Slashdot Mirror
Nokia: Microsoft Must Evolve To Make Windows Phone a Success
DavidGilbert99 writes "Microsoft's priorities are Windows, Office, Xbox, and Surface. Windows Phone is no where near the top and that is the main reason why it has failed to make the impact many hoped for in the three years it has been around. While Microsoft can take the hit and play the long-game, the same cannot be said for Nokia, the other main player in the eco-system. While it has done all it can to evolve the platform, it needs Microsoft to step up and begin innovating. Bryan Biniak, Nokia VP, agrees: 'We are trying to evolve the cultural thinking [at Microsoft] to say 'time is of the essence.' Waiting until the end of your fiscal year when you need to close your targets, doesn't do us any good when I have phones to sell today.'"
If your company future depends on Microsoft innovating on your behalf ... you're already screwed.
I'm hard pressed to think of anything really innovative Microsoft has done in years -- mostly they look at what others are doing and copy it (or buy it).
If they're going to put out the Windows Phone platform and then wait around until people buy it to take it seriously, nobody is ever going to take it seriously.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Wasn't the reason to go with Microsoft that you could customize more(hence not need ms to greenlight api's) than, say, your own OS or android?
in Finland we have this saying ":D".
(Sure, for Nokia developing for windows phone is probably cheaper than the other platforms but that's just because "can't do it" is the line instead of "yes we can!").
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
What, at this late date, makes anyone think Microsoft is actually capable of evolving...?
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
when supposedly faced with the choice of remaining on the burning platform or diving into the cold sea, they decided the best course of action would be to tie themselves to a boat anchor and jump.
Well if Nokia financial situation becomes unbearable, I am sure microsoft can step up and buy her up, obviously at a discounted price. Which likely was the objective all along.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Microsoft OS: 90 bucks or whatever they're charging
Smaller ecosystem for apps
Compared to:
Larger ecosystem by orders of magnitude
An OS that doesn't cost a dime (unmodded)
Going with Microsoft on this is corporate suicide and the stock price chart shows it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=NOK+Basic+Chart&t=5y
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/06/the-final-reckoning-of-burning-platforms-memo-damaged-nokia-by-wiping-out-13b-in-revenues-and-destro.html
--
BMO
Nokia cuts its own throat and now has no one else to blame. Elop will quietly move back the MS once they are done.
Exactly zero people will be surprised.
It's not like Elop didn't know this would be a colossal clusterfsck. Why they didn't fire his ass on 2/12/2011, I'll never know.
An Nokia KNOWS a thing or two about how to be a market failure.
They (Nokia_) picked their cake, they can eat it.
They had things like the kin and zune as hints.
...you made a mistake by ditching symbian and focusing on Windows...hmmm.....
MS is spending most of their time putting out fires these days: Windows 8 has a horrible reputation and disappointing sales, Xbox has had to do a complete 180 after a disastrous E3, Surface has been a flop with an estimated 6M unsold units. WP8, while not having great sales, isn't in crisis mode.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
They really need to adopt "Fire Balmer" and "Fire everyone responsible for Windows 8" and "abandon mobile" and "release a Windows 9 that doesn't suck" or they're bankrupt. "Time is of the essence" just means rush something and release a half done, half thought out product.
Don't let MS buy them.
Be seeing you...
"it needs Microsoft to step up and begin innovating" ...I really hope they are not holding their breath.....
with the "Deal"
now we are on long term consequences, and everybody told you it is not a good idea to stick with !Win phone and nothing else.
"Apps" blah blah blah blah. I've got a couple of Windows Phones, and I really don't care about "apps". I use it to get stuff done, and it's much easier to get stuff done than people who have to go through their laundry list of "apps" on the other two devices. Windows Phones will become more popular once the "app" fad is over, and people (growups who aren't geeks), as a whole, decide that they're tired of dicking around with their phones all the time.
I don't respond to AC's.
Nokia had the opportunity to examine the OS up close I am sure before putting all their eggs in the basket. Saying now that the OS isn't what they wanted is different from Symbian how?
And they dumped Symbian.
Nokia isn't very innovative. I have hosts of their phones. And I have their earlier tablets. Molasses moves faster, and any development or updating was based around an old school of update slow, if at all, and avoid anything dramatic. Riddled by 'buy the next handset' if you want more - no company wrote off their newer stuff faster.
