Over the past few years Nokia has seen its market share fall at an alarming rate, as the likes of Apple and Google became the in thing. It seemed that no matter what Nokia would do it was not enough, so the final thing they thought they could do was merge its software with another company. There had been rumors that both Google and Microsoft were in the running, but the latter seemed the best choice to most, which is why the news this morning came as not surprise to us.
We first assumed that Nokia would just merge with Windows Phone 7, but it seems that the Finnish company needs to integrate more of Microsoft’s technology and vice versa to take on Apple and Google’s dominance. However, WSJ say that the main part of this deal is with Nokia using WP7 as its main platform.
This will certainly send mixed signals to other handset and mobile OS companies, one that the once big fish is drowning, but two that they have the backing of a huge shark that has been waiting to attack — sorry for the analogy. Like we said above, this merger is not just about the use of the mobile OS, there is so much more to it.
Microsoft Bing will be the search engine of choice for Nokia in the future, but Windows Phone 7 devices will gains access to Nokia Maps. WP7 users will also benefit from the use of the Ovi Store, as this will now be integrated with Microsoft’s Marketplace, which should allow for more choice of content — whether it will be able to compete with Apple’s App Store remains to be seen?
Bloomberg reports that following the announcement by the Nokia CEO, shares fell by 9.8 percent; we will have to wait and see if this bounces back after investors have had time to digest the information that is before them. This looks to be the company’s final effort to revive itself, if not then they will be in real trouble.
What do you think of the software partnership with Nokia and Microsoft?
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