Nokia adopting WP7 as its Primary Ecosystem!

Yes, you heard it right. Today is, in my opinion a sad day for every symbian user who is currently using symbian or is a symbian fan., Nokia announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft, IT IS HAPPENING Windows Phone 7 is going to be primary OS for nokia from now on, this will be the game changer for Nokia for either Good or Bad.


Nokia-Microsoft Partnership Announcement

There's more to the strategic alliance unveiled today, including the WP7 Marketplace subsuming the Ovi Store and some Bing and Ovi Maps interaction, so why not press play above and let the men in charge tell you about it?





Welcome to the Third Ecosystem

A long term strategic alliance between Nokia and Microsoft builds a global ecosystem that creates opportunities beyond anything that currently exists. This ecosystem offers a serious alternative to the existing choices to operators, developers and consumers. Bringing together highly complementary assets and competencies will allow this ecosystem to achieve more than any other industry partnership could achieve. Welcome to the third ecosystem.

“Today Nokia and Microsoft intend to enter into a strategic alliance. Together we will bring consumers a new mobile experience with stellar hardware, innovative software and great services. We will create opportunities beyond anything that currently exists,” says Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

Together Microsoft and Nokia have some of the most globally recognized and treasured brands on the planet. This can be leveraged for the benefit of the ecosystem and the products. Brands like Bing, Xbox, Office, Windows Phone and Nokia, would be all in one package.

“In this partnership with Nokia, Microsoft brings its’ Windows Phone software and the brand mobile consumers want like Bing, Office and of course Xbox Live,” says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Nokia wouldn’t be just be another Windows Phone OEM. Nokia plans to help drive and define the future of the platform. That could include contributing expertise on hardware optimization, language support, customization of the software and helping bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

Nokia operates an established, global supply and distribution network with the capability to bring products to almost every corner of the world. That provides the capability to take potential Nokia Windows Phone products and make them globally competitive. Scale is critical to a winning ecosystem. Together, Nokia and Microsoft would bring unrivalled scale in global reach, brand identity and product breadth.

Now more than ever, consumers, developers and operators have more compelling choices in the mobile space. It’s an exciting time.

Are you ready for the third ecosystem? - Nokia conversations

So what is going to happen to : 

MEEGO

Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year."

The nokia n9 was canceled and now their will be only 1 Meego-related product this year, which i think is going to be a tablet not a smartphone, But nokia will reduce its resources for meego as they are cutting jobs which means meego will come out later part of this year, and only 1 product, which will not be as well supported as it was going to be.

Symbian 

"With Nokia's planned move to Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform, Symbian becomes a franchise platform, leveraging previous investments to harvest additional value. This strategy recognizes the opportunity to retain and transition the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners. Nokia expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come"

Their were also some slides presented by Stephen Elop at the announcement
the signs are not good for symbian, Symbian has 200 million user base , and is planning to sell 150 million more symbian devices in coming years , Nokia almost sold 120 million symbian devices in the year 2010 alone.

 There are no dates but these slides clearly show that Symbian which is a "Franchise OS" the symbian user base will be consumed by windows Phone 7 in coming years. It is not going to be as quick, 2011 and 2012 is what is gonna take nokia to transition from Symbian to Windows.

GLOBAL – Today in London, our two companies announced plans for a broad strategic partnership that combines the respective strengths of our companies and builds a new global mobile ecosystem. The partnership increases our scale, which will result in significant benefits for consumers, developers, mobile operators and businesses around the world. We both are incredibly excited about the journey we are on together.

While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here’s a quick summary of what we are working towards:

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.

• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.

• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.

• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.

• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

We each bring incredible assets to the table. Nokia’s history of innovation in the hardware space, global hardware scale, strong history of intellectual property creation and navigation assets are second to none. Microsoft is a leader in software and services; the company’s incredible expertise in platform creation forms the opportunity for its billions of customers and millions of partners to get more out of their devices.

Together, we have some of the world’s most admired brands, including Windows, Office, Bing, Xbox Live, NAVTEQ and Nokia. We also have a shared understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a mobile ecosystem, which includes the entire experience from the device to the software to the applications, services and the marketplace.

Today, the battle is moving from one of mobile devices to one of mobile ecosystems, and our strengths here are complementary. Ecosystems thrive when they reach scale, when they are fueled by energy and innovation and when they provide benefits and value to each person or company who participates. This is what we are creating; this is our vision; this is the work we are driving from this day forward.

There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.

There will be challenges. We will overcome them.

Success requires speed. We will be swift.

Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.

OUTCOME 

Nokia share fell by a huge amount of 10%, never before it happened to nokia share that it fell down 10% in a single day, this clearly shows what Nokia's investor's think about the announcement Nokia made today, and to be honest I feel betrayed from nokia all those promises of last 2 years of making 2 great OS's Symbian for mid-range devices Meego for High-end devices s40 for low-end devices they have been changed the game has been changed now Nokia is just like HTC,SAMSUNG or MOTOROLA, Stephen says that this is the way to crack into the US market but in my opinion even if this works for US but what about the market where Nokia sells and have been selling from past 15 years, what about the promises nokia made about Meego, Now Meego is just a