Transcript: Nokia CEO at MWC 2011 w/ Q/A

Personally I feel much better about Nokia's decision after watching that event. Choosing Android was certainly not an option, and Elop gave a very good reason why. Hoping of going strong with MeeGo is indeed a very big bet with very big risk. Going Windows Mobile and continuing to keep working on Symbian with MeeGo (even at reduced resource level) seemed the best and fastest way to "get back on top" as some might say. I personally feel that Nokia never stopped being on top, but it was not looking good for the long-term, and now it actually does. Elop said that Nokia now has a firm goal set to achieve, something that it lacked in the past with the evolution of smartphones. I took in their decision on Friday very bad and even felt betrayed, but slowly it is starting to make more sense. I hope that more and more people will begin to feel that way.
 
There's still room for a third option.

Android was horrible before 2.0. Unfortunately for Nokia and Microsoft, they're going to have to go above and beyond that if they want this to work.
 
iOS was also pretty bad before 2.0, although I have to say it hasn't really improved much since then, and WP7 is already past what iOS had for 2.2.1, and with C&P in the next update will have surpassed 3.1.3 and arguably 4.2.1 by then. That's pretty good starting out, when it only takes them 1 or 2 updates to catch up with iOS.

Android might take a bit more for WP7 to catch up with in all areas, but it's also taking a different approach so it's less of a direct comparison than iOS is.

The reason WP7 isn't selling so quickly is people are waiting for the updates to cover the features they need. People who don't need anything specific (much like early iPhone adopters) are quite happy with WP7, it's the people who are reliant on a specific app or feature who are holding off (in my case it's Google Maps for transit directions - although ignoring that Bing maps works better, and before switching to Mobilicity SIP). Some of the app dependent stuff WP7 might never get, but it'll also get a few here or there that aren't available on other platforms. Also, once it has hit a couple updates it'll be the most appealing first smartphone for people who haven't had one before.
 
Played with another windows phone today. And afterwards in a weird way I almost "craved" flicking those smooth transitions on my own phone. I mean it really is an experience I'll give it that.

I did try more functions like playing music and then trying to stop the song from elsewhere in the OS, used the lock screen, etc. Android status bar seems the most elegant solution by far. But windows phone really is slick. If nothing else, its a novel look and paradigm compared to apple and android.

The problem is sometimes the best thing, or prettiest thing, doesn't always win consumers. And of course the whole counter culture of open source against the big closed Microsoft. Good luck to them.
 
OK, can someone ask the dev team a few q's at MWC...like what does firmware updates through the life of the device..what does that mean? Last year, the 'who gets free nav and who doesn't'....also, the 'waiting for a firmware update for N97...Really leaves you wondering. More like...leaves you hanging. Is 18 months EOL now for a device ? We don't know. N8 looks nice, E7 looks nice. Im thinking the big picture is turn these $500+ purchases into paperweights in a year. Knowing the symbian dev team resources will probably start to dwindle as they convert to MS dev team....Who knows?
 
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