The N900 (with an updated screen) could have been the basis for an ongoing linux based phone - but not at molassess snail rate development. Nokia understand how to make hardware. The part they have utterly failed to grasp is that in the end, its the software that runs on the tin that actually ends up mattering much more than they believed it did.
Android and Iphone have brutally changed the old landscape. The older school mentality has no place left, and they will be evolved out. Throwing huge gasps of air (41MP cameras) grafted onto Phones with systems people don't want won't stop the drowning end.
Nokie still ship a lot of low end phones - That in the end might be there best market placement
We`re all equal
One is a guy who used to teach MCSE classes. The other a grandma out at the community garden.
The MCSE guy won't say anything bad about MS, but he did ditch the windows phone and get an android one.
The grandma didn't know what she was purchasing, and is very disappointed that none of the things her daughter can do with her phone (iphone) can run on the windows phone.
Tiny sample size, but that is about all there is. Looking at the logs for the captive portal at work (10,000 students), windows phone doesn't even make up 1% of logins.
Its dead MS. Give it up.
As for Nokia, they are moribund too. Terrible management. Not sure anything can prevent Nokia from becoming a zombie patent troll now.
So the gist of this article is that Nokia is doing fantastic things with hardware, but Microsoft isn't keeping up and holding Nokia back. If Nokia had control of the OS, they'd be in much better shape. They would have this freedom with Android AND instant access to its software market. And Maemo/Meego was a fine OS (I owned the n800 and n900), which shipped with Android app compatibility. It's clear that Windows Phone was a horrible choice. How could they not see this coming when everyone was yelling at them telling them they were making a mistake?
Nokia went in with eyes open. They took money from m$ft and partnered. microsoft is the new corporate master, Nokia the slave. Zune tanked. So what. Surface tanked. So what. Phone7 is tanking. So what. So long as Windows and office keep selling, m$ft has nothing to worry about. Even if phone7 dies, at least they took Nokia out of the Android ecosystem. Google can't buy Nokia if Nokia is already thrall to m$ft. And now Nokia is telling m$ft "we can't sell any phones because your product is crap". And m$ft is looking at Nokia and going "what? We paid you money, we have an agreement. If you can't sell any phones, that's your problem." I have no doubts that someone at Nokia took the money with every expectation that the $1Billion would spell the end of the company; they took the money, got a massive bonus and retirement package, then left the company, and don't care.
Come on Nokia, are you that dumb (oh wait, you are) that you are actually telling Microsoft that if they don't hurry, you are going to go bust and they can buy what they want of you for loose chance?
The Windows Phone platform turns a lot of otherwise not so smart people into blittering idiots. Take this gem:
You can't compare Windows Phone sales to Android and iOS because it has only been on the market a fraction of the time.
The truth? Windows Phones is now the OLDEST smartphone OS now Symbian has gone the way of the Dodo. MS has been trying for WELL OVER a DECADE. Yes, they keep renaming it in an attempt to wash away the stench of defeat... actually defeat is not the right word, the would imply they stood chance, I can claim I was defeated in the 1 mile race but it sorta looses any meaning if I never made it across the starting line.
Nokia bet its future on an OS from a company that hasn't managed to sell for over ten years. Why would it chance NOW when there are to OSes selling like hotcakes and a bunch of upstarts and re-entries fighting for the scraps. It like betting on the boxer who knocked himself trying to get into the ring in the next round because the next fight is on top of mount everest and everyone is bringing guns so his losing streak is... is there ANYONE who can walk upright who thinks MS was a good bet for Nokia?
Symbian was not dead yet, the N900 and N9 sold faster then Nokia was willing to sell them and Android is available if they wanted it. They HAD OS'es with proven track records. They went for the OS that didn't sell and has never sold. That is beyond risk taking, that is even beyond putting it all on one horse, that is insane. Personally I think Elop is even more a Trojan then most people realize. MS never bet on Nokia, they wanted to ruin them while they experimented and then hope to buy the assests cheaply and make their own phones.
You can't mis-manage a company like this by accident.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
All Microsoft problems really indirectly boil down to one problem. They try to be a licensing company, rather than a technology solution company.
This is why google nailed them in both search and phone and now tablet. Even IBM got the message, and moved toward a Linux datacenter strategy.
I just amazes me to see all their "reforms" all their "restructuring" all their products that have been doomed to fail, and they still don't get it.
