Nokia about to do dumo - Alliance with Mirosoft?

If Nokia makes an alliance with Microsoft for WindozePhon, they deserve to be technically and economically wiped-out, snuffed, and disposed.... IMHO

Nokia: we're 'standing on a burning platform,' Apple on top

updated 09:20 am EST, Tue February 8, 2011

Nokia has been circulating a memo that has fueled beliefs the company is about to undergo a major platform shift. The note by new company CEO Stephen Elop characterizes Nokia as "standing on a burning platform" where its insistence on Symbian and the status quo has left it attacked on all sides. A TechCrunch copy of the note from late Tuesday has Apple's iPhone controlling the high-end, Android the mid-range and a slew of Chinese companies getting the bottom.

The only choice for Nokia is to jump off of its platform, as it was better to embrace the unknown than to face destruction with what you know, the memo read. More details would be made public at the company's February 11 meeting, but how many of these would be publicized would depend on how much attention Elop wanted to get.

It further supports notions that Nokia may be on the verge of a platform switch that would see it drop one of its Symbian editions or even MeeGo in favor of a common platform such as Android or Windows Phone 7. A "well-placed" insider expected Windows Phone 7 to be the choice, but that it might not be ready until 2012. Microsoft's OS could end up being the major platform for Nokia in the end, another source said.

An OS shift would be part of a much larger attempt to break back into the US after years of declining share during the relative neglect of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's reign as CEO. The company is believed to be putting down significantly stronger roots in the tech-savvy San Francisco Bay Area and acknowledging that Europe is no longer the center forsmartphone development. Nokia has had a presence in the US for years and insisted repeatedly during the Kallasvuo era that it was due to recover, but it never committed significant efforts to getting smartphones through to carriers and instead hoped customers would pay the frequently $500-plus prices for unlocked devices.

A Windows Phone 7 switch would be a gamble for Nokia. The OS has tightly controlled hardware specifications and limited customization that would erase Nokia's self-proclaimed uniqueness. The OS also has yet to gain any significant traction and wouldn't necessarily be helped by Nokia, even if it counted on its large smartphone market share as leverage. Android is theoretically better for Nokia as it would maintain an open platform and allow much more customization.

and some other news on the topic...

 In one way or another, both Nokia and Microsoft  are in mobile market share hell --Nokia in the U.S. (low single digits) and Microsoft globally (3%). With exclusive rights to running Windows Phone 7 on its devices, Nokia could get out of the U.S. gutter and grow some share.

 Nokia will likely not agree to the locked-down Windows Phone 7 design specifications that are now being forced upon phone makers.

In his letter, Ahmad suggests Nokia should build its high-end smartphones around Windows Phone 7 and eventually bring costs down to get its smartphones into the mid-range market. Nokia, writes Ahmad, should also be given the leeway to hang on to its Symbian OS and push it out on low-to-mid market smartphones.

Veteran Microsoft watcher and ZD Net blogger Mary Jo Foley writes that granting such leeway is essential to any Microsoft-Nokia mobile partnership ever happening.

"Maybe Microsoft, hoping to boost its market share in a fell swoop a la Yahooin the search space, will bend the rules and give Nokia more leeway," Foley writes. "If not, color me skeptical of Nokia going the WP7 route."

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