Well, trying to kick anyway. Nokia was pretty much a victim of creative destruction due to the the rise of smartphones, which I believe took the company off guard that. Things got so dirty that even came to a point where the technorati officially declared Symbian to be dead. Now the obvious solution to this matter is to come up with a new product that has a competitive advantage against Apple's iOS and Google's Android or partner up with any of those two mobile giants. Not surprisingly, none of this deals happened and Nokia partnered with Microsoft instead.
Now that seems a really logical choice if you know your way around the tech scene. Microsoft at that time was working hard with its Windows Phone 7 OS, which for me, never really took off against Apple and Google's offering. However, with Nokia's OEM and remaining market share (which was continuously decreasing by a huge factor) and Microsoft's beautifully designed OS, this seems like a deal made in heaven.
With a deal in place and a partnership forged, Nokia and Microsoft is ready to take on the mobile giants in the great smartphone war. How are they prepping up? With massive layoffs of over 3,500 Nokia employees and handing out cash incentives to app developers.
Now I'm not bedeviling Nokia for the cash grant's even the massive layoffs it did after the partnership as it was a huge and necessary part in streamlining their efforts to remain competitive. Nor am I a fan of Ballmer and his decisions after Gates' departure from Microsoft. I just hope that all of this might payoff after Sea Ray's (the codename of Nokia's first WP7 powered smartphone) release.
Photo: CampaignAsia