Ok. Just dreaming.
The words “Nokia” and “Android” are very powerful. They are rarely used together in the same sentence by Nokia devotees. For a few years, the concept of Nokia producing an Android handset has been nothing but a highly limited intellectual exercise.
The received wisdom has always been that Nokia would produce an Android device over it’s dead body. When hell freezes over. Etc. I have sat in painful group media interviews whilst Silicon Valley journalists repeatedly demanded to know why the board-level Nokia executive wasn’t creating Android phones. Needless to say the Nokia executive(s) considered the line of questionning beyond the absurd.
Completely absurd when the company has it’s own proven operating system.
But not that absurd any more. Not when Nokia’s come out of a rather challenging quarter with a new CEO. Not when the market actually sends Nokia’s (previously languishing) shares up a few points on the mere hint of Android.
The ‘A’ word hasn’t been mentioned by Elop. Just the possibility of a Nokia future that might include another OS. (Beyond MeeGo, one assumes)
Sadly I think a Nokia Android world is the stuff of dreams for many (and nightmares for others). Likewise a Nokia Windows strategy.
But, for just a few moments, let’s just pretend. Let’s suspend reality.
A Nokia strategy that sees it move it’s entire production of 400-500 million devices to Android within 2 years? That’s compelling. (I know there are SO many issues with this, but go with me).
All of a sudden, Nokia would be sitting right at the top of the mobile industry table (they’re right there already, just ignored). The company would be relevant once again. And all of a sudden, the investments in Ovi — particularly the now capable Ovi Store infrastructure — become particularly compelling. I could see the Ovi Store on Android being a much better alternative than the Android marketplace.
Yes the majority of Nokia’s customers are at the lower end of the market. But they’ll be aspiring beyond feature phone status. The sub-£100 Android device is already a reality. Could Nokia own the likely huge $39 Android ‘smartphone’ category, using it’s phenomenal logistical capabilities?
At the higher-end, Nokia would immediately fix the usual challenges that greet every new arrival that they produce at the moment. Imagine the Nokia N8 running Android 2.2. Interesting. All of a sudden you can free Nokia’s talented array of hardware geniuses to focus on innovating brilliant devices and avoiding the OS panic.
Android on Nokia would really, really change the marketplace. I’d love to see this kind of aggressive market-changing big decisions from the company, I really would.
It’s unlikely though. Very unlikely. The company’s sitting on (still) the most popular OS on the planet in Symbian and MeeGo is en route ready to wow us all. (Or ready to get the usual pasting the American-led tech media has been routinely reserving for Nokia).
What do you think?
Posted via email from MIR Live
It’s not just the UX in this consideration. The Qt SDK has all the maturity of a petulant toddler.
It will happen. It’s a solid prediction. The problem for Nokia is that they won’t do it for 12 to 24 months, because they will still be backing MeeGo and Symbian. That is a mistake, as most people can already see. Nokia should produce Android and Windows Mobile phones.
All I keep thinking is, does the world need another “brand” name Android powered phone maker? I’ve lost count of how many there are now in Europe, let alone the Asian markets.
Indeed!
Gareth, in writing the post I was thinking that. I wonder if the OS discussion is already over. Obviously on the face of it — no — there are still millions buying Symbian phones. But in 18/24 months, will they still be buying them if there’s an ultra low-cost Android alternative?
The Nokia brand is still massive…?
Yeah, I believe the puchase of Trolltech and QT could be a heavy weight that could left Elop a bit stranded in his effort of really turn things around for Nokia.
I just hope he can overcome that, and take Nokia up to the sky again, because they have killer phones and with the right ‘software ecosystem deal’ they can go up again!
Victor — fascinating stuff!
The only company that will benefit from a switch to Android is Google. Even Samsung and HTC know this since they are both also backing Windows 7 and in Samsung’s case Bada. There are signs that phone operators are also getting worried about the big G wielding too much power.
If I were Nokia I would do 2 things:
1) stick with the QT strategy which when the N9 comes out will finally have some hardware to showcase it. I’ve played about with the new QT 4.7 QML stuff and it’s awesome.
2) Convince HP and RIM to adopt QT as their dev kit. This would make sense for HP/RIM because they don’t have a really solid SDK for their mobile OSs. QT is open source and Nokia have invested millions in enhancing its mobile abilities. It would also allow all three companies to offer their own OSs but give developers a sufficiently big install base to make supporting it a must.
Interestingly both QNX (which what the playbook is built on) and WebOS already can run QT. At moment they don’t have the QT Mobility API implemented (which allows access to phone stuff like contacts and text messages) but this would be fairly trivial for them to do if they made the political move to back QT as their SDKs.
I like your ideas, APS
I like your ideas, APS