Idea of Nokia using Windows Phone 7 is ‘stark raving loony’ according to Nokia employee [Updated]

By on Dec 30, 2010 at 9:50 AM
mobile December 30, 2010

In a post on his personal blog Wednesday, Nokia employee Watts Martin discounts rumors from earlier this month that Nokia might be considering Windows Phone 7 as a future platform for its smartphones. Rumors that Nokia might be looking at the platform began when former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop was appointed CEO of the company. They came to a head last week, however, when industry insider Eldar Murtazin wrote that the company might build “an entire line of Windows Phone devices that may go under the name Nokia.” Watts Martin, a developer at Nokia, stated that the idea of Nokia considering Windows Phone 7 as a possible platform for its devices is “stark raving loony.” Martin states that while Symbian and MeeGo are both open source, Nokia demands complete control over its operating systems and there would be no way to achieve that using Microsoft’s mobile platform. Martin does not indicate in his blog post that he speaks for Nokia in any official capacity.

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  • Tomm

    Sorry if it sounds sacrilegious, but I would love to see Android on a BlackBerry, provided the specs were right.

    • Anonymous

      Is the Motorola Droid Pro somehow not to your liking?

      • Tomm

        Yes, you are correct!

  • http://twitter.com/wmpoweruser wmpoweruser

    It would almost be like Palm making a Windows Mobile handset – impossible!!

    • http://www.fbloise.com Frankie Bloise

      Already.done: Treo 750… Lol

      • Mattwilliams1337

        Im pretty sure it was a joke

  • Gquaglia

    Using WP7 is loony, but continuing to use the outdated Symbian OS is perfecting fine. FAIL Nokia. Continue you slide into obscurity.

    • http://twitter.com/mistercarter7 Mike Gonzalez

      ugh! you are so right!! they’d rather see themselves dying and keep on using the pathetic Symbian than swallow their pride and use the OS of someone else

      • http://www.sadude.com SaDudE

        Yes Symbian is dying that is why they are predicted to have 39% percent of the global market for the entire 2010 year.

        Why would a company like Nokia give up all its forward progress to stop and completely reinvent the wheel so that it work with WP7 or Android. Do you think WP7 or Android will allow Nokia to keep their phones as is? No, they will demand they change there ways and now become a follower instead of the leaders they are.

        Pride has nothing to do with it when you are still the number 1 maker of phones in the world.

      • qtip

        Is that 39% number just for smartphones? If not, wouldn’t smartphone market share be a better number to use for this discussion?

        What is the trend of Nokia’s smartphone market share? Are users excited by S3?

      • Daniel

        That’s why they’re working on MeeGo in alliance with Intel… so they can put Symbian on the trash…

      • http://twitter.com/mistercarter7 Mike Gonzalez

        but does a huge marketshare make Symbian any better? their apps suck balls, their screens look like a damn mosaic and still they price their phones like they were the best thing ever when most competition is way ahead of them
        even Gizmodo refused to review the N8 for being too outdated LMAO!

      • Hate, Y U No Love?

        Nokia is Nokia… and they are supposedly going to make a huge push in 2011. It’s stupid to think Nokia is sliding into obscurity, just like dumb Blackberry comments. Not every single phone/device has to be a mainstream, pop-culture hit.

        And as far as Gizmodo… f**k Gizmodo. You forget they are the same people who PAID for a “lost”
        iPhone and then tried to claim they were “journalists”? Integrity and credibility got flushed the day they did that. No wonder they got hacked.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/PACMan3000/ Paul A. Chapel

    I know all the Microsoft loving geeks think everyone should automatically license everything from Microsoft, but here’s the problem: if every competitor is also using WP7 software, you have no competitive advantage except for hardware.

    That’s why in the PC industry, Apple owns 91 percent of the premium market. The rest of the PC makers are at the lower end of the spectrum, competing for scraps. They can’t compete with each other with software because all of them are running Windows!

    Nokia would also have to wait for Microsoft to update the software for Nokia’s phones, leaving them no control over their destiny. The only company that would really make money in this scenario is Microsoft, so yes, licensing WP7 would be a loony move for Nokia. Look at what happened after Palm licensed Windows Mobile instead of concentrating on their own platform. Where are they now. Oh, that’s right, they got sold to HP to keep from going bankrupt.

    • TheNewPerspective

      Could you define this “premium market” that Apple has 91% of?

      Because it’s not high end workstations with top of the line graphics cards, which don’t have driver support in OSX.

      It’s not the computational clusters that companies build when they need processing power.

      It’s not gaming machines, again no driver or software support.

      So what is it, the marketshare of laptops in Starbucks? And which barista gave you the 91% number?

      • Anonymous

        He talking about laptops and desktops priced above $1000. Apple dominates this segment

      • TheNewPerspective

        Two points.

        1) You`re making up market research in your head.

        2) You have no idea what a premium computer is.

    • Hate, Y U No Love?

      The first sentence of your comment is so silly, I chose not to read anymore of it.

  • Anonymous

    And the cigar goes to… Watts Martin!

  • Anonymous

    Nokia using someone else’s OS on one of their phones sounds just as crazy as Nokia sticking with Symbian.

    • Anonymous

      Not at all. Symbian is by far the leading mobile os for a good reason.

