News Microsoft buys Nokia's smartphone business

[Cosmic Penguin]

Glad that I have excluded all Nokia phones while shopping for my first smartphone 2 weeks ago...... (not that Windows Phone isn't a solid mobile phone OS, it's just that there are too few applications for WP right now)

And end of an era I think? Though I have no idea why Samsung could get to the top of the market right now - their phones are certainly decent, but not exactly blowing things out of the water (unlike what Apple did a few years earlier)..... :dry:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23940171

P.S. I ultimately went with a Sony Xperia L......

 

[Urwumpe]

No end of an era... Nokia has always been one of the biggest users of Microsoft operating systems on their smartphones ... it makes sense for Microsoft, since they want to get the Windows 8 stuff into the business, while Google and Apple fight for the consumers.

 

[Fabri91]

What is rather remarkable is that Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, was at the helm of Microsoft's business software division before coming to Nokia and sealing the deal that made Nokia shift it's smartphone OS from Symbian to Windows Phone.
Now he'll head MS's devices division.

 

[SolarLiner]

I knew it will happen. But I still don't like Nokia's phones and still don't like Win8 Phone OS.
I'm a Android guy FTW, and love what Google does to it. Apple with iOS were the first, yes, but the important is not being the first, is being the best. And from my POV, Android is the best.
After that, I might give a try to Windows Phone, but they will first need to clean things up ...

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, if they make a Smartphone, that integrates good into Outlook and Lync (and can handle MS Office documents without sending them to the USA), I might consider getting one for work.

 

[Artlav]

Smartphone or mobile phone business?
There is a huge difference - Nokia is an outsider on the smartphones, and is a biggest player in the mobile phones market.
Most of their phones are things like 1110, sold in the billions.

If MS gets their whole mobile phone business, then what would be left of Nokia?

 

[Fabri91]

All of 'em!
The feature phone line, Nokia Asha, based on the S40 OS (which should be Symbian-derived), was also sold.

What remains is basically the network solutions, advanced tecnologies, and Here, which is Nokia's brand for mapping services and navigation software.

What I didn't understand is wether the Lumia line will keep Nokia branding or not: if not, that'd be a problem I think, since the majority of consumers will not be aware of this acquisition and MS would have to rebuild this "brand awareness", or whatever it's called.

 

[statickid]

I don't think MS has any trouble with brand awareness, realistically they could just call them lumia phones and there would be no trouble

 

[garyw]

No end of an era... Nokia has always been one of the biggest users of Microsoft operating systems on their smartphones ... it makes sense for Microsoft, since they want to get the Windows 8 stuff into the business, while Google and Apple fight for the consumers.

No it hasn't. Up until 2007 Nokia was a heavy user of the Symbian OS. In fact, the were responsible for 85% of Symbians income which is why Nokia bought them.

 

[Urwumpe]

No it hasn't. Up until 2007 Nokia was a heavy user of the Symbian OS. In fact, the were responsible for 85% of Symbians income which is why Nokia bought them.

The Lumia series though is the prime showcase of Windows Phone since it first appeared on the Market.

You are right for the time before Metro.. then it was rather HTC as Windows shop, but that also changed.

Also: Symbian OS was also already developed with Nokia in the consortium before 2007. In 2008, they bought all rights for Symbian.

 

[garyw]

The Lumia series though is the prime showcase of Windows Phone since it first appeared on the Market.

You are right for the time before Metro.. then it was rather HTC as Windows shop, but that also changed.

Also: Symbian OS was also already developed with Nokia in the consortium before 2007. In 2008, they bought all rights for Symbian.

Yes and no. Nokia had the majority of the say but before 2007 there were many other vendors who licensed Symbian OS. NTT Docomo comes to mind as does Sony Ericson who went with the UIQ front end.

It was pretty obvious that when MS came along they didn't want the OS but did want the hardware. Nokia has always had very impressive hardware.

 

[Urwumpe]

It was pretty obvious that when MS came along they didn't want the OS but did want the hardware. Nokia has always had very impressive hardware.

Thats true. But still, the deal makes really sense for both Microsoft and Nokia.

 

[garyw]

Depends on your point of view. As someone who spent 9 years working at Symbian and then Nokia it's a sad day. Not unexpected but a sad day.

 

[Urwumpe]

Depends on your point of view. As someone who spent 9 years working at Symbian and then Nokia it's a sad day. Not unexpected but a sad day.

Maybe. But then Symbian OS itself was also quickly made obsolete by the progressing technology. Which is quite sad, since it made it possible to write software for smartphones using Qt.

 

[garyw]

Symbian wasn't obsolete, it was ahead of it's time. The amount of code that simply went unused thanks to the god-awful quartz front-end that Nokia insisted on putting on there is what did it.

Quite a few devs wanted to change the front end for something more like Symbian Belle but Nokia resisted.

Just found this on my iphone photo collection....... *sniff*.......

 

[Urwumpe]

Symbian wasn't obsolete, it was ahead of it's time. The amount of code that simply went unused thanks to the god-awful quartz front-end that Nokia insisted on putting on there is what did it.

Yes, that is what made it obsolete.

Remember: Betamax was also superiour to VHS... still the cheap stuff won.

 

[garyw]

I know, the management layers weren't interested. We needed 10 people to say yes but only one to say no and they were so risk-averse that it caused problems. When the share price crashed they got worse.
Everyone thought it was a good thing when OPK (CEO before Elop) went but it was the start of the end.

 

[Linguofreak]

What is rather remarkable is that Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, was at the helm of Microsoft's business software division before coming to Nokia and sealing the deal that made Nokia shift it's smartphone OS from Symbian to Windows Phone.
Now he'll head MS's devices division.

Yeah. If that doesn't shout "conflict of interest" in big, bold, flashing, all-caps red letters, I don't know what does.

 

[Hielor]

Maybe now Windows Phones will finally get free turn-by-turn directions back. They had it in WP7, then in WP8 it was dropped for an "app model." Nokia phones got an app for free, all the rest of us were left out in the dust with vague promises that we'd be getting a free solution soon.

At the time I bought my WP8, the HTC was far better than the Lumia options (a half-pound phone? Seriously, wtf).

I still don't have a good free turn-by-turn directions app. It's extremely annoying to not have the feature at all, especially after the previous version of the phone had a pretty darn good one built in...

One step forward, two steps back.

 

[Eccentrus]

And Blackberry will be up for sale soon, and If MS buy that one as well we'll see one hell of a monster corporate specialty mobile phone. On another note, I currently prefers WS8 phones precisely because of the lack of attention grabbing apps, but still is very connected to the services that I actually need, I'm eyeing for the Lumia 1020 ATM but unfortunately my side job is not doing so well these days