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Microsoft Purchases Nokia's Device and Services Division to Unite Windows Phone Hardware and Software

Rogifan said:
Who cares about icon designs? And I'll bet the next version of OSX will have a similar design language to iOS. There's only so much Apple engineers could accomplish in 7 months or so.

And for people that complain about iOS is the screen below really pleasing to the eye? Could you quickly glance at that screen and really get information from it? My eyes are darting all over the place not sure what to focus on.

BTOujqMCIAEAZ2T.png
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This is my WP8 home screen:

http://imgur.com/a/pMvpe/

Each panel is a full scroll down.

First panel has my most used Apps which include a news reader, reddit reader, google voice, spotify, facebook, and weekly weather (lock screen has hourly weather).

Second panel has my three email accounts along with notes app, various camera apps (including Instagram), games and full navigation suite.

Last panel has my not always used apps which include calendar, audible, nokia music, and whatsapp. There there two icons that you can't see below this, one is a my running tracker and a youtube client.

This homescreen makes perfect sense to me and I can get information very quickly. The way its organized is a matter a personal taste but its very functional to me.

EDIT:

Holy sheeeeeet just realized I have 86 total apps on my Lumia 1020. Time to clean it up a little.
 
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As for Nokia, long ago it made good phones with S40/S60. Too bad that your OS was so cumbersome to use that even installing a simple piece of software into Symbian was a real pain. Reminds how was I struck by simplicity of adding of new apps to iPhone (the original one - I bought iPhone 3GS first).

Nokia's feature phones are fine but they are a commodity business and cost like 30 dollars a piece. Hardly a good business, but funny that MS will have now sell 200 million features phones with design inherited from 1990s at almost a loss to a lot of Indians, Chinese and Vietnamese who ride to work on bicycles and rickshas. Great symbol of MS technology - a ricksha with MS feature phone!

A proud owner of Microsoft phone
ivanlo_ind32.jpg
 
Chupa Chupa said:
No it's nothing like that. As an example please review the iTunes enabled Motorola ROKR fiasco. Just because a company has a partner doesn't mean it can dictate every turn to them. The partner is still independent and also responsible to their stockholders and business plans, not the other company's. There is a world of difference between partnering with a company and owning it.

Another example in the news recently is VZ's buyout of Vodafone's VZW's shares. Even before the buyout VZ had controlling shares, but owning VZW outright gives it much more operational flexibility.
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What are you talking about? Microsoft controls every part of Windows Phone. They have strict requirements and guidelines.

This deal gains them nothing but the asha phones really.
 
Vetvito said:
What are you talking about? Microsoft controls every part of Windows Phone. They have strict requirements and guidelines.

This deal gains them nothing but the asha phones really.
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They do not control the hardware. Nokia controls that. Thus their is no strict integration of the two. It's all "by committee" at best. Remember Apple controls every part of iTunes. That didn't stop Motorola from making a crappy iTunes phone -- and that was under the watch of Steve Jobs, control freak par excellence.

Also same goes for Google's purchase of Motrola phones when Motorola was already making phones for Google.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
They do not control the hardware. Nokia controls that. Remember Apple controls every part of iTunes. That didn't stop Motorola from making a crappy iTunes phone -- and that was under the watch of Steve Jobs, control freak par excellence.

Also same goes for Google's purchase of Motrola phones when Motorola was already making phones for Google.
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Yes they do control hardware. Why do you think every windows phone has the same chip? Everyone of them have the same chip.

Microsoft even has control over the screen resolutions.

A OEM can only differentiate memory, cameras and storage.
 
johncrab said:
MS is six years late to the party. They have abominable software and they are buying a tired, dying company. The best thing for them to do is step back and develop something totally new but they won't. They will keep patching this old stuff together in the hope that someone will buy it. This is still Zune mentality. At some point they will increase their position in Dell and own that too and continue that dive to the bottom. It's time to MS to realize that they're still re-cooking Win95 and push the market into something truly new and better. Maybe without Ballmer, they will go that way but I'm not going to hold my breath.
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You might be overstating things a bit. Microsoft has renewed its software and its online offerings. The new outlook.com is very clean, easy to use and powerful. Google and Apple's online mail, calendar and contact offering could learn from it. Microsoft has also improved its position in back office and middleware where it has gained ground commercially. Office is still king and makes a ton of money. Apple could have made a dent in that - but has failed to invest in its software sufficiently (and I am an Apple fan btw - I own an iMac, two iPads and use an Android phone).

If they increase the depth and breadth of their apps/app store in the mobile ecosystem - they could make a go of it.

