Nokia's Microsoft Hookup Would Have Made More Sense Long Ago

by Sam Dean - Feb. 14, 2011Comments (1)

When Nokia recently announced that it would be using Windows Phone 7 for its smartphones, many people missed an important fact, which is that current Nokia executive Stephen Elop is a former Microsoft executive. The partnership comes, of course, after Nokia and The Symbian Foundation dragged their feet for so long in pursuing an open source smartphone platform, that Google's Android started eating their lunch. It's probable that in crafting the partnership with Microsoft, Elop envisions leveraging Microsoft's might and reach in the business market--mostly based on Windows' might and reach. But the irony is that Microsoft has been forced to become much more open than it ever was before, and the Nokia/Microsoft hookup would have made more sense when Microsoft was less open.

Nokia, of course, has been running scared in the smartphone market. As GigaOM notes:

"It’s crazy to think the world leader in smartphones still doesn’t have a credible answer yet to the iPhone, more than three years after the iPhone’s launch. Microsoft’s OS may be a more attractive alternative than Android for Nokia. It is, despite some deficiencies, very polished and it would seem to have fewer patent concerns, something Google’s Android is having to deal with."

But the problem Nokia will face is that Microsoft isn't the same Microsoft. A big part of the reason that Windows is on 90 percent of business desktops, and many businesses are tied to Microsoft Exchange for their messaging infrastructures, is that historically the company locked down loyalty to its platforms through practices that were eventually forced to become more open. Have you tried getting your Microsoft Outlook-based email on the iPhone or on a BlackBerry? It works flawlessly, and in the old days it wouldn't have. Nokia won't get the traction that it seeks in the business smartphone market through its Microsoft deal because Microsoft itself has dragged its feet in the mobile market.

As Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes:

"Microsoft, on the other hand, has always been a mobile operating system failure. Unable to squeeze out its enemies on phones with the strong-arm tactics that proved so successful on the desktop, it was forced to compete on features and quality on phones and Microsoft failed, and then failed again, and it’s still failing today with Windows Phone 7."

Windows Phone 7 has actually gotten many good reviews and represents an admirable new mobile effort from Microsoft, but the wind is at the back of the iPhone and Android. Nokia remains the leading hardware player in the smartphone market, but there are barbarians at the gate. With its new CEO hailing from Microsoft, Nokia is trying to tie its success to Microsoft's might, but smartphones don't represent a market where Microsoft is currently leading the way, and developers aren't turning out in big enough numbers for Windows Phone 7. And Microsoft can't tie people to Windows and the Exchange messaging platform as it once could. In every way, Nokia's latest move looks desperate.