If Android had a TV show it would be Everybody Loves Android…except Apple and Microsoft. Oh and Nokia too. Last week Nokia shattered tech minds everywhere when they announced that they would be partnering up with Microsoft and by implication, placing Windows Phone 7 in their units.
But why go Microsoft, when Android is clearly the dominating player in the mobile industry these days?
Nokia CEO Stephon Elop sheds some light on the situation on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He says that Nokia was approached by both Google and Microsoft before they made the decision to go with Windows Phone 7.
“We’re assessing three different paths for the company. There was the largely internal option—taking advantage of MeeGo and Symbian, and the need to build a third ecosystem somewhat on our own but with the help of others. [But] there are some issues in that area that causes us to look at our second and third option. The second option…was to make a decision to pursue Android and to place a significant bet on the Android ecosystem. The third choice…was to enter into a partnership with Microsoft to build jointly an ecosystem around Windows Phone,” he says.
Throughout those three choices, he says, Nokia weighed the effects of the move to possibly go with Android, which would be “some kind of duopoly. Apple and Android and some smaller players with Nokia contributing substantially to the Android ecosystem.”
“To Google, that has value…and delivering some market share to Android would have tilted the mobile ecosystem in [their] direction. A decision to go Windows Phone creates a very different dynamic. By moving in the direction of Windows Phone and partnering with Microsoft, we create an environment where Windows Phone is a challenger, where we have created, a “three-horse race.”
The question remains. Will a Nokia and Microsoft partnership be enough to chip off the market share of Android and iOS? Only time will tell.
Source: http://www.yourdailyapple.net/2011/02/nokia-rejected-google-to-avoid-duopoly-of-ios-and-android/