This article was published on February 2, 2011

Should Nokia drop everything and switch to Windows Phone 7?


Should Nokia drop everything and switch to Windows Phone 7?

An investment analyst has written a report that calls for Nokia to drop its MEEGO solution and adopt Windows Phone 7 as its high-end operating system, a proposition that is sure to raise eyebrows.

To put weight behind his thoughts, the analyst claims that Nokia is too far behind market leaders such as Samsung to chase the Android-dragon. Given the cut-throat nature of competition among Android handset manufacturers, it is possible Nokia would not be able to catch up if it pursued the OS.

This is what is recommended in the report:

Announce an EXCLUSIVE deal with your ex-colleague, Steve [TNW: Ballmer] : you get access to their WP7 intellectual property (IPR) scot-free and access to the US market where your share has dived to the low single-digit level.

Get rid of your own proprietary high-end solution (MEEGO) – it’s the biggest joke in the tech industry right now and will put you even further behind Apple and Google. Focus your high-end portfolio around WP7, and over time you can take the cost down (that’s Steve’s job and cost base) to get this into the mid-range market. Push your Symbian solutions into the low-to-mid-range smartphone market as quickly as possible to defend market share versus Android’s upcoming lowered cost ecosystem.

The analyst also calls for R&D cuts to allow for the famed mobile company to boost its sagging profit margins. Nokia has a long-suffering stock, something that is a smack to its impressive past.

Nokia and Windows Phone 7? We doubt it in the short-term, but if Microsoft can truly prove that its latest software has the muscle to last, it just could happen. Now, we don’t anticipate at all that Nokia will ever fully switch over to WP7, but a few phones? That seems just about right.

Who knows, if WP7 handsets keep selling, they could help Nokia bring back a piece of its glory days.

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