We've recently been following (from a distance of course) Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, to find out as much as possible with the Microkia partnership, and how this could affect both users of Windows Phone 7 and Symbian. We've already covered how Nokia are looking to take a customised approach to WP7, add some features for both carriers and users, while bringing specialised hardware to the table in Q4. Stephen was at Uplinq 2011 and was talking about how Nokia have a focus on WP7 as opposed to other OEMs.
We must first get the news out in the open that Nokia will be working closely with Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson on their upcoming handsets (no plans have been scrapped yet), which we covered a while ago when the CEO of ST-Ericsson, Carlo Bozotti, spilled some beans that they would be one of two chipset suppliers for Nokia. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how Nokia plans to out-do other OEMs with their "focus".
It's this focus that Stephen has been preaching in presentations, with how Nokia will be developing and building hansets solely for WP7. Samsung, HTC and other WP7 manufacturers all have stakes in the Android market. Nokia will be able to focus entirely on the advancement of WP7, which other OEMs could do but don't seem to for the time being. If anything, this will increase the bar of quality and specifications found on devices. Hopefully this will introduce a norm to have an SD slot, or increased memory at least. We have to remember Zune is dead and WP7 is to become a smartphone and a media player, it must have more than 8GB storage. Incredible camera and dual core processing would be nice too, right?
As seen in the image above, Nokia plan to aid Microsoft in not only providing their iconic hardware designs, but by completing the mobile ecosystem with mapping, navigation, location-based apps and services, operator billing, languages and more. Microsoft have been lacking languages and Marketplace support in a number of countries where WP7 handsets are sold or used.
Not only does Mr Elop wish to bring a more complete system to users, but operators are to be supported too through operator customisation, carrier billing, network & data efficiencies and marketing.
Should Nokia come through with these plans and provide the kick to WP7 that it so desperately needs from the OEMs, then 2012 should be a very different story in terms of the negative publicity the platform has received through sales figures and lack of support from operators/networks.
The future's bright, the future's orange Mango!