Discounting them because they are microsoft is a bit simplistic. Now I am not saying it is a guaranteed win. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. But Microsoft has too much cash and too many solid ingredients to just be written off. With Ballmer leaving - they could get a new CEO (cook) that could bring those ingredients together into a winning combination.
 
The MS brand is dead, Nokia actually were not bad, together they are brandmageddon! Nokia fans will hate MS and MS fans just don't exist for the mobile market at all.

MS needs to work on it's marketing and branding and get app developers aboard yesterday. MS will need to decide on what area of the market they want and just go and get it.

The market is currently three bits, the who cares it's a phone/anything will do as long as it's free with my carrier, then there is the i like cool features but still want a cheap phone aka Android and then there's I will spend anything for the flagship phone aka iphone and galaxy phones. I know samsungs run android but they are doing a skin/extras on top of android that really adds assumed value and consumers are paying for it the same way ios was a couple of years ago.

As far as I'm concerned there is no slot for anything other than THE FLAGSHIP option for MS. They need apps, high end hardware loads of USP be it cameras, proper payment systems (nfc esc) and much more. MS has patents galore to pull off some real unique features with nokia. They just need to come up with a brand that speaks to the people and windows isn't it. Win 8 is a fail and so is windows phone, they need to drop the windows moniker like xbox does and just go for the gut, hell they could even somehow code it to be able to run xbox games and link to any xbox for syncing content and paid programs etc.

They could kill it but they'd need to be totally vertically integrated this time round to turn their fortunes.
 
Vetvito said:
Yes they do control hardware. Why do you think every windows phone has the same chip? Everyone of them have the same chip.

Microsoft even has control over the screen resolutions.

A OEM can only differentiate memory, cameras and storage.
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Phone hardware is more than a chip. Look at all the Android or Windows phones with the same version OS. They are all different -- look, feel, features. You seem to not really understand the benefits of vertical integration. Why do you think MS started to make its own tablets -- it didn't trust it's partners to make anything worthwhile. Of course we now know MS couldn't do it themselves, but different issue.
 
Really?

Does anyone really think this is going to turn out well at all? Buying a company does not change the entrenched MS mindset. It is that SB mindset which is tanking a once great company. But I am old enough to so enjoy this Titanic experience, they same way they so enjoyed doing the same to the then IBM. Karma is a masterful bitch.
 
TheZeitgeist said:
I see lots of comments on here about how this is a smart move for Microsoft, but frankly the more they plow into the devices business the more traction they seem to lose.
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It seems so, but it isn't so. There is no money to be made with selling smartphone operating systems. Remember when web browsers cost money? After the browser wars they were free bundled with the OS. Now the phone operating system itself is free bundled with hardware and services. You either sell devices or advertisement to make money. Either Nokia or Bing need to bring in the money. You can't sell Windows Phone alone because Android is free.
Vetvito said:
Exactly. Why purchase the cow when you are already getting the milk?
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Because you want to sell beef. And someone is giving away milk for free.
Rogifan said:
But what's the point of buying a money losing hardware business?
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To turn it around and make money on hardware sales. You know like the iPhone makes a lot of money. And made Apple the second most profitable company in history. Get it now?
 
This is definitely going to be a big market buzz... but I doubt it will help Microsoft at all. With Microsoft in full control, they are likely to mess this up like the Surface. RIP Nokia.
 
Gudi said:
To turn it around and make money on hardware sales. You know like the iPhone makes a lot of money. And made Apple the second most profitable company in history. Get it now?
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It means that there will be no WP OEM suppliers.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Phone hardware is more than a chip. Look at all the Android or Windows phones with the same version OS. They are all different -- look, feel, features. You seem to not really understand the benefits of vertical integration. Why do you think MS started to make its own tablets -- it didn't trust it's partners to make anything worthwhile. Of course we now know MS couldn't do it themselves, but different issue.
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Now your arguing semantics. All Android phones are actually different. They offer different chips, screen resolutions, skins, and different features.

The only difference between windows phones is OEM apps. Oh Nokia added "Glance" that's a real differentiator, oh boy people are clamoring for that.

Why do you think OEMs don't offer many windows phones? There's really no way to differentiate the phones.
 
