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Microsoft and Nokia Finally Sign Definitive Agreement
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft and Nokia yesterday announced the signing of a definitive agreement regarding their global mobile ecosystem partnership. We already know that Microsoft and Nokia will work together to reach out to developers, but the two have agreed to make Windows Phone developer registration free for all Nokia developers. There are also plans to open a new Nokia-branded global application store that leverages the Windows Phone Marketplace infrastructure so that developers can publish and distribute applications through a single developer portal to consumers that use Windows Phone, Symbian, and Series 40 devices. Lastly, Nokia will contribute its expertise in operator billing to ensure participants in the Windows Phone ecosystem can take advantage of Nokia's billing agreements with 112 operators in 36 markets."
w00t!
Who are they going to be reaching out to? The Windows developers that were already ignoring WP7, or the developers that got shafted by Nokia when they changed course?
I believe the new agreement optimally places the desk chairs for Nokia employees to have truly breathtaking views of the approaching iceberg.
Or perhaps I should say iCeberg.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Nokia profits slump with huge falls in North American division
. . .
In North America the performance was worse, with sales slumping 36% year-on-year, and by 40% compared to the previous quarter, but starting from a much lower base
http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/article/1066882/nokia-profits-slump-huge-falls-north-american-division/
I switched from the n900 to the motorola atrix and I'm going to say it: for a linux geek who doesn't care about an app market, the n900 (and its successor) beat the pants off of android devices. I would routinely go 3-4 days without charging vs my 36 hour android battery life, the slide out keyboard was pretty good and beats the on-screen keyboards any day, and multitasking without having applications hide in the background is still sorely missed.
Now the n900 wasn't perfect, but if it had a capacitive screen, 3g on AT&T, and a 1ghz+ chip, it would have been.
Desperate to stay competitive against iPhone and Android mobile devices, Microsoft has released a two-pound lump of actual cow faeces that they claim constitutes a phone.
Windows Phone 7, in development for several years, strips the mobile telephone down to its fundamental essence: futility, annoyance, malfunction, inconvenience and a socially unacceptable odour. Confounding analyst expectations, the turd is in fact shined.
US mobile carriers hailed the turd as the perfect physical complement to their world-famous customer service. "This powerful product will promote our growth!" said John Harrobin of Verizon Wireless. "We're marketing them as edible."
"We think we can really work the brand equity," said Steve Ballmer, modelling the optional shoulder-length rubber gloves. "Everyone works with our stuff all day every day. They know who Microsoft is and what we do."
"How about making our customers actually swallow our bullshit physically?" said John Harrobin. "Windows Phone 7 was my idea."
Photo: Steve Ballmer ecstatic at Windows Phone 7 sales.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Phonez. Phonez. Phonez. OmMyGawd! Phonez!
Let's get some Phones! Let's get some Phones!
This Phone Rulez! That Phone Sux! This Phone Rulez! That Phone Sux!
(Derivative work of Liam Kyle Sullivan)
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Good bye Nokia. It was nice knowing you. You should know from history that they will take your technology then shut you out.
The N95 was once the most popular phone. Then the iPhone happened. Then the iPhone was the most popular phone and Android happened, Then RIM introduces Ping and (at least in Holland) they sell a bundle.
People have zero brand loyalty or memory in the phone market. They buy whatever they want to, based either on some personal preference or because their cronies got one. It is funny with the RIM's. Both a business elite phone AND a phone for youngsters (Ping is cheaper then SMS apparently or easier, god knows, or cares)
Don't count Nokia out yet. MS might have had a long loosing streak but... well, they are used to it.
What is often missing is that Nokia got 1.00.000.000 in the deal. That funds a LOT of development. MS bought the 360 (which I note an awful lot of so called nerds here have got) with its Windows/Office income. It can buy a phone. If not this round, then the next and the next and the next.
There are worse places to be then at the end of a MS cash dump.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
S40 never have used Symbian OS. Series 40 software platform have always used NOS operating system (NOS = Nokia Operating System). S60, S80 and S90 software platforms have used Symbian operating system.
