Hasta La Gadget!

This slide was just presented by Stephen Elop and Nokia CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, at Nokia’s Capital Markets Day. Although there’s no date listed, it’s clear that Symbian — a “franchise” OS that Nokia will “harvest” — will be wholly consumed by Windows Phone on Nokia devices just as soon as Nokia and Microsoft can complete the transition. It won’t be immediate, but it seems like 2012 will be the year that Nokia pulls the cord on life support. Regardless of the actual date, who in their right minds would invest their development time or consumer dollars in a smartphone OS that has no future within the company? One more slide showing the post-Symbian reductions in R&D spending after the break.

Continue reading RIP: Symbian

RIP: Symbian originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Steve show just ended with both Elop and Ballmer hosting a very informative media Q&A following the reveal of Nokia’s plan to use Windows Phone 7 as its “primary smartphone platform.” Here are the highlights:

• No specific announcement for when we’ll see the first Nokia Windows Phone. Ballmer mentioned that the engineering teams have spent a lot of time together already.
• Elop also confirmed that Nokia is a Finnish company and always will be — they will not be moving to Silicon Valley or anywhere else.
• Ballmer said that the partnership is “not exclusive” but some things that Microsoft is doing with Nokia are “unique” allowing Nokia to differentiate itself in the market. Elop added that it’s important for the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem to thrive, which means that multiple vendors must succeed.
• Elop didn’t believe that Nokia could create a new ecosystem around MeeGo fast enough.
• Nokia will “substantially reduce” R&D expenditures while increasing R&D productivity moving forward.
• Nokia did talk with Google about adopting Android but decided that it “would have difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem” and the “commoditization risk was very high — prices, profits, everything being pushed down, value being moved out to Google which was concerning to us.” Microsoft presented the best option for Nokia to resume the fight in the high end smarpthone segment.
• Elop clarified that MeeGo will ship this year but “not as part of another broad smarpthone platform strategy, but as an opportunity to learn.” Something that sounds very similar to position Nokia took with its so-called “experimental” Maemo-based N900 last year. After the first (and apparently, only) MeeGo device ships this year, the MeeGo team will then “change their focus into an exploration of future platforms, future devices, future user experiences.” Trying to determine the “next disruption” in smartphones.
• Responding to “hope for a broad MeeGo-based ecosystem,” Elop said that Nokia simply wasn’t moving fast enough to effectively win and compete against Apple and Google. Windows Phone makes it a “three-horse race,” something that Elop says is pleasing to the carriers he’s been speaking with.
• Nokia has different options for its tablet strategy including using something from Microsoft or something that Nokia has developed internally.

Nokia Q&A reveals more MeeGo details and tablet plans — says Android ‘risk of commodification was very high’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s happened. Former Microsoft exec and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has married his future and his past in the holy matrimony of a “strategic alliance.” Windows Phone is becoming Nokia’s “principal smartphone strategy,” but there’s a lot more to this hookup — scope out the official press release just after the break. Microsoft’s Bing and adCenter will provide search and ad services across Nokia devices, while Nokia will look to innovate “on top of the platform” with things like its traditional strength in imaging. Ovi Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services and will be integrated with Bing, while Nokia’s content store will be integrated into (read: assimilated by) Microsoft’s Marketplace. Xbox Live and Office will also, as is to be expected, feature on these brave new Microkia handsets. An open letter on Nokia’s Conversations site, penned jointly by Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer, sets out the foregoing details along with the following statement of intent:

“There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them. There will be challenges. We will overcome them. Success requires speed. We will be swift. Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.”

Nokia and Microsoft enter strategic alliance on Windows Phone, Bing, Xbox Live and more originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s an important day for Windows Phone 7 users. No, not because the free Amazon app was just launched in the Windows Phone Marketplace. It’s because we get to test drive this Photoshop image in preparation for Friday. You feelin’ it?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Amazon app released for the newest Windows Phone 7 models originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well. Just after Nokia CEO Stephan Elop’s “burning platform” memo leaked out and prompted intense speculation that Nokia would start building Windows Phone 7 handsets, Google’s Vic Gundotra tweeted “Two turkeys do not make an Eagle” prefaced with a #feb11 hashtag — the same day as Nokia’s Capital Markets Day event in London. That’s some pretty serious trash talk, and we’d say it pretty much takes an Android tie-up off the table — we doubt anyone from Google would run around calling Nokia a “turkey” if they were actually partners. Then again, Vic could just be talking about some extremely disturbing genetic engineering research he plans to unveil on Friday — really, anything is possible with Google.

Update: Oh snap. We were just reminded that there’s some serious history behind “two turkeys do not make an eagle” — it’s what former Nokia VP Anssi Vanjoki said in 2005 about BenQ buying Siemens’s failing handset business. (Ouch.) Of course, Vanjoki also just said that using Android is like peeing in your pants for warmth, so we suppose Gundotra’s been waiting for some payback — although his timing’s a little off, since Vanjoki just made a very public exit from Nokia after being denied the CEO job, Still, though — is any burn sweeter than the obscure European handset business history burn? We don’t think so. [Thanks, Seth]

Google’s Vic Gundotra on Nokia: ‘Two turkeys do not make an Eagle’ (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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