Thanks for saying it out loud, Nokia.
I wish Nokia would just use/buy up Jolla (Sailfish OS).
Beautiful hardware meets beautiful software. They'd make lovely babies. Babies that'd I'd buy in a heartbeat.
Just dreaming out loud.
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
The MS Phone fanboy is an amazing critter, he can come up with a new excuse at the drop of hat.
And now the king of the crazies. People will stop wanting apps and entertainment on their phones any day now so then Windows Phone will sell because their old smartphone more then capable of NOT being used for apps and entertainment and just making calls will need to be replaced...
What?
If people get tired of their smartphone... why would they buy another one? Oh I get it, they are tired of having a choice of apps to install and instead want a store that has a more limited selection... yeah... that happens. I do it all the time, I am at my local supermarket and think "screw this choice, I am off to the little convenience store at the train station".
Fanboys in general tend to be a bit blind but MS Phone fanboys like the parent are insane. And for that matter childish. Basically a guy with the nick "DogDude" posting on a geek/nerd site is complaing about people not being grownup and/or being to nerdy/geeky.
It reminds me a bit of the Windows fanboys complaining Slashdot is to Linux friendly. Well piss of then to your own website... oh wait, there isn't one that is any fun. DogDude must hate this place filled with people who laugh at his phone but he has nowhere else to go because his mom won't take him across state to the other guy who bought a MS phone.
Sucks to be you DogDuge but don't worry, one day you will have bought the hip phone that makes you the envy of all... well not really but keep the dream alive, you and Ballmer and Elop, the true believers!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Microsoft's priorities are Windows, Office, Xbox, and Surface. Windows Phone is no where near the top and that is the main reason why it has failed to make the impact many hoped for in the three years it has been around.
Were it in the top it would still not do well. Like the submitter said, Windows is in the top, but MS is still screwing it up. Same with Xbox and Surface.
True, but Apple mostly improved upon the things they bought. Microsoft has a history of thinking "hmm, that's not quite right, it needs more cruft!".
No one consciously chooses a Microsoft [product|platform|environment] on it's merits alone. If it is chosen it is largely, if not entirely, because of external factors ,the dominant of which is market dominance. Microsoft have had a terrible history of being slow on the pivot with regard to changing markets. They are in actual peril and in fear of being bypassed by more agile competitors even those with their own problems of inertia.
What does JarJar's got to do with this phone bizz?
Microsoft needs to get out of the hardware market. The only successful hardware platform they have, (as much as I loathe it), is Xbox, and they lose money on the consoles, (so does Sony, they make it up on game sales). I probably can't mention the name Zune here without causing hysterical laughter, the surface isn't selling at half-price. Whenever I get a work phone with windows on it, I have to stop myself from throwing it out of a window.
Just give up and go back to making an OS that was at least better then your current models.
I think Nokia needs to create programs that will make the windows phone attractive to buyers. The phone is truly amazing, but the price tag is high. Maybe Nokia can make a cheaper smartphone with more memory etc, and stop wasting it's time blaming others for it's own short sightedness.
Headline should be "Microsoft Must Evolve To Make a Success"
Well as much as i'd like to blame it all on Elop, the whole management of Nokia has been fucking things up for ten years. Frankly all of them should be fired. Instead now the workers are fired and the company is in the toilet and the management collects the rest of the money as bonuses. If they manage to convince enough fools to buy these MS phones, and stay afloat, it's going to be shit like this the rest of the time until someone buys the company or it finally goes bankrupt.
The sad thing is, he probably didn't.
Maybe. Malice and stupidity and all that.
There is this story about a vain leader and his sycophants that they tell to little children as a cautionary tale and a kind of moral primer. The thing is, once they're all grown up and working for a Company, they pretend to forget.
My beard is getting grey and I have yet so encounter a situation where it isn't true, unfortunately.
Stick Men
Apple and the Android groups have one major advantage over Windows Phone: Each has a stunning amount of control over what they are releasing. HTC, Samsung, et al don't care what the market share of Android itself is so long as people want their phone. Not their OS, their device.
