Microsoft to buy Nokia's Devices and Services in $7.2B deal

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pl001

We all know the only other "decent OS" option out there for them was Android. Which as I mentioned before, nobody is making money off of except Samsung, who already had a huge head start on Nokia in that market.

.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...-all-the-money

Google is so concerned about Samsung "hijacking" the android market they resell a version of the Galaxy phone stripped of the Samsung value-add apps and kneejerked a purchase of a smartwatch vendor (WINN Labs) the moment they heard the Galaxy Gear is incoming.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/50...abs-galaxy.htm

Google does all the work and Samsung makes all the money.
Not a good business to be in.

Which is why I think HTC is next: they make good phones but no profits and, like Nokia, don't have the deep pockets needed go stay in the next phase of smartphone evolution--the migration to the feature phone price range. If HTC and the rest of the android herd can't make money in the premium phone segment, what are the odds they'll make money selling cheaper phones?

[pl001]

Originally Posted by afv011

Wow, displacing Blackberry after they shot themselves in the foot, great achievement there! I think it's more accurate to say that Blackberry have fallen behind microsoft than to say microsoft have overtaken them. And for the #2 in 2015,

Things can change in a hurry in this industry, so nothing is a given. But what we do know is iOS's marketshare is plummeting, Blackberry is as good as gone, all but one Android OEM is in serious trouble, and Android's largest and most profitable manufacturer is building a new OS from the ground up.

After the bottom feeders fail, the rest are setting themselves up to be a one-stop digital ecosystem provider. In this sense, Microsoft is in a very strong position. The phones themselves are becoming secondary as the technology matures.

[holymadness]

As much as it pains me, I agree with afv's assessment. Elop's (mis)management of Nokia will go down in history as one of the greatest acts of corporate sabotage ever perpetrated.

Nokia under Elop made the mistake of thinking that its product differentiation lay in software, when that has never been its core strength. As Ben Thompson wrote earlier today, "It would have been to Nokia’s benefit to have everyone running Android, including themselves. Everyone would have the same OS, the same apps, may the best industrial design, distribution, and supply chain win.

Elop threw it all away."

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pl001

After the bottom feeders fail, the rest are setting themselves up to be a one-stop digital ecosystem provider. In this sense, Microsoft is in a very strong position.

Content they have, games and apps they are accumulating, and their services story is clearly second to none. In all the focus on gadgets and plumbing a lot of people forget MS not only has 16 different billion-dollar-a-year businesses, they are top tier in cloud services. Their biggest problem has been their reliance on OEM partners for hardware.
Buying Nokia's resources means they will no longer be hostage to OEMs so if the "partners" giving WinPhone and Win8 half-hearted "support" want to go elsewhere (Android, Firefox OS, or some other linux-based solution) they'll draw a shrug instead of tears.

I suspect MS isn't done shopping.
Dell might be a possibility if the effort to take it private tanks.
Nook.
AMD has long been a solid complement.
A few game development studios.
Netflix.
Conceivably even a movie studio might be a fit.

MS has the tools and the money and there is an open window of opportunity they can leverage their way into the gadget business.

[holymadness]

If Microsoft's shift towards creating its own hardware keeps producing hits like the Zune, the Kin, and the Surface RT, then they have nothing to fear.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by holymadness

If Microsoft's shift towards creating its own hardware keeps producing hits like the Zune, the Kin, and the Surface RT, then they have nothing to fear.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by holymadness

If Microsoft's shift towards creating its own hardware keeps producing hits like the Zune, the Kin, and the Surface RT, then they have nothing to fear.

The fact that Microsoft can withstand so many commercial failures and still be in a strong financial position does indeed strike fear in their competition. They are far more diversified than Google or Apple.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by pl001

The fact that Microsoft can withstand so many commercial failures and still be in a strong financial position does indeed strike fear in their competition. They are far more diversified than Google or Apple.

Not something I would be proud of, "so many commercial failures". And eventually your hat runs out of rabbits.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by afv011

Not something I would be proud of, "so many commercial failures". And eventually your hat runs out of rabbits.

Who's proud? I don't own a Windows Phone. I'm just stating facts.

The point is they are a strong company that is going to be a major factor in mobile devices. They are just now starting to gain traction, but make no mistake, they will be coming on strong.

[danwdoo]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

We may yet see the Courier. Or a Zune 2.

There's little need for a Zune 2 at this point. Just purchase a Lumia 520 for $99 off contract (AT&T or Amazon), add up to a 64GB MicroSD card, and viola...a perfect Zune replacement with all the media services of Windows Phone 8.

[din155]

Originally Posted by danwdoo

There's little need for a Zune 2 at this point. Just purchase a Lumia 520 for $99 off contract (AT&T or Amazon), add up to a 64GB MicroSD card, and viola...a perfect Zune replacement with all the media services of Windows Phone 8.

I would love Courier but I don’t think there is any chance of that coming out from the dead. They would want to make WP 8 tablets calling it Lumia tab or something. Courier project looked too good to be true in any case