Nokia has released in last decade multiple different combinations of Symbian OS + S60 software platform (execluding S80 and S90 software platforms just now) and that has been one reason why developing applications for Nokia phones has been difficult.
Then Nokia got idea that it calls the old jungle of the Symbian+S60 as Symbian^1 and then transform to Qt versions as Symbian^2 and todays Nokia phones use Symbian^3 and there would have come out a Symbian^4 and so on. But Nokia throw away that naming and toke only the strong Symbian brand and calls its own software system as such, even that Symbian includes today a Symbian OS + S60 software platform and now Qt framework.
Nokia have used Linux OS (=Linux kernel) in Maemo and its next generation version, MeeGo. So Nokia had skills to make Linux OS work on their hardware systems and build a own software systems on it. But Nokia got something offered by Microsoft what it could not deny. It was promise to have bigger market share.
So today Nokia will have four OS's in use for mobile phones, NOS, Linux, Symbian and CE. In later Nokia throws away Symbian and Linux and Nokia will keep only NOS and CE, where NOS is for basic phones and CE in smartphones.
Android would be a best choice for Nokia but they were too scared to take the small leap of faith...
Your decision to partner with Microsoft is as sage and wise as allowing your balls to be shaved by a mental patient.
These phones cost 200 dollars!
...let get 'em!
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
Nokia has been kicking developers around for the past couple years.
and then developers were promised that Qt would allow great portability. Qt showed great potential.
Now, when developers started to invest considerable time with Qt, Nokia sends mixed signals or releases statements that are plausibly deniable about their commitment to Qt and Symbian's future.
Elop issued the burning platform memo to condemn Symbian, instead of allowing staff to work through the Symbian UX issues.
Recent releases and updates have shown considerable improvement with Symbian UX issues, just when the CEO gives a strategy to turn the big Nokia ship into the Microsoft vortex or whirlpool.
Developers need Qt as the life raft or life jacket to help them stay afloat in these turbulent waters.
Nokia should get Qt to be supported on WP and S40 phones.
Without any such concrete action from Nokia, most developers will move to Android or another platform.
LEVERAGE ! ECOSYSTEM !
yeeeeeeah. that gotta help nokia share price. not really :)
Rich
Bungie was a Mac company. You heard of them? Little project they did, called Halo. Cornerstone game for the xbox.
Good thing they did too. The game was supposed to be on the PC as well, where it would have been laughed of the charts for being an overly simplistic shooter.On the Xbox it scored big because there was nothing else and MS bankrolled them all the way.
And while Sendo was getting it hard up the ass, they could buy plenty of lube with the cash to got in exchange.
Getting the shaft is how a lot of people make their living. Money makes up for a lot of things.
Sure, Nokia MIGHT have made a come back with MeeGo. But now they got cash now. Surely that is all that matters? Right? RIGHT?!?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That said, I'm still scratching my head why Nokia didn't go with Android.
Because they don't want to fight for the barebones margins of being another Android handset maker?
And before someone will come back to try to dispute me read this. Apple makes rakes in 50% of the smartphone profits worldwide. Nokia rakes in 15%, RIM 14%. The other manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc) who are basically the most of the well-known Android handset makers are fighting over the last measly 20%. Why would Nokia want to fight a race to the bottom when it comes to profits?
And before someone tries to say "but that article is from October 2010!!!" to dispute its accuracy here is one from February of this year with more data that shows about the same breakdown.
And here is one from February with newer data showing about the same breakdown. Basically being an Android manufacturer is like being a PC manufacturer. It's a low-margin race to the bottom.
Android or Windows, you're a box shifter. All box shifters have razor thin margins.
Look to see the dev team layoffs coming in the next couple of years. Developers are a luxury that a box shifter can't afford.
Deleted
Because you don't get millions of dollars when you go with Android!!
Elop wants developers to focus on Microsoft technologies.
The full board of Nokia Oy appointed Elop.
Got it?
The developer tools were downloaded over 1.5 million times...
Seeing as you can't download XNA 4.0 without downloading the developer tools for WP7, I'm not surprised. Bundling is a trick. That particular number says nothing about the number of people developing for WP7.
Insert self-referential sig here.