StoneJack said:
Microsoft shares down by almost 5%. Guess that market didn't like the move.
It makes sense because MS didn't acquire a successful phone company. It bought a company which it had to give millions of dollars of subsidy just to keep it afloat and that even after that company sold its headquarters. It means that now MS has to give even more money into that division to keep afloat further. After a while, it will merge its devices operations with Nokia hardware business and will cut thousands of people. Still it will bleed money because market has rejected MS software on smartphones and tablets and now even less will be the choice for WP hardware which in turn will make it sell even less. At some point, MS will exit smartphone business altogether to concentrate on remains of its PC business which by that time will be eaten alive by Android desktops and tablets (Apple will not be market leading but profit-leading again). Thats' how it will end. Bye bye Nokia and Windows Phone OS.
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LOL... When company A acquire company B, the share of company A will always go down. In fact, there is way to gain profit by take a short position on company A and buy stock of company B.

You are just too short sighted. Windows Phone has its potential, at least Windows Phone enjoys pretty good growth in Europe, Latin America and developping nations.
 
cgsnipinva said:
You overstate Samsung's strengths. Most of its parts come from third party manufacturers that can offer similar prices to Google and others.
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Similar things have similar value and therefor similar prices. That doesn't mean all the manufacturers make the same kind of money. For a long time, Apple and Samsung were the only two phone makers that made any profit. Apple 2/3 and Samsung 1/3 of all profits in the market. While Apple has its own OS to differentiate, Samsung sells the same Android devices as anyone else. The reason that among so many Android manufacturers, Samsung is the only one getting rich, is because of sheer manufacturing power and vertical integration. Samsungs strengths can not be overstated.
 
Gudi said:
To turn it around and make money on hardware sales. You know like the iPhone makes a lot of money. And made Apple the second most profitable company in history. Get it now?
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You jest, right? Just because one company makes money on hardware, then Microsoft can make money on hardware in a very, very competitive market, by buying a company that is dying? Currently, the market is saying, good for Nokia shareholders, bad for Microsoft. What do you see that the market doesn't?
 
itguy06 said:
Metro? Live Tiles? Beautiful? Are you blind? It is a nasty UI - see the screenshot earlier in this thread to see what a POS it is. It's not that intuitive, has bad design and is generally a poor experience for most users.

And Fastest Growing. Citation please. I could be "fastest growing" if I sold 0 widgets in 2012, 2 in 2013 and 5 in 2014. Doesn't mean it's growing. The market is outpacing Windows Phone gains (ie: MS gains 5% Android gains 10% and iOS 7%).

The fact is developers are interested in iOS 1st, Android a close second and if Windows Phone makes it on the radar it's a very distant third. Those are the facts, Jack.
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Oh? And what's YOUR source on that, "Jack"? Here's an article from Forbes. The American market is not everything, and indeed, mobile trends often begin in Europe.

The UI is absolutely intuitive - the design is absolutely beautiful (and customizable, don't think a screen shot is how your phone MUST look). ...and my source on this is personal experience. It's taken my mom years to learn how to do anything on her iPhone, but not long ago she picked up my Windows Phone and managed to figure out what to do. Ultimately, aesthetics are a matter of individual taste - but I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Android is pretty hideous... and if you've been paying attention, you might have noticed that Apple has absolutely ripped off MS in terms of a lot of design elements and style for iOS 7. So do the math.

...and in terms of developers, Microsoft has made developing apps for their platform pretty easy. A lot of new developers are popping up because of it, and there are TONS of apps available. The only apps I don't have that I bemoan at ALL are the Google apps, and the reason Google hasn't made any apps available on WP8 is because they don't want to help the competition.
 
Microsoft seems to have learned something from Apple. As an Apple fanboy, I'm almost a bit worried that they might actually produce something good in the near future...
 
Vetvito said:
Now your arguing semantics. All Android phones are actually different. They offer different chips, screen resolutions, skins, and different features.

The only difference between windows phones is OEM apps. Oh Nokia added "Glance" that's a real differentiator, oh boy people are clamoring for that.

Why do you think OEMs don't offer many windows phones? There's really no way to differentiate the phones.
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Semantics? Try truth.

Here are all the Windows 8 Phones. http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/phones
There are phones by Nokia, HTC, Samsung, & Huawei. Guess what -- they all have different hardware features. They are not all the same as you contend even though they share the same OS.
 
StoneJack said:
This is ugliest screen I ever seen in my life, even compared to ancient Nokia E71 and Sony Ericcson W800 I had before I switched to iPhones.
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To each his own I guess. I personally like iOS on an iPad, but I absolutely cannot stand it on the iphone its just too cluttered with 20 icons per page. Sure you can just create more pages but then you are increasing scrolling time and creating a lot of dead space. Ditto with android but to a lesser extent.

WP8 home screen does need a facelift but its far more functional than the iOS and Android home screens.
 
Microsoft just became an integrated, world-class enterprise device company.

They are now the Apple of the enterprise world. Stock has more downside, but this has huge long term promise.
 
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