At the same time, the iOS and Android devices pay nothing per unit for the privelege of running their device on that platform. To develop your own flavor of android for your device is cheap and attainable. Drivers may be proprietary, but the chipmakers have nothing to lose by letting you use them. Even for iOS, Apple owns it and can install it as many times as they like without incurring additional cost. Microsoft, you can be sure, takes a different view. In fact, as of March, Nokia disclosed that for the remaining life of their existing Windows Phone contract, they have to pay Microsoft â500 million.I've got to admit that odds are, they'll come out in the black on this proposition in the end. But certainly with their pockets â500 million lighter than if they'd sold the same number of Android phones at the same price point. At â10 a license, that's 50 million units, and at â20 a license, that's 25 million units. If they sell only 10 million units, that's â50 per unit.
You don't get deep pockets by giving away unnecessary slices of your pie.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Starting by the board of directors. Microsoft has been in deep dodo for the last decade, what makes them believe there is any one competent in management there?
The best description on Slashdot I read about the MS-Nokia deal is:
Microsoft rides Nokia like a cowboy rides a horse untill it dies. Then they hop over to the next horse.
Well, don't worry about that. We can get you back before you leave. (Dr. Who)
Did this guy just say that they "are standing on a burning platform"?
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
I still don't get what Nokia gains from the exclusive deal with Microsoft. I understand what Microsoft gains from it, but Nokia? Why don't they just offer their phones with WinPhone AND Android, just like all their competitors? They're just sealing themselves off from a very large part of the market. MS can't possibly pay them so much bribe money as to make this "strategy" worthwhile.
Why a Brian Braniak quote? What does Mr Elop has to say? Has he declared a gift of a private island on his tax forms lately? Oh, sorry, no tax on offshore accounts.
I fear I already know the answers to this but just to be sure...
1) Can apps be installed from outside the Microsoft's marketplace? I'm talking about a simple download like .apks on Android, not jailbreaking or compling from scratch and uploading using the dev kit.
2) Is there a decent, usable development environment that is free as in beer?
I like Android but I think it would actually benefit from some competition with another mobile OS that can answer yes to both of these questions. In that case then I wouldn't mind seeing Microsoft actually pick up a little traction.
However, if as I suspect the answer is no then they can go rot in hell right alongside Apple. It's the application developers that make a platform worth using. They shouldn't have to shell out 100s of dollars just for the privilege of writing an app that only serves to help sell more phones nor should they be forced to kiss butt to get their app in the app store. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with an app store owner imposing whatever rules and/or fees they wish to use their service which is no doubt invaluable just for marketing alone. I just don't think they should be able to shut out all other avenues.
Windows phone would not be that bad if they allowed third party applications to be installed, made their skyhook/findmyphone panopticon shit optional.
Android is a mess, the dev environment sucks, delvik is not feature/performance competitive and permission list before running apps is a complete disaster. Users need to be able to tell apps what access it may have and be prepared to lie to the app. Here is my fake address book , here is my fake location ..etc.
iPhone I can't stand the control freak walled gardens, lack of choice/competition between device vendors, lack of removable batteries..etc.
What I would not give for a phone that just ran linux that just let me run whatever I wanted. I can live quite well without a pool of hundreds of thousands of poor quality apps from questionable vendors designed to serve ads and sell my personal information/spy on me to whoever is willing to pay.
Microsoft is a huge company with vast resources, the notion that they have to "prioritize" something because they can only do a couple things at a time is nonsense. Windows phone doesn't suck because Windows desktop has priority. By that logic, Windows 8 should be awesome....I know, stop laughing! Windows phone sucks for the same reason Windows 8 sucks: Microsoft has a hard time making non-sucky products, for a variety of reasons that are very hard to change in such a large bureaucracy.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
And how many PrimeSense gaming systems do you have in your house? Exactly.
Remember, Apple didn't invent the portable digital media player with the iPod. They looked at existing hardware like the Diamond Rio, and said "this is a great idea, and we can sell millions of these, but this crap user interface has to go."...
...and then they ripped off creative for the interface. Its quite famous is Creative's Zen patent., Apple ended up buying them of In August 2006, Apple and Creative settled the suit with Apple agreeing to pay Creative $100 million USD.
But don't let fact get in the way...and Prime-sense License the Kinect Hardware to Microsoft. Its their innovation get over it.
1: Ditch Microsoft before it's too late.
2: Buy QT back.
3: Buy Jolla and start making the phones your customers want.
