In what seemed liked a pretty obvious move in the smartphone arena, Nokia and Microsoft have made official that the two are joining forces to better one another. Nokia has announced that they are making the Windows Phone platform it’s “primary smartphone strategy” adding contribution to the platform from their own experience in the mobile device market.
While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here’s a quick summary of what we are working towards:
- Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
- Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
- Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
If you weren’t aware by now, Nokia has been the world leader in the smartphone market for quite some time now with their Symbian mobile operating system. However, their lead in the market is withering away rather quickly with Apple’s and Google’s rapidly spreading iOS and Android platform. Microsoft’s revamp of Windows Mobile to Windows Phone has gotten high markings in reviews, with some even stating that it is the “Android killer”. However, the new software hasn’t been able to catch fire as quickly as Apple and Google’s creations.
In a memo (video below), CEO of Nokia Stephen Elop spoke on how the smartphone market has changed drastically. He describes it as going from battle between devices to a battle between ecosystems.
