Broad strategic partnership between Microsoft and Nokia

- February 15, 2011

Nokia and Microsoft announced their broad strategic partnership last 11st of February 2011 in London.

What was this for?!

Android based devices now in the Smartphone market is increasing and Nokia want to regain ground lost in that market.

Using Microsoft and Nokia complementary strengths and expertise will help in:

1- Creating a new global mobile ecosystem,

2- Creating market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity.

3- Integrating key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets.

What Stephen Elop Steve Ballmer said in the Press Conference?

Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, who joined Nokia from Microsoft in September last year, said at a press conference: "Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience. Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race."

"The game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems".

"An ecosystem with Microsoft and Nokia has unrivalled scale around the globe."

The new strategy means Nokia's existing Smartphone operating systems will be gradually sidelined.

Symbian, which runs on most of the company's current devices, will become a "franchise platform", although the company expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in future.

"It is a transition from Symbian to Windows phone as our primary Smartphone platform," said Mr. Elop.

Windows may not be the exclusive operating system for Nokia tablets though.

"We reserve the right to introduce tablets using other platforms, including ones we may be working on internally," he said.

There was no specific announcement about when the first Windows-powered Nokia phone will be available.

Mr. Elop revealed that the firm did consider a tie-up with Google's Android operating system.

"We spent time with our colleagues at Google and explored the Google ecosystem but we felt we would have difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem," he said.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO added: "I am excited about this partnership with Nokia. Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute."

"Nokia and Microsoft working together can drive innovation that is at the boundary of hardware, software and services," he said.

Microsoft's Bing will power Nokia's search services, while Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services.

Nokia and Microsoft announce partnership