  • http://twitter.com/j_nathaniel Jason

    …I guess they are PROUD of Symbian at this point??

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Johan-Ekblom/100000533781474 Johan Ekblom

    R.I.P Wp7 and KIN

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Johan-Ekblom/100000533781474 Johan Ekblom

    I certainly believe that MS is getting a bit desperate. With this year’s flop Windows Phone.

    It sells sick bad.

    R.I.P Windows Phone

  • http://chipotle.tumblr.com/ Watts

    While I can’t say that I appreciate your headline in particular — I am now half-expecting email from a Nokia exec about doing unauthorized PR — a few things for the record:

    - No, this was definitely not speaking in an official capacity. I tried to be pretty careful to not mention anything that wasn’t public knowledge. If there *is* an embrace of WP7 in the works, I don’t know about it, and I don’t see how it would make sense in light of previous and very recent announcements.
    - I am no longer a Nokia employee; I was part of the October layoffs. (This is in that blog post.)
    - I didn’t actually do Django development for them; what I worked on used a PHP framework.
    - I still like many things about Nokia. The industrial design of the N8 is really impressive, and new CEO Stephen Elop seems to be a great guy to lead them.
    - But, for the record, I own an iPhone. My blog is more about Apple topics than anything else.

    As for my feelings on Symbian, well, just say that I approve of Nokia’s move to using Qt as the API layer. :)

    • Anonymous

      Sorry to learn you got laid off. Sadly, when management screws up, the little guys suffer. I am not surprised you use the iphone though as many of you guys never had a passion for Nokia hence the half baked products. Hopefully the new management will hire only people that really care.

      • http://chipotle.tumblr.com/ Watts

        Well, remember I’m in not only America, but in the SF Bay area. Nokia phones, particularly smartphones, just aren’t common here. :) I actually really do like the N8, which was my last work cell phone — it had some pretty neat features and great industrial design. And, I really did like the (software) product I worked on.

        While there are things I can’t speak about yet, Nokia may yet have a rabbit or two to pull from their hat. I suspect we’ll know by this time next year.

    • http://www.bgr.com Zach Epstein

      Thanks for your comment, Watts. I’ve made a few changes to this post to reflect your corrections. There is one I’m not clear on, however:

      “I am no longer a Nokia employee; I was part of the October layoffs. (This is in that blog post.)”

      The original post on your blog states, “I’d previously mentioned that I work for Nokia. As of their most recent round of layoffs, I won’t. (As they say, come January I’ll be “looking for other opportunities.”).”

      Does this not indicate that you were a Nokia employee at the time your post was written, and that you will continue to be a Nokia employee until January? If this is not the case, please let me know here or email me (zach@bgr.com) and I’ll correct the post asap. We’re obviously not trying to misrepresent anything and we made it very clear that this post was made on your personal blog (first sentence of the piece) and you do not claim to represent Nokia in any way (last sentence of the piece).

  • Anonymous

    Only way Microsoft can get Nokia to use WP7 is buying the company.

    Currently it’s almost the opposite: Microsoft is making their software for Qt, or the Nokia developing SDK for Symbian and Meego.

  • http://twitter.com/alexistechblog Marc Corredera

    Nokia is involved in the MeeGo’s project, so it sounds weird to think about running a Windows Phone 7 operating system. Too many effort on Symbian and MeeGo to finally adopt WP7? Personally i like a lot the UI of the new Windows Phone, incredibly soft and gorgeous on interactivity. Although i think there are some missing options such personal ringtones, USB mass storage or the need of use of Zune, that make me unhappy. Oh! and don’t forget about the missing micro SD removable option. why?

    I expect big things for MeeGo, and probably we will be surprised by all vendors involved on that project.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4O6GWVCIYGL3PCVPVWPJY7N6CY Alex

    From a business standpoint it makes sense. Nokia has fallen flat on its face with Symbian 3 and MeeGo is a lame horse. What it needs to do is buy some time like Palm did and release a few devices that support Windows Phone 7 while they work on their OS.

    From a personal standpoint, Nokia would be admitting that it’s plans for Symbian and its adoption in the US were not well embraced. That is a huge pill to swallow for the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company. Motorola did and jumped shipped to Android. When Palm did it, it allowed them to tread water while they worked on WebOS. Unfortunately, it was too late for them, as they were reentering a race dominated by Apple and Google. Nokia still has its global userbase and has a better chance and more money to successfully reenter the game.

    Nokia has not done enough to get American cell phone carriers to carry their flagship devices, so the normal means of purchasing them are online, or through the few retailers that do carry them. They’re other problem is the lack of marketing for their devices. People aren’t going to buy what they don’t understand, have never tried, or don’t find visually appealing.

    • Marcus Christopher McFann

      Nokia devices are heavily marketed globally, and sell well everywhere they’re offered. It is the US where they flounder, which is unique as the only market where manufacturers can’t create their own images or self promote their own products. Besides Apple, no other OEMs do their own ad campaigns in the US. Its a cartel relationship.

  • Anonymous

    Nokia’s fucking crazy. If they started using WP7 or even Android, all my future devices would be Nokias. Get some common sense you douchebags.

  • Anonymous

    wow Nokia has BIPOLAR issues!?

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