Nokia Windows Phone is ‘absolutely stunning’
INTERVIEW: Nokia UK MD talks to Pocket-lint — “Absolutely stunning.” That's how everyone that's been shown Nokia's new Windows Phone 7?smartphone describes the device. This is according to Nokia's Conor Pierce, general manager for UK and Ireland …
Context & Ripple Effects
Nokia's UK pitch for its first Microsoft-powered handset lands eight months after Stephen Elop committed the company to Windows Phone over Symbian and MeeGo in his February 2011 strategy reset, following Engadget's early look at the Windows Phone 7 concept and his own interview laying out the Microsoft bet.
The timing matters because the ground under Nokia is eroding fast: Symbian has slid from 47% to 16% share in three years, and a confirmed order of two million Windows Phone units from Compal for Q4 2011 shows manufacturing is already ramping behind the marketing. Pierce's 'absolutely stunning' framing is the retail-facing opening move of that launch.
First-order effects
- Conor Pierce and Nokia's UK and Ireland operation are now carrying the launch narrative directly to carriers and press, with the two-million-unit Compal order setting the Q4 volume the messaging has to sell through.
- The N9, Nokia's first and last MeeGo phone, remains unconfirmed for the US, leaving this Windows Phone device as the credible flagship story Nokia can tell operators.
Second-order effects
- Elop has already warned publicly that Google's Motorola Mobility acquisition endangers Android licensees, so a polished Nokia-Microsoft handset gives carriers nervous about Android concentration an alternative to stock — pressure HTC and Samsung must answer with their own Windows Phone lineups.
- App developers face a renewed pitch: with Nokia calling the app-centric models of Android and iPhone outdated, the launch tests whether operator distribution can substitute for app-store gravity.
Third-order effects
- If the launch converts, the smartphone market consolidates around a three-platform structure — iOS, Android, Windows Phone — with Nokia as Microsoft's anchor hardware partner rather than an OS owner itself.
- A successful transition would mark one of the fastest platform migrations in mobile history, but if the device disappoints at retail, Symbian's collapse leaves Nokia without a fallback OS.
The trend: Smartphone platforms are consolidating into a three-horse race, with Nokia trading its own operating systems for Microsoft's ecosystem to stay in it.