Mobile-Review: Nokia Now In Talks With Microsoft
A few weeks ago we published an article where Fortune hinted at possible talks between Nokia and Google with regards to Android. Today Mobile-Review has written about Nokia's potential talks with Microsoft about extending their alliance. In the talks, according to Eldar Murtazin, the writer behind the Mobile-Review article, Nokia's new leadership has had talks with Microsoft for about 2 months now regarding the possibilities to further extend their partnership. The talks are not only around exchange of technology, but possibly creating an entire line of Windows phones.
If indeed the rumours or claims are true - this makes an interesting approach for Nokia. Having reviewed both Android and Microsoft, Nokia might be making some changes to its smart phone strategy in 2011 for the short term but still march on with its focus on Meego at the upper end of the price range.
One of the reasons Mobile-Review says the companies are in talks is due to the fact that manufacturers will be bringing out very modestly priced Android phones in Q2 of 2011. An example with the Russian market is that a 3500 Ruble (appr. 90 euros) phone will be made available by one of the big three operators - surely to attract interest among consumers.
Nevertheless, it is an interesting signal of possible things to come. Nokia may have realised that while it may be the right road in the long run to continue with Meego, something needs to be done in the short run as well.
Via Unwired View
Apologies in advance for my resentment in this comment. I carry many years of suffering Microsoft and Nokia products and see no change in their positioning or mindset. I'm also angry for the environmental cost of continuing policies of designing products to be rapidly obsolete.
So "Micro$oft" & "No'kin'Idea" are partnering up?
These 2 incumbents languished at the top for years using their dominance to shut out competitors, produce products designed to be obsolete quickly and keep profits high.
IMHO, they never understood who their customers were. We the users are their real customers but unfortunately we're at the end of a line of intermediaries. And they don't care about us, they care about their volumes and margins.
Both believe their customers to be the market middlemen. Their market position has poisoned them to misunderstand who they're building products for.
Specifically:
> For M$ their mindset perpetuates the myth that their customers are the manufacturers Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony etc.
>For No'kin'idea their minset made their customers the mobile operators Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile etc.
As a result, it is no wonder why user experience and usability came second place to pushing out 'more of the same', marketed as better but still designed to become junk as soon as marketably possible.
Us users were never the customers and we still are not. Internal decisions will be made to further undermine the user experience going forward because the user is not king. Their business customers are king and they want stuff cheap to throw away quickly.
So now the incumbents join forces to achieve what? Cheaper junk and faster obsolescence?
They could not priortise user experience before and while they can imitate and mimic iPhone and Android, they'll end up producing more low-margin products for their middlemen who are price driven at the bottom of the market and are unprepared to pay the premiums for the best of class product and who think they'll 'save' with this junk.
It's very telling when two UX incompetents partner together to get in on the action of a customer market they're systemically not permitted to understand.
They will continue this travesty. The better margins and growth will be from players with strategic positions to impress their real customers not play market behemoths.
Obviously reMedia8 hasn't seen a glipse of Windows Phone 7 UX. I as a user certainly liked the experience (when compared to earlier MS Phone models). But ofcourse it must be junk since it's from Redmond, right?
@jaakkoh - a good point, although here the exception proves the rule. M$ Phoney 7, despite it's doublespeak name, is a totally new product to compete in a new market created by Apple's iPhone.
The dynamics of my original argument hold.
The 'Phoney 7' need not surpass the iPhone, merely be considered equivalent by the market with a psychologically commensurate discount. Microsofts customers for the Phone 7 are again not the end user, but are HTC, Dell, Samsung, and LG who wish to have a slice of the Apple pie. None of these manufacturers are innovators in product development, HCI or usability heuristics but are all fast followers.
Instead of saying Junk, perhaps I should have just said 'relative junk' when you compare solution usability side-by-side.