Nokia annuls first MeeGo smartphone before release
If reports are to be believed, Nokia has halted development on its first MeeGo based smartphone, just a few months before its anticipated release.
According to reports, the company was expected to show off the device at this Friday’s highly anticipated investor show. Leaked photos last month had shown a Nokia branded device running the MeeGo OS for the first time.
Although bound to fuel speculation about the direction the company is heading in, with an expected switch to either Android or Windows Mobile 7, it could be simply that the company’s new CEO felt the device was too much based on “old-Nokia”, and not really suitable for releasing in the post-iPhone world.
However, shortly after Stephen Elop took the top job at Nokia last September, a senior Nokia executive in charge of the MeeGo OS, Ari Jaaksi resigned from the company, citing personal reasons.
Nokia announced the MeeGo platform last February, as a merger with Intel of their respective mobile-Linux platforms, Maemo and Moblin. The MeeGo software platform is expected to be hosted by the Linux Foundation as a fully open source project.
Nokia considering setting up a head office in the US
Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop is considering setting up a shadow HQ in California to position it more closely amongst the growing smartphone market.
According to sources, Elop is considering shifting the executive centre of gravity to Silicon Valley, creating a virtual HQ in the United States. The move would therefore require Nokia’s Executive Board to spend most of their time outside Finland, accelerating a process of de-Finnistration, that may have started with the weekend reports of a cull of senior directors at the company.
The company is expected to announce a major shift in its handset strategy this week, which could involve starting to support either the Android of Windows Phone 7 platforms in addition to its own Symbian or MeeGo platforms.
However, mobile networks are reportedly uncomfortable with the growing domination of the Android platform and would prefer Nokia to stay aloof from the ongoing convergence so that the consumers retain some choice in the handset market and that the operators can reduce the risk of becoming dumb pipes and losing their value added revenues to Apple and Google.
Nokia to announce strategy shift for handsets
Nokia has hinted at a possible shift in its handset strategy that could see it embracing an alternative to its Symbian and MeeGo operating systems for future handsets.
According to Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, Nokia must compete on an ecosystem-to-ecosystem basis. In addition to great devices, we must build, catalyze, and/or join a competitive ecosystem.
The comment about joining up with another platform has sparked a flurry of speculation, which has been heightened by news that the company will announce a strategy shift in an investor presentation on11th Feb.
The company has been trying to push its Symbian platform and has an internal culture which leans towards open-source options. Developing for Windows Phone 7 could lead to some key developers being uncomfortable with the direction the company is taking, at a critical stage in its fight back against other smartphone manufacturers.
Microsoft also maintains a tighter control over how its OS is deployed in smartphones, offering Nokia more limited options for personalizing its handsets and making its products standout from the crowd.
The more relaxed Android OS would still permit Nokia to embed support for its NAVTEQ mapping subsidiary instead of relying on Google’s own maps service.
Speculation about the “strategy shift” is likely to get intense in the run up to the investor presentation.
Nokia might develop a Windows Phone 7 Based Smartphone
Nokia is rumored to be in talks with Microsoft about launching a possible Windows Phone 7 based smartphone under the Nokia brand – marking a huge shift in attitude from the Finnish giant. Nokia is reported to have initiated the talks.
If talks with Microsoft are in progress, they might be misinterpreted as being about handset OS, but in fact be related to existing alliances between the two companies, such as the one announced late last year to add more support for Microsoft Office services in Nokia phones.
Nokia has repeatedly denied media reports that it might consider switching to the Android OS, stating that it was happy with Symbian and its Intel joint-venture, MeeGo. However, despite opening up Symbian to the open source community it has not excited app developers in the same way that the Google backed Android platform managed.
Nokia delays E7 shipment till Jan 2011
Nokia has delayed the shipping of its Symbian 3 based mobile phone, Nokia E7 to early 2011.
As per the Finnish company, E7 has been delayed to ensure a good user experience. So, Nokia will not have new products for this Christmas holiday. Nokia E7 was announced during the Nokia Conference in Sep, 2010 in London.
Nokia’s previous flagship launch, of the N8, was also delayed and some of the devices subsequently suffered a technical glitch.
Stephen Elop, Chief Executive has vowed to raise Nokia’s game but he faces a difficult balancing act between increasing the speed at which products get to market and improving their quality.
In addition to the iPhone and BlackBerry, Nokia is also under pressure from rivals such as South Korea’s Samsung and HTC of Taiwan, which have adopted Google’s increasingly popular Android operating system.
Nokia, in contrast, has stuck with its Symbian operating system in spite of criticism that users feel it is inferior.
The E7 uses a newly improved version of Symbian. Nokia is also working on a new operating system, called MeeGo, due to be introduced next year.
Apple conquers 95% of tablet market
Strategy Analytics believes that Apple’s iPad has conquered the tablet market with 95% of sales in Q3, despite the invasion of competitors.
According to the research firm, Apple shipped nearly 4.2 million of the estimated 4.4 million units sold in the quarter. Global tablet shipments grew 26% sequentially. Second-placed Android achieved just a 2.3% share of the global tablet OS market, but is expected to increase in the current quarter. The other tablet OS providers combined namely Microsoft, RIM and Nokia currently only equal Android’s share.
While the US remained undoubtedly the world’s largest tablet market during Q3, demand in Asia and Western Europe is also beginning to swell.
According to Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston, the tablet wars are up and running. Android, Microsoft, MeeGo, webOS, Blackberry and other platforms are trailing in Apple’s wake and they already have much ground to make up.
According to Paul Carlton, Vice President of research at ChangeWave, Apple’s rivals face a tough time gaining market share because the iPad has already set the bar so very high in terms of customer expectations.
The iPad has taken a big slice out of the netbook market. US consumers’ interest in netbooks has plummeted by ten percentage points in the past year, according to a ChangeWave survey.
The research firm found just 14% of consumers who plan to buy a laptop in the next 90 days will opt for the netbook form factor, compared to 26% that said they plan to buy a tablet.
Demand for the emerging form factor is driven by Apple’s iPad. The device scored highly in satisfaction ratings among current owners, while 80% of consumers planning to buy a tablet said they would pick the Apple unit.
Other tablets grabbing consumer attention are RIM’s PlayBook desired by 8% – Samsung’s Galaxy Tab (3%), and HP’s Slate (2%).
Nokia’s MeeGo device Chief Quits
The head of Nokia’s MeeGo device, Dr Ari Jaaksi, has resigned. According to Nokia, Jaaksi had decided to pursue opportunities outside Nokia. The company thanks him for his contribution over the years. Despite Ari’s departure, Nokia MeeGo strategy remains unchanged. MeeGo continues with its strong momentum.
Jaaksi was a Nokia experienced person, having headed up MeeGo’s forerunner, Maemo, since its first production version in 2005.
Maemo was a software platform for smartphones and Internet tablets. Maemo was based on open source code, and was developed by Maemo Devices within Nokia in collaboration with many open source projects such as the Linux kernel, Debian, and GNOME. Maemo is based on Debian GNU/Linux and draws much of its GUI, frameworks, and libraries from the GNOME project.If rumors are to be believed, Nokia intends to launch its first MeeGo handset, the N9, by the end of this year.
Nokia also continues to develop its Symbian operating system, which is a slightly more mid-range opponent to MeeGo. The next version of that OS, Symbian^4, will be the first to exercise a fully redesigned user interface since Symbian, now also open-source has became touch-enabled, and is widely seen as a final attempt for Nokia to stay pertinent in the face of competition from Android and the iPhone.
Nokia considers Windows Phone 7
If reports are to be believed, Nokia may consider Windows Phone 7 as a platform for its upcoming smartphones.
Nokia has also teamed up with Intel to develop the MeeGo mobile platform which has yet to emerge on the handsets and doesn’t show any signs of becoming a serious rival.
If they were to make a Windows Phone 7 handset they would need to strengthen the internal hardware, one of the areas in which the N8 lacks. The 600MHz processor features may just not be enough to cut it in the existing smartphone/OS conflicts, so a more powerful option would be a necessary. Nokia has seen a steep decline in its company value since the release of the iPhone in 2007.
Microsoft’s mobile platform currently has five launch partners; HTC, Samsung, LG, Acer and Dell and is a major improvement over the previous WinMo OS.
If Rumors are to be believed, Finnish company would soon ditch the Symbian platform entirely have proven untrue and were ridiculous to begin with. This was demonstrated last week when Nokia and AT&T announced a competition to entice developers to make apps for the Ovi Store with up for US$10million in prize money up for grabs.
Pre-orders for the N8 have been the highest Nokia has had for any handset till date, though currently it is the only smartphone in its line-up which could potentially have the mass appeal that it needs.
