Windows Phone 7: how will it impact Nokia?

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angelwithhorns2894

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I haven't followed the recent WP7 news super-closely but overall I am quite impressed. Basically Microsoft appears to have reached rough parity with Android in terms of the quality of hardware and interface pretty much out of the gate. Obviously it will take some time for the platform to reach 100,000+ apps of Android but MS appears to be very aggressive on this score as you would expect.

So how does this impact Nokia's OS strategy. Basically I think it will be the nail in the coffin. By the time Meego is launched WP7 will have acquired a fair amount of momentum making it even more difficult for Nokia to catch up. However this may not be a bad thing since I believe Nokia's best chance is to become platform-neutral and produce hardware for other OS's. A successful WP7 might accelerate that process. If Android is the dominant open OS then Nokia might be legitimately be worried about becoming too dependent on Google by producing Android phones. If WP7 is successful that becomes much less of a worry since there will be another major OS to choose from.

Of course it doesn't hurt that Nokia's new CEO is from Microsoft. I believe that is a signal that Nokia knows it's in trouble and will be willing to take radical steps. I think they will give their OS's a few quarters but by this time next year I expect they will be seriously considering producing Android and Windows Phone devices.
 
Well, let's wait and see how well the WP7 will actually do in the market place (globally in particular) - it may not be as long a nail as MS hopes.

Let's also wait and see how first Meego steps up the UI/UX game on Nokia's side, and then S^4.
 
See, I don't think Nokia has the luxury of waiting.:hehehe:

As I have mentioned I think the basic problem for Nokia is its inability to develop the kind of excitement in the developer community that Android and iOS have. Part of the problem is that Nokia is European and the cutting edge of the software industry is still in the US. And Nokia is a mostly hardware company competing with the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft which have enormous experience with software. I just don't see how it's going to catch up.

Now the launch of what may well be another major smartphone platform will make it even more difficult. Will US developers really want to develop for a fourth or fifth platform particularly one with very little presence in the US? Basically it raises the bar which Meego will have to clear to even be competitive.

I am certainly not giving up on Nokia. They definitely produce good hardware and if the N8 ran Android 2.2 it would probably be my next phone. And even their software is improving and Meego could well be a great OS. I just think their delay with Meego has been extremely damaging for their OS strategy. Andorid has raised its game in the last six months and Nokia really needed a competitive OS this year. The seemingly successful launch of WP7 makes things even worse.
 
Up till now Windows has been a disappointment to me with mobile phones.



With that said, I'm still looking forward to trying 7 and hope it does well to keep everybody else in check...
 
Not saying they have the luxury, but that that's the reality, and that its premature to say whether WP7 is a nail (or how big of a nail in Nokia's coffin. Frankly, I haven't seen the coffin even... :)
 
I don't know, no tethering, needs MS Live ID, no multitasking, Bing search button cannot be configured, no copy and paste, no flash, no backward compatibility, no micro sd. Looks like they are trying to imitate Apple and we all know how "good" they are at that. Maybe if you have a Zune and an Xbox 360 and don't care about the lock down or want to get another ROM for it.
 
MicroSD cards have been confirmed for WP7. Additionally, copy and paste is coming, so is tethering. I wouldn't worry to much about the bing button, I'm sure there will be apps for google, yahoo, etc... I'm not too excited about needing a Windows LIVE ID or the lack of flash or silverlight but I think the platform shows promise. The one thing I find the platform to lack is hardware keyboards, and front facing cameras. Only one phone has front facing camera, and only two phones on the GSM side sport hardware keyboards.

I take it back, a lack of a usb mass storage mode is unforgivable. Im not adopting WP7 until they get that in there.
 
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The problem with WP7's microSD/expandable memory implementation is that to change cards you apparently have to do a factory reset of the phone. It looks like WP7 joins the storage devices into a storage pool. It's an interesting way of doing things, but it also sounds really inconvenient for anyone that swaps SD cards regularly.
 
