Not Feeling The Love Between Nokia & Microsoft
When a cool company cannot manage the OS that it builds the devices for
I like Nokia. I applaud and have personally been supporting their efforts with the rollout of new devices since day one. Nokia is the new underdog, and unlike the other company that became quite familiar with, it appears to have undergone some serious structural changes that have impacted their organizational culture, business model and core technologies. Above all, they have the guts to admit that they blew it just to start fresh and have honest expectations about their products.
I like Lumia devices. I like their slab-like design, style and appearance. I consider the engineering of Nokia’s hardware virtually on par to Apple’s. The only thing they seem to fall short of are the accessories that tend to feel cheap (speaking a former Lumia 800 user — the earphones were crappy). The devices feel solid when operated and evoke aesthetically positive emotions. In addition, Nokia has the distinguishable technology, PureView, that they can build on appealing to folks like myself who would always use their phone’s camera as frequently as they use the Web. In other words, Nokia has been redefining itself since 2011 and it’s become quite a comeback already. Yeah, I know, their business might not seem robust yet, but with new devices released every few months, the company offers a viable promise of better things around the corner. I like it.
The problem with kick-starting Nokia is that Microsoft has been undergoing equally challenging times business-wise, although less pronounced. The much debated Surface proves to more than a flop than a hot seller. Moreover, Windows 8, while steadily gaining traction, has been received with lukewarm enthusiasm, at best. In addition, the Windows Phone platform has undergone a huge brain transplant switching to the NT kernel (a right thing to do, if you ask me). That is probably why Microsoft VPs have decided to focus on a gradual rollout of performance updates until the end of current year, instead of offering a new and exciting feature set. Let’s see what Windows Blue holds.
The end result? Lack of love, in business terms. While the Finnish company is trying to gain traction partnering with app makers such Vine and Path (yay!), it is gradually loosing steam because of glaring omissions in Windows Phone functionality, such as the notification centre and a feature pack of enterprise-orientated features.
Such is the price of becoming a vendor; a fantastic company with huge potential with no control, whatsoever, over the software that its devices are designed to run. I hope that Android vendors are paying attention and are trying to learn watching someone else’s mistakes. I know, Meego was the ultimate winning combination, but the company would have run out of cash. I get it and I secretly hope that Nokia has a secret department building something of their own.
Because, that is exactly what is going to eventually happen. That is, if the current strategy pays off, both for Nokia and Microsoft.
