Rumours are rife that NOKIA may be announcing Windows Phone 7 as a partner, having previously partnered could it be that NOKIA are lining up the Windows platform for “a major platform shift”
Although these rumours have been around for a while, what makes these more believable is that recently-appointed CEO Stephen Elop, still maintains a good relationship with Microsoft and has been given orders to take Nokia in a new direction, a more profitable direction, having already toned down the SYMBIAN foundation, and demanded shorter gaps between announcement and realise of future products.
He hinted a few days ago that joining an existing ecosystem could make sense. Engadget states that a trusted source of theirs has now told them that the tide has turned and this appears to be happening at Capital Markets Day.
One of Nokia’s existing platforms will be dropped as a direct result. Surely not Symbian, though terribly out-of-date, it remains popular in Europe and emerging markets, MeeGo is technically promising but has yet to make any impact in the market.
Perhaps the E7 has been delayed so it can launch with Windows Phone 7 on board ? Just kidding!
The E7 by Nokia is already launched – it is available on Amazon.com
Nokia have to do something positive. Symbian^3 has been a disaster so far. Just more of Symbian^2, just tarted up for the touchscreen generation. Having used a Nokia N8 for a month I can safely say that I would not want to touch another one again until they get their OS arses in gear and sort out something decent. The ship has sailed and left Nokia standing on the jetty.
No-one else is touching WP7 – why would Nokia?
Everyone focusses on Q4 2010 figures, and says that Android have a bigger place in the smartphone world than Nokia, but they might have forgotten that Nokia have already sold hundreds of millions of smartphones, so the “mindshare” is still not decided. Let’s not forget that when the iPhone came out people flocked in their millions to buy it, and those same people are now looking for alternatives. Android is not immune. I know that Symbian needs a few things tweaking (web browser being the main one) but on so many levels the OS is superior (unless all you’re looking for is a fancy look and feel in which case go for Android) and the business world (NOTE: not the USA business world – the WHOLE world) is used to configuring Blackberry and Symbian devices for its workforces. If I was in charge of IT in a major corporation I would be tetchy about devices which are tied so closely to Google services, especially given google’s history on harvesting data…
If I’m wrong then fair enough – I’ll have to stick with a Nokia E7. Symbian will live on though. It was EPOC with Psion and it survived the jump to Nokia, so it’ll keep going.
It doesn’t matter, because they are in red and are bleeding money with IPhone going to Verizon and AT&T starting to put out some high phones coming in the next weeks and months. WP7 has a great os, but horrible advertising ads to promote their product. Nokia would be a great partner and then fix the ads and get the updates on time.
@Danny: If you didn’t like Symbian^1 (there was no Symbian^2), why did you buy a Symbian^3 phone? The reason I am choosing a Symbian^3 phone is precisely because I like Symbian^1 phones. My suggestion is that *you* should have tried something different, rather than telling everyone else that *they* should try something different. If Symbian^3 has been such a disaster, how did Nokia sell several million smartphones in Q4 2010, despite the N8 being late? Symbian^3 has only been a disaster for you.