Main disadvantages:

•No system-wide file manager
•No videocalling
•Limited third-party apps availability
•No Bluetooth file transfers
•No USB mass storage mode
•No multitasking
•No copy/paste
•Too dependent on Zune software for computer file management and syncing
•No music player equalisers
•No Flash or Silverlight support in the web browser
•No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far
•No DivX/XviD video support
•No internet tethering support
•Memory cards are not natively supported by the OS
 
It's not a question of relative spec sheets. You can easily make any offering look meh by listing its various faults. Every OS and product has its little idiosyncrasies and as predominantly Symbian users we should be appreciative of this fact. Those who live in glass houses, etc. I think it's more reasonable to look at 7 in its entirety as a new offering from a major corporation with a lot of money to spend and excellent carrier and OEM support. There will be substantial advertising. There will be substantial carrier subsidies and further device features. This will sell units, which should in turn support a development community, which will sell units, etc.

I have no doubt 7 will at least do "OK" for Microsoft. The question is how it will impact Nokia... Well I think 7 will probably do better in the USA than it will anywhere else. Since Nokia has little presence in the States, at least it won't be too hurt. It will just make selling future products in the States even harder for Nokia but beyond that I don't know that expecting significant fallout would be rational.

Let's see what happens and how 7 sells before speculating.
 
It is missing many basic things I can't live without. Symbian gives me a sense of freedom, I just can't have someone put a restriction on me, and tell me what software I should use to transfer music, or to activate my phone, or where I should have an e-mail account so that I can use my phone. Fcuk that. But people like me are a very small % and it doesn't make much of a difference to the market. Here in the US it is all about carrier support, and Microsoft has that, so it will make an impact for sure. I mean.. apple sold millions of phones that lacked everything WM7 is lacking now (it didn't even have MMS!!!) in the US, manly because of carrier support. The big difference is that in '07, most people didn't even know that a phone can do copy/paste, multitask, or have a file manager... and no one cared. Since then however they gradually added these things and now WM7 will seem limiting, at least at first. We will end up having iOS and WP7 fighting over the market share apple holds currently. Android will be way ahead going head to head with Symbian. In other words, it will not impact Nokia/Symbian too much.. it will impact iOS mostly, because its targeted at the same audience/market.
 
this is a very big concern for the few s60 users on nokia hardware who have their "checklists". it's not even on the fricken map to the folks that will walk into ATT and TMO stores and go "wow that looks so cool"....
 
It won't be much of a factor for Nokia in their biggest cash cows, the emerging markets (although the 20% drop in India should be a huge red flag).

It will most definitely be a factor in their prime, but quickly diminishing, European market. In the U.S., it won't matter, since as we all know, Nokia isn't a player here.

If anything, the arrival of WP7 increases the importance of Meego for the Finns.

I think their biggest problem is that Nokia will now be competing with yet another OS (and Microsoft's check book) for developer attention.
 
Don't believe what they say about Micro SD. They will put Micro SD on SOME phones, not others. And for these, it cannot use standard Micro SD cards but a secure (and expensive) one.

Here is the catch. Removing the card causes both the phone and the card to CLEAR RESET. Wipes out all your apps, data, information and restores the phone to a clean state.

I find the marketing behind WP7 to be disgusting and dishonest. Say it outright, you can't have user and hot swappable SD cards. Don't point to the existence of Micro SD slot, it is simply not the same.

If you plan on using hot swapping user installable/removable micro SD, you cannot consider WP7 an option.

As for cut and paste, they can include that in the future but there is another problem because it doesn't have a very good text selection process.
 
Add to that is the current lack of variety. WP7 is supposed to have three platforms, but only one is released. You got ten models but all of them are priced way north of the budget for a SIM less no contract phone. Looking for at least 675US for the Omnia 7 for example, and about 800 for the HD7. You might as well buy an iPad.

What I can see from these phones, is competition against the high end E7 on the high end consumer and business market. But I feel that the N8, C7 and C6-01 would be much better priced, with their inevitable discounting from the low to the higher ceiling of the mid end market which is the range of the meat is.

US and UK economies are not doing great by forecast and sooner or later that's going to affect the superphone business.

I have to say the LG phones just look ugly in my opinion too. And there is a problem with some apps that don't go horizontal if you're in landscape mode. This is *****y for a slider.
 
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