UPDATE: Nokia's Windows Phone 7 Strategy Unveiled
5/31/2011 by: Marcus Pollice
Update May 31, 2011 at 10:46PM UTC - Nokia just released an updated outlook for both current quarter and the whole of 2011. Among substantially lowered revenue and ASP guidance they also noted that they no longer find it appropriate to give guidance for the full year, but will instead provide quarterly updates on the situation. Nokia also expressed increased confidence to ship a Windows Phone 7 based device by the end of the year. There you have it, Nokia admits to damage control mode.
Original article
Several days ago, we reported that Nokia could skip Windows Phone 7 entirely and jump on the bandwagon with a successor release dubbed Windows Phone 8 said to be released sometime in 2012. This was based on a Report published in a Forbes blog based on a statement of STMicroelectronics chief Carlo Bozotti who apparently scored a chip supply deal with Nokia. Now in another Forbes blog from the same author, there is additional info about WP7 products from Nokia based on the updated Mango release.
This information is based on statements of Nokia's Jo Harlow, Executive VP of Smart Devices. She didn't want to outright confirm that there will be the release of such a device in 2011, when at the same time stating that she will meet a deadline set by CEO Stephen Elop. Elop repeatedly stated, that he wants to ship a WP-based smartphone in 2011. So the target is still 2011, but Nokia doesn't want to make any promises.
If the company makes it, it plans to release not a single phone but a whole batch of devices. Thus you can expect a lineup from highest-end devices featuring a large screen and dual-core CPUs down to smaller devices with slower single-core processors. According to Harlow, they will carefully evaluate the pros and cons of such high-end components in terms of performance and battery life. Another topic of interest for future Nokia phones is NFC. Nokia already offered various phones featuring NFC in the past and continues to be committed to the technology.
Finally Nokia also works on a China-specific device, which means that the company might go ahead and include CDMA wireless technology. Phones featuring CDMA have been absent from Nokia's lineup for a couple of years. CDMA is very popular in the U.S., China and some countries in Africa. Previously Nokia focused on GSM which is primarily used in Europe. This could help Nokia to extend it's market share in parts of the world where it had only a minor presence until now.
Regarding tablets, for now Nokia wants to stay out of that business. Competing in that space would require true differentiation as Harlow puts it.
In other news, Nokia announced to provide further updates for phones based on the Symbian OS until at least 2016. This statement should calm some user concerns, as the phone giant is transitioning it's phones to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. Development of the Symbian platform has been outsourced to consulting firm Accenture. Earlier, Nokia has got lots of negative reports about moving away from open source and laying off roughly 7000 employees.
In any case, the company definitely needs some fresh wind as the Nokia's current market share contains a lot of fuel for doomsayers.
Tags:
Nokia, NOK, Microsoft, MSFT, Windows, Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 7.5, WP7, WP7.5, Mango, Mango OS, Forbes, STM, STMicro, STMicroelectronics, Carlo Bozotti, Jo Harlow, Stephen Elop, Smart Devices, smartphone, superphone, NFC, on-line banking, m-banking, m-money, mobile money, CDMA, GSM,
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