Thanks, Kurt.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
If Nokia hadn't killed their wonderful flagship Communicator platform to jump on the oh-so-dull Crapple rounded rectangle touchscreen bandwagon a lot of their hardcore fans in the western world might not have defected (myself included). The E90 was a beautiful phone and Maemo looked a promising OS for a successor (though the renaming to something as silly as MeeGo was asking for it to die LoL!). A contemporary clamshell phone with dual screens and full QWERTY running Linux or Android would be just lovely for me. The closest thing I could find was the HTC Desire Z (HTC Vision) which was a nice keyboarded smartphone but is now getting dated. I hope this dumb touchscreen only fad dies soon! Nokia were once an innovative icon. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Your ad here.
Ericsson worked with Verizon to create LTE which could operate with Verizon's legacy CDMA network. By working with the telecoms to create LTE, Ericsson is going to benefit from decades of contracts to provide support and equipment to telecoms worldwide in the adoption of LTE.
Nokia chose to anger the telecoms by backing WiMAX in an alliance with Intel, WiMAX being promoted as a technology that could disintermediate the major carriers. Considering 9/11, this was an EXTREMELY bad time to threaten the US telecoms. Think about it. Nokia did not get access to Intel's fabs. Unfortunately for Nokia, in 2008, it became clear that its fab partner, Texas Instruments, was bowing out of its alliance. One can follow the ugly story of the Nokia-Intel alliance here. By backing the wrong technology, WiMAX instead of LTE, Nokia went from owning the IP for the entire wireless stack to selling it all off. So now Nokia has to go to another party for its wireless chips, in particular, for the upcoming LTE.
Only Nokia was at the same time engaged in an IP battle with Qualcomm, its real mortal rival. Qualcomm possesses the IP for interoperability with CDMA, Verizon's network. And Nokia lost that battle, an unprecedented IP settlement to the tune of a massive instant payment of roughly $2.3 billion USD.
So Nokia by not developing an LTE chipset found itself at the mercy of its mortal enemy, a company that would have been glad to have seen Nokia disappear from the face of the Earth a few years ago, especially as Qualcomm's business of licensing IP could be threatened previously only by the likes of European Nokia. And Nokia made itself into the mortal enemy of the US telecoms by pushing for WiMAX in its alliance with Intel, in the decade following 9/11.
What could have possibly pushed Nokia into making such an alliance with Intel and such a technologically and politically mistaken decision of pursuing WiMAX? I speculate it was all due to a fateful decision by the previous Nokia leadership to (badly) follow the advice of a fellow Finn, none other than Linus Torvalds . (And yes I get the irony that Torvalds was at one time working for a competitor to Intel, that's why Nokia's leadership clearly followed his advice horrendously.) "But it had a "Plan B", and had been considering it for years. In 2002, I'm told, Linus Torvalds convinced Nokia to create a Linux unit."
I'm not sure he was.
Nokia OWNED the low end market. Elop canceled it.
Photography is a hobby for me. So when I saw the new Nokia Lumia 1020 with an awesome camera, I immediately wanted one. The idea of a great camera that is always with me, in my pocket, is very exciting. But I am unwilling to make the switch to Windows from Android, for a variety of reasons.
I feel pretty confident in saying that Nokia would be selling a tonne more of this phone if it had Android on it. Maybe 5-10x. Is there anybody here that thinks that a Windows Lumia 1020 will sell more than an Android Lumia 1020? Anybody?
At some point they should seriously reconsider their Windows-only decision. Maybe they could support two OSes. I would suggest that they port Android to 1020 and see if it does well. If it poops on their Windows 1020 sales figures, and I am inclined to think that it would, then that might help them make up their minds.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And how come no one mentions Qualcomm as the company whose CEO should be a hero to every tech geek: Qualcomm's CEO DR. Paul Jacobs earned his Ph.D. in EECS from Cal-Berkeley. Whereas Nokia's pre-Elop leadership appears to have no idea of the coming technological trends that every other future successful player in the industry knew.
Nokia and Blackberry's problems are the same: many people already have smartphones that they tend to like. It's hard to get happy people to switch, so they're left with the unhappy and the curious and the ones who have no choice.
They haven't got a lock on the unhappy -afterall, they were displeased for some reason so they obviously have some sort of choosiness or needs.
The curious tend to be a flighty bunch flitting from one thing to the next new thing. There is no loyalty there.
And the forced? Not the best customers for life.
So what these two have to do is convince happy, contented existing smartphone owners to switch. Wow. Good luck.
Windows Phone doubly has a problem in that the name Windows does not conjure a lot of enthusiasm. And the Windows metaphor has nothing to do with the phone. It would have been better to call it something new and forget the Windows branding. No, not like Windows RT. Yet another thing named Windows that is not actually Windows. MSFT has got to stop calling everything they make the same name.
Sig for hire.
Please explain how Qualcomm is a winner over Nokia.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
The next big opportunity for LTE-related upgrading business is China, Ericsson having cashed in huge in the United States. What China desperately wants is for the TD-LTE variant that is being deployed on China Mobile to become an equal alternative to the FDD-LTE already deployed in say the US. They are willing to let the Europeans cash in and not just leave the business to home-grown companies such as Huawei, showing how eager the Chinese are becoming for European assistance.
It should offend anyone who follows tech if a company that had been a world leader for decades would listen to the bean counters and stop investing in a core technology which constituted a major part of that company's identity. That's exactly the sort of irresponsible and short-sighted decision-making that should be denounced forever for what it is, simply evil.
Well Nokia pre-Elop did exactly that. Nokia chose to disinvest from the wireless modem business, going from a position where they owned the IP for the entire hardware stack to simply selling it off.
And this was at a time when everyone else was starting to rush INTO the development of LTE chipsets not sell off the entire unit BEFORE the company was seriously tanking.
Incomprehensible and evil.
So Nokia builds a smartphone instead of a feature phone (FINALLY!), they don't have an OS for the thing, they license the Windows phone OS so that they at least have something to run on their first real Smart Phone they've ever built.
Then the thing flops.
This is Microsoft's problem how? Why weren't you doing Smart phones, or at least getting into them in the last near-decade like everyone else, Nokia?
How can you expect your first time to market with something you've never built before, and have a demonstrated historical inability to build at all, to be a success or failure based on a third party OS license?
Nokia was #1. Instead of going the path of creating their own fork of Android, they decided to do an unwise thing and partner with Microsoft. Nokia has innovated in hardware (see specs on their camera) but Windows Phone 8 is their crutch. No one else wants to touch Microsoft's garbage phone OS so Microsoft has effectively taken the great company Nokia was and played a large part in their failure (sorry 7-million unit sales is a shameful pitty compared to even 30-million units. Nokia is done). Microsoft provides no value whatsoever anymore. Just a short-bus kind of company that's run by a hack that if it weren't for a string for lucky break would be peddling used cars in California (yes, Ballmer is THAT bad). On a positive note it has been fun watching the company die streaming and Ballmer still f-ing clueless.
Nokia sold off their real hardware expertise for about $200 million USD before they even hired Elop. After that, Nokia was no better at hardware than an HTC.
It is getting obvious that Nokia made a bad choice: "If you sup with the devil you need a long spoon".
I think Microsoft has been evolving for a few years now. It started with Silverlight and spread to Asp.Net and even to Windows Phone. They now embrace open source software and even make some of their own projects open. They are in the process of accelerating their release cycles (something that the Silverlight team did from day one). They are adapting to changing conditions and that includes WindowsPhone.
The truth? Windows Phones is now the OLDEST smartphone OS now Symbian has gone the way of the Dodo. MS has been trying for WELL OVER a DECADE.
Completely different UIs. Stylus vs. fingers. Enterprise vs. consumer. Completely different application development and deployment models.
If you can't tell the difference between Windows Mobile and Windows Phone, perhaps you are the blithering idiot. I've driven cars for 15 years, but somebody who has driven big rigs for 5 years will have an advantage at driving big rigs.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
As a every day Maemo/Meego N9 user i can say that Nokia board have to take the full responsibility of electing a ex-M$ as a CEO. It is far too late to complain now. At the N9 time Nokia haved a strong potential in the smartphone market. The market demand forced me to develop for android, so I know it deeper that the 'user only' audience, but the swipe interface of the N9 stil outperform very easly the last android on the Nexus 10 or the Touchwize on the Galaxy S4 ( two of my usual target devices ).
Nokia board, a very large amount of people give you many warning the last 3 years: don't trust Microsoft. Search engine are full of references about this. You are insanely slow in your evolution process and even as you finally emit a tiny signal as today you manage to fail miserably in your analysis. The problem is not the Microsoft priority, the problem is Microsoft.