Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has outlined the company's comeback plans, including retaining Symbian and shifting MeeGo to computers.
Nokia and Windows Phone 7? It's happening. The rumours that have been bubbling throughout the week have just been confirmed by Nokia, as the company unveiled its strategic direction under new CEO Stephen Elop.
"Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race," said Elop. No mention of turkeys.
The key details: Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its 'principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader' according to the announcement.
Symbian isn't being killed off: instead, it will become 'a franchise platform', as Nokia looks to 'retain and transition' the existing base of 200 million Symbian users, while selling 150 million more Symbian devices around the world.
And MeeGo? That becomes 'an open-source, mobile operating system project' with 'increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences'. But Nokia says it still plans to ship a 'MeeGo-related product' later this year.
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Nokia will also work with Microsoft on joint marketing, a shared development roadmap, and will aim to 'help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies'.
Microsoft's Bing will be used for search across Nokia's devices, as will the Microsoft adCenter for search advertising. Nokia's maps service will be 'integrated' with Bing and adCenter to create a 'local search and advertising experience'.
Nokia is also restructuring again, into two business units: Smart Devices (i.e. smartphones) and Mobile Phones. Jo Harlow will lead the former division, focusing on Symbian smartphones, MeeGo 'computers' and strategic business operations, including Nokia's Windows Phone handsets.
Mary McDowell will lead the Mobile Phones division, with a focus on emerging markets. Elsewhere, Niklas Savander remains in place in charge of Nokia's Markets team, while Tero Ojanpera will head up the Services and Developer Experience unit 'in an acting capacity'.
Here's the YouTube video confirming the news.
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2 comments
Windows ain't stable either. Symbian to Windows sounds to b worse than b4. Lets c.
The transformation is gonna be huge, with loads of side effects. :-)
Shubhendu Chatterjee Feb 11th 2011 at 12:00PM
0 1The combination of two laggards won't make a winner. It just shows how desperate Nokia and Microsoft are to catch up with Google and Apple.
Oliver Ruekgauer Feb 11th 2011 at 12:20PM
0 0