Windows Phone 7. Not bad, not bad at all. If this works, and Nokia can patch up the disaster this deal caused internally, it could help push Windows Phone into competition with the iPhone and Android.
It could happen.
gdgt: “It’s amazing to see how many Nokia fanboys are in gaping disbelief over Stephen Elop’s “burning platform” memo. Despite confirmation by the BBC and other outlets that it’s real, guys like Tomi Ahonien are still in complete freaking denial. (He first claimed it was a hoax, now he thinks that the memo could be “taken out of context”. Nice Try.)”
Go read the memo from the CEO. It’s amazing and it’s what a CEO should do. He just kicked each and every one of his employees in the back side and said “Let’s get moving, we’re getting our butts handed to us!”
Nokia had a prime opportunity a couple of years ago. They should have purchased Palm.