The Microsoft vs Nokia Problem:- Here’s where it gets ugly. Although partners, there is a huge discordance between Nokia and Microsoft, whether from the companies perspectives or from the consumer’s perspective. I don’t know anything about what happens behind the closed doors of either company, so I won’t go into details. However, what trickles down to us is Microsoft’s desire to get more exclusive Windows Phone partners — like HTC — and Nokia’s frustration with the lack of fast updates and iterations on Microsoft’s end. Sometimes, the two work together to bypass some of Windows Phone’s limitations, as proven by the Lumia 1020′s support for a large camera sensor. But most times, you can feel a tension between the two, a love/hate relationship of sorts. And you can understand Nokia’s frustration. After all, this is the company that had GPS navigation with 3G and WiFi and an accelerometer in 2007 with the N95. It had a Xenon flash and a 41 MegaPixel camera in 2012 with the Pureview 808. It has always been leaps ahead of others on the hardware front, and it needs the software to keep up with it. But when the software puts you in a cage, when your creativity and possibilities are limited by the OS that you ship your hardware on, there is a never-ending battle between what you know you can do and what you are allowed to do. On the consumer front, the problem is with the discordant loyalty between the Nokia and the Microsoft brands. I have said it once and I will say it again: If Nokia had gone with Android or Meego on February 2011, almost none of the Nokia fans would have given Windows Phone a second look. And that’s the problem. Nokia fans are loyal to the Nokia brand, regardless of the OS. They love the hardware more than anything else, they love what the company stands for, and they are ready to follow them anywhere they go. Windows Phone, to them, is a part of the package. You marry Nokia, you get Windows Phone and Microsoft as the in-laws. Sure, you’ll tolerate and accept them at first, you’ll learn to like them and make excuses for them later, you might even end up loving them, but your spouse, your main love, that’s Nokia. Nokia knows that. Microsoft knows that. Most of the Windows Phone users and developers have followed Nokia into it. And even though the loyalty to Nokia as a brand was quite high, it wasn’t enough to keep everyone from the glorious Symbian days around. Many picked Android, iOS, or even moved to Meego and are looking at Jolla for their future devices. The ones who stayed with Nokia and Windows Phone did so out of loyalty for the company, they weren’t asked for their opinion about alternative OSes, they took the hand they were dealt and they’re making the best of it. How long that lasts, and whether or not it develops from tolerance to love, is subjective to each person. There’s a huge gamble for Windows Phone there, because if Nokia ever moves on, it might take the few millions it brought along with it, and where would that leave the platform? Practically nowhere.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 11:01:20 +0000
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