Nokia Board Bets on Windows Phone Success

The Nokia board bets on Windows Phone success. Will HTC and Samsung have any sleepless nights moving forward?

As competitors are expanding their mobile experience to capacitive tablets and HDTVs, Nokia has decided to team up with Microsoft to build the future in smartphones. The FT has spoken to several Nokia leaders about the transition to Windows Phone, including Nokia Chairman Jorma Ollila. Nokia, the traditional telecom giant, and Microsoft, the traditional IT giant, have both grown accustomed to being the kings of select markets in our digital age.

Is it a given that these two companies should be regarded as kings of select markets also in the future?

The Nokia Chairman told the FT that the board believes management incentives, linked to the achievement of public and private commercial milestones, mean that Nokia is "very much geared to win".

Nokia is said to be on course to complete the Microsoft deal by the end of March. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told the FT that Nokia would "participate in advertising revenue in a way that we've never before been able to do." The CEO also said that Nokia and Microsoft would use their patent pools to protect the ecosystem and "encourage others who may be taking advantage of our patents to be properly licensed for the use of those patents - at a fee."

Obviously, Apple is currently the only company Nokia has a significant patent dispute with, so the latter statement must be a direct shot at Apple.

As we said earlier this year, prior to the Windows Phone announcement, we don't think Nokia should worry too much about Apple. Especially Samsung and HTC, on the other hand, we regard as a key challenge for Nokia. These companies have recently stepped out of the shadows as pure manufacturers and become solution makers at a level few can match.

Nokia's transition from Symbian to Windows Phone won't exactly give HTC and Samsung any sleepless nights. We've reviewed pretty much all the Windows Phones that matters, and there's little doubt that Windows Phone is stripped down to a bare minimum to appear as a slick experience.

Right now, we can only pray that Microsoft engineers will deliver Windows 8 smartphones with more capabilities without sacrificing the same slick experience as soon as possible. That said, the Nokia board is prepared to take a market share hit as the engineers are figuring things out. Everything is in Microsoft's hands now, and we'll obviously continue keeping a close eye on it all.

(It's worth noting that Nokia today announced new budget phones powered by Symbian, to be released in EMEA by the end of June.)

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