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Nokia adopts Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone OS
By siliconindia
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Friday, 11 February 2011, 23:13 IST |
1 Comments
Bangalore: Ending days of speculation, Nokia has announced that it will use Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (WP7) platform as the primary operating system (OS) for its smartphones. The strategy shift comes following Nokia's disappointing results in the fourth quarter, and Symbian not able to salvage Nokia's image in the market.
It was more or less confirmed that Nokia was looking to base its devices on another OS platform. However speculations were on as to if the company would go for Google's Android or Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS. But given the fact that Stephen Elop's (CEO, Nokia) earlier connection with Microsoft, it was almost a known thing as to where Nokia's scales would tilt to.
The newly forged partnership between Nokia and Microsoft has a lot more to offer than this. The companies have tied up for mobile ads and mapping. In the ads section, Nokia will make use of Microsoft adCenter in its handsets while Nokia maps will be seen in Microsoft's Bing search engine.
Although Nokia will adopt WP7, it will not completely sever ties with Symbian or MeeGo. There are plans to launch a MeeGo related product this year.
Nokia suffered a hit to its top status when Apple iPhone and Android arrived on the scene. Since then the company has witnessed a downward spiral in its market share. On Microsoft's part, the WP7 platform also did not create much noise as was expected from it. May be this parnership will yield desired results for both the companies.
Commenting on the Nokia-Microsoft partnership, Tony Cripps, Principal Analyst, Ovum said, "This is a bold decision by Nokia but absolutely the right one, both for itself and for Microsoft given the drastically changed landscape for smartphones in the past couple of years. There were few short term options available to the company to help it get back on terms with Apple and especially the Android masses, which in 2011 look set to overtake Nokia in terms of smartphone shipments, bringing with it the full wrath of the investor community."