Nokia's first Windows Phoneto be launched in a year'stime

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Nokia will launch its first Windows Mobile phone in roughly 12 months from now, the Finnish firm’ s India MD, D Shivakumar said. Shivakumar also defended the deal with PC operating system maker pointing to Microsoft ’ s strengths in areas such as socia networking, search and other software. In a regulatory filing in the US on Friday, Nokia had said that it expected most of its smartphones to migrate to the Windows Mobile platform only in two years, setting off speculation that it will take two years to implement the strategy. Nokia and Microsoft had announced a deal last month under which Nokia promised to build smartphones only on Windows platform, and to abandon other platforms like Android and Symbian. According to Canalys, a global IT market research firm, the share of Windows in total smarphone sales had plummeted to just 3% during the last quarter of 2010 despite having been present on more than half of the smartphones in the early 2000s. In comparison, Symbian, which is being discarded by Nokia, had a marketshare of 31%. Critics and consumers dismissed the last major version of Windows Mobile, called Windows Mobile 6, as being clunky and resource-hungry, though they have been kinder on the new version -- Windows Mobile 7, unveiled earlier this year. Shivakumar said Nokia ’ s bet is on the new version and its is much better than the earlier ones. “ We took the decision after looking at that operating system [Windows Mobile 7]. It ’ s a good operating system, ” he said, when asked about abandoning a popular product for a less popular one. Nokia, which has around 35-40% of India ’ s cellphone market, is estimated to be maintaining its share in the smarphone market as well, despite teething troubles in bringing new models to market. The Finnish firm has been caught in a semi-paralysis for the last 2 years as rivals such as Samsung and LG raced ahead by introducing tens of new models in the smartphone category. The flounder also cost Nokia ’ s four-year-old CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo his job late last year, and brought Stephen Elop, then head of Microsoft’ s business division to Nokia ’ s head. Shivakumar said the alliance between Nokia and Microsoft will give the latter a second shot at the mobile market, thanks to Nokia ’ s 33% global marketshare. “ Microsoft has been looking for a strong hardware partner, but they have been on phones [platforms] which has not given them that strength. With Nokia, suddenly the scales are huge. “ So, for the first time in many a markets, people will get used to a Windows Mobile phone thanks to the Nokia tie-up, ” he pointed out. For Nokia, the deal will help the company give a quiet burial to the ailing Symbian operating system while leveraging Microsoft ’ s influence as a shareholder at Facebook to bring nifty features to its future smartphones. “ Its [new] operating system has links to it [Facebook].. It has a range of services which complement Nokia services -- they have Bing [search], Zune [music] and games,” the India MD said. Meanwhile, Nokia will launch around 40-50 new phone models in 2011, including around 20 smartphones built on Symbian, he added. He also claimed that the Rs 23,000 ‘ N8’ trebled the Indian smartphone market since its launch six months ago. Around 6 million out of the 155 million phones sold in India last year are expected to have been ‘ smart’ , according to research firm IDC India. They are expected to hit 39 million units by 2014, according to Canalys.

Nokia will launch its first Windows Mobile phone in roughly 12 months from now, the
Finnish firm’ s India MD, D Shivakumar said. Shivakumar also defended the deal with PC
operating system maker pointing to Microsoft ’ s strengths in areas such as socia networking,
search and other software. In a regulatory filing in the US on Friday, Nokia
had said that it expected most of its smartphones
to migrate to the Windows Mobile platform only
in two years, setting off speculation that it will
take two years to implement the strategy. Nokia and Microsoft had announced a deal last
month under which Nokia promised to build
smartphones only on Windows platform, and to
abandon other platforms like Android and
Symbian.


According to Canalys, a global IT market research
firm, the share of Windows in total smarphone
sales had plummeted to just 3% during the last
quarter of 2010 despite having been present on
more than half of the smartphones in the early
2000s. In comparison, Symbian, which is being discarded by Nokia, had a marketshare of 31%. Critics and consumers dismissed the last major
version of Windows Mobile, called Windows
Mobile 6, as being clunky and resource-hungry,
though they have been kinder on the new
version -- Windows Mobile 7, unveiled earlier this
year. Shivakumar said Nokia ’ s bet is on the new version and its is much better than the earlier
ones. “ We took the decision after looking at that operating system [Windows Mobile 7]. It ’ s a good operating system, ” he said, when asked about abandoning a popular product for a less
popular one. Nokia, which has around 35-40% of India ’ s cellphone market, is estimated to be maintaining
its share in the smarphone market as well,
despite teething troubles in bringing new models
to market. The Finnish firm has been caught in a
semi-paralysis for the last 2 years as rivals such
as Samsung and LG raced ahead by introducing tens of new models in the smartphone category. The flounder also cost Nokia ’ s four-year-old CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo his job late last year, and
brought Stephen Elop, then head of Microsoft’ s business division to Nokia ’ s head. Shivakumar said the alliance between Nokia and
Microsoft will give the latter a second shot at the
mobile market, thanks to Nokia ’ s 33% global marketshare. “ Microsoft has been looking for a strong hardware partner, but they have been on phones
[platforms] which has not given them that
strength. With Nokia, suddenly the scales are
huge. “ So, for the first time in many a markets, people will get used to a Windows Mobile phone thanks
to the Nokia tie-up, ” he pointed out. For Nokia, the deal will help the company give a
quiet burial to the ailing Symbian operating
system while leveraging Microsoft ’ s influence as a shareholder at Facebook to bring nifty features
to its future smartphones. “ Its [new] operating system has links to it [Facebook].. It has a range of services which
complement Nokia services -- they have Bing
[search], Zune [music] and games,” the India MD said. Meanwhile, Nokia will launch around 40-50
new phone models in 2011, including around 20
smartphones built on Symbian, he added. He also claimed that the Rs 23,000 ‘ N8’ trebled the Indian smartphone market since its launch six
months ago. Around 6 million out of the 155
million phones sold in India last year are
expected to have been ‘ smart’ , according to research firm IDC India. They are expected to hit
39 million units by 2014, according to Canalys.