Eventually Nokia gave up working on its own smartphone platform but opted for a new OS from Microsoft, Windows Phone, to distinguish itself from the large number of Android manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG.
News that Microsoft is purchasing Nokia's phone business came as little surprise to industry experts. Many tech bloggers had assumed it was only a matter of time until Microsoft gobbled up the one successful manufacturer of Windows Phones.
When I asked the author of the Mobiles Phones UK blog what he thought of the merger he told me that it made sense since "no one buys non-Nokia Windows Phones, they have 81% of the market".
After the launch of a Microsoft made tablet - the Surface - it seemed almost certain that Microsoft would end up copying Apple's strategy for mobile phones, producing both the software and hardware itself. The Nokia purchase finally makes this a reality and allows Microsoft to tailor its Windows Phone operating system for future Lumia hardware, and vice versa.
Microsoft are unlikely to stop providing Windows Phone to other manufacturers - they don't limit Windows for tablets to their own Surface device - but we can expect devices made by them to take up an even higher percentage of Windows Phone sales than Nokia currently has.
In effect we will see a smartphone market with one open source OS (Android) and three companies making both the OS and phones (Apple, Microsoft and Blackberry).
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| [Image Credits: http://yle.fi/uutiset/] |
Nokia still holds a substantial market share for phones worldwide - 14% - but sales mainly consist of basic 'feature' phones that hardly make profit and are quickly becoming obsolete as the prices of smartphones decrease. Microsoft is likely to continue making these phones for some time but put all its efforts into the Windows Phone powered models.
Microsoft will be hoping that recent Nokia Lumia phones can persuade some to switch from Android to the platform. The Nokia Lumia 1020 has arguably the best camera available in any smartphone producing gigantic 41 megapixels photos. This is the best device out there for people who want to combine a smartphone and compact camera and is selling well because of this.
With Microsoft's deep pockets, with gigantic profits coming from its Windows and Office products, they have the money to invest in making future Nokia phones more innovative than anything else on the market. If they can adopt an Apple style of carefully curating innovation and media interest in new features then the Windows Phone could emerge from its status as an 'also ran' and become a major player, competing with Android and Apple.
However this outcome is far from certain. Many have been reluctant to switch to Windows Phone due to the lack of apps and the quite different feel to the 'Metro' interface. It's uncertain if Windows Phone will be able to overcome these difficulties and take its former place as a leading player in smartphone operating systems.
Even if Microsoft isn't able to make a success of the phones produced by their new Nokia division, they might still get a positive outcome from the purchase. The Nokia deal comes with a large patent portfolio which will both cut what Microsoft currently pays out in licensing and increase the money it can gain from licensing agreements with Android phone manufacturers.
Faizan Ahmad About the Author:
This article is posted by Faizan who is the Author and Founder of TechSenser. He is a Professional Blogger from India and a passionate writer about Technology, Gadgets, How-to-Guides, etc. You can connect him on Google+.