For Microsoft, a handset deal looms larger
How long should Microsoft sit by while Research in Motion and Nokia burn?
That question has become increasingly urgent amidst the stock market meltdown of the one-time smartphone leaders. With nearly enough cash parked outside the US to buy both companies outright – and the risk that rivals will pounce – Microsoft may finally have to make some sort of move.
Nokia said it had signed a final agreement to team up with Microsoft in the smartphone market as the troubled Finnish handset maker announced a smaller-than-expected drop in first-quarter profits.
Quietly brilliant. The pithy two-word slogan of Taiwan’s HTC could readily sum up the company’s recent performance. Its Android-based smartphones are spreading across developed markets like wildfire, its unit market share in the global mobile market has gone from nothing to 2.6 per cent in just 3 years, while its latest release – the Thunderbolt – is attracting rave reviews.
And as of this week, the Taiwanese smartphone maker – which few had heard of just a couple of years ago – now has a bigger market cap than Nokia.
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So Stephen Elop has taken the plunge. The chief executive of Nokia has just announced a “broad strategic” tie-up with Microsoft on phones and said it would make Windows its main smartphone operating system.
It’s a bold move for the Canadian and investors haven’t greeted the news that well. Shares were down as much 12 per cent in early morning trade.
A leaked memo supposedly written by Nokia’s chief executive has delivered a blunt assessment of the company’s predicament, likening it to a man standing on a “burning platform”, torn between burning alive and drowning in icy waters, and saying the mobile phone maker must embrace a “radical change in behaviour” if it is to survive.
Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
Nokia N8 – nice lens, shame about the interface
Nokia’s N8 smartphone takes gorgeous panoramic pictures, but its Symbian ^3 interface is cramped, cluttered and hard to navigate.
In this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section, I reviewed the flagship smartphone and assessed how it might fare against the latest Android and Windows Phone 7 rivals.
Nokia N8 – the best camera and the big picture
First impressions of Nokia’s new N8 handset are impressive build quality, best camera I’ve experienced on a smartphone and a big improvement in the operating system with the introduction of Symbian ^3.
I plan a full review in the Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section shortly, but, in the meantime, more on the N8 in an interview after the jump with Tero Ojanperä, head of Nokia’s mobile services, who handed me an N8 review unit on its first day of shipping on Thursday.
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