“Microsoft Corp. completed the takeover of Nokia Oyj’s phone business, ending a seven-month wait to renew its assault on the mobile market and leaving the Finnish company seeking growth in wireless networks,” Adam Ewing reports for Bloomberg. “The final price may be ‘slightly higher’ than the 5.44 billion euros ($7.5 billion) announced in September, Nokia said today. About 30,000 employees are transferring to Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft as part of the transaction, which was delayed amid regulatory scrutiny.”
“Microsoft is gaining a device business that it’ll rely on to catch up with Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the tablet and mobile-phone markets,” Ewing reports. “Nokia is left seeking a turnaround for its network-equipment business and is said to consider the division’s head, Rajeev Suri, as chief executive officer to challenge rivals such as Ericsson AB.”
“The purchase of the unprofitable division makes Microsoft the world’s second-largest maker of mobile phones with about 14 percent of the market,” Ewing reports. “In smartphones, the most profitable part of the industry, Microsoft will continue to lag far behind rivals. Apple and devices running Google’s Android operating system accounted for about 96 percent of the 290 million smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter, according to IDC. Devices using Microsoft’s Windows Phone software had 3 percent of the market.”
MacDailyNews Take:
Apple’s iPhone is a “niche product.” – Nokia’s then-CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, April 17, 2008
Ewing reports, “Nokia, once the smartphone market leader, is evaluating its strategy for its future without the phone business.”
MacDailyNews Take:
Maybe Nokia should concentrate on their specialty — crap margin, low-end, mechanical-buttoned candy bar cellphones — hope they can coast along on emerging markets while they try to figure out what businesses to try next (kitchen appliances? floor wax? breakfast sausages?) before the money runs out? – MacDailyNews Take, September 10, 2010
Ewing reports, “Microsoft unveiled this month an updated version of its Windows Phone software with voice-search features, and said it’s offering the platform for free for small phones and tablets as part of CEO Satya Nadella’s turnaround [attempt]. Nadella, who was named CEO on Feb. 4, is working to remake Microsoft for an era where smartphones and tablets have become central.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As most of us learned by kindergarten, if not earlier: Two wrongs do not make a right.
More weight in the Titanic, that should help it float better.
They like to think of it as ballast to hold it upright while it goes down.
At least it will sink nice and evenly below the waves of bad leadership and poor vision. Microsoft fundamental issue is it has come to be mistrusted by partners and consumers alike who have been left high and dry once too often. Regaining trust is a lot harder than to have worked hard not losing it in the first police.
When WP 7 came out it was going to be the death of the iPhone. IT loved Windows and would flock to the Win phone. Not only did WP 7 or WP 8 not hurt iOS, it did nothing to Android or Blackberry. MS is now desperate. The next wave of computer users, teenagers and emerging markets, are entering the market with smartphones and tablets. Not laptops and desktops. I think MS is now taking on Android more than Apple. With Nokia MS can push the cutting edge phones and take on top of the line Android phones. Giving the OS free to OEMs that produce small phones and tablets they hope to take the low end market. If they succeed Android would loose market share and be in a fight for the low end phones that give them the high sales numbers. If MS looses this battle then they loose the future. Either way Apple will be able to take more of the high end, the sweet spot for the future.
You lost me at “cutting edge,” you are speaking about M¢ after all.
Maybe Microsoft should buy Lenovo or Hewlett Packard or both. That should really help them do what they are doing ‘for as long as it takes’.
Nokia’s phones weren’t that great to begin with. I remember those phones from the late 90s. They were big, bulky, and hard to hold. I was more of a Motorola fan back in the day. They should stay in the 90s, along with Yahoo, “Xtreme!” clothes, and boy bands.
…and AOL.
Exactly. I never owned a Nokia phone in their heyday to begin with as they looked like junk. Funny thing is, they STILL look like junk.
The sad part is, Windows Phone 8.1 is way better than any Android version I’ve seen. I’m blown away of the fact that it’s actually pretty damn good.
Still not iOS, but pisses me off that it’s not even tickling Android…
Microsoft is not perceived by the general consumer or the technorati as any kind of innovator. Deserved or not (not) Android is thought of as a more innovative OS ands Gaggle a more desirable company to link to. There’s also the problem of the Windows phone being perceived as “my father’s Oldsmobile.”
That is when Apple isn’t taking away most of the intelligent mindset.
I agree 100%. I myself am not a Windows lover. I stopped in 1998, and never looked back. I got my Windows phone by pure chance. My carrier doesn’t carry iPhones, and I didn’t want another Android phone. So I was like “if it does what my old crappy phone does better, I’ll take it”. And, to be honest, I felt a little… dirty about using a Windows product again (my friends know, I swore never to use Windows in my life ever, and I bad mouthed Windows and Microsoft since 1998).
Now, I have no experience with Windows Phone 7 or any previous versions. I started with 8 and now using 8.1. Again, it’s no iOS (I have and iPad 2 and 2 iPod Touch, which I feel still superior) but it’s not half bad. And once again, I feel a little dirty about saying nice things about a Microsoft product. But I’m no fundamentalist. If Microsoft does something right, I’ll acknowledge it.
In this case, I have to admin, I like Windows Phone 8.1. I’d say “I hate to admit”, LOL! Still to very fond of Internet Explorer. I strongly belive (continue believing) Windows Phone needs a Webkit based browser. I know it’s not gonna happen. But other than that, works pretty well.
Contrary to most people, I’d like to see Microsoft innovate and compete. Contrary to many people, I think Satya Nadella is a positive change. And let me remark, I’m not saying “innovate and compete AGAIN”. What I mean is “innovate and compete FOR ONCE”. The past is the past, Microsoft has the cash and the resources to do things right. They know they are losing marketshare, and they’re “Under New Management”. They have all the ingredients to do it right.
It’s up to them not to screw this golden chance up….
I am not as confident of this new management as you primarily because he was promoted from within so the same culture pervades and then the fact Billigan and Skipper Steve are still lurking around with truly nothing to offer Microsoft for the future, Gates & Ballmer should really just leave as neither has the talent, competency or vision to chart Microsoft’s new course. Restoring trust to the brand will be some trick.
No offense, but I just can’t agree with this. I would rather have an Android than anything M$. Sorry, but it’s true. I used a Windows 8 computer some time ago, and it was frustrating. I can’t imagine Windows Phone to be any better. If I were to use anything not Apple, (and that would be as likely as Miley Cyrus putting on clothes) it would have to be Firefox OS. Yeah, the mobile scene is THAT bad, but even small start-ups, and yes, even Android is better than anything M$ farts out.
None taken.
I wouldn’t touch a Windows PC. I had to use a Win8 computer from a customer, and it was a mess.
The reason I went with the Windows phone other than a new Android was that at least Microsoft is respecting Apple’s patents and paying them for them.
Someting that Google’s not doing.
But once again, I’m blown away of the fact that Windows phone crashes less than my old Android. The experience so far has been the total opposite of what the Microsoft experience has been.
Having said that, i haven’t try the latest versions of Android, so I can talk only from my very personal experience…
I simply don’t get it?
7 years late to the game and they buy what seems to be a 4th rate loser?
I don’t see MS/Nokia Oyj being #3 even by 2020. A last gasp by Ballmer?
Ballmer beat up the Microsoft Board to acquire Nokia which will prove to be a costly mistake as it takes the Redmond company nowhere. It’s the mistake many companies make assuming if they put together the same ingredients as their competitors they will have similar success. And we all know there’s far more to it than that. The fundamental culture and DNA core at Microsoft is what causes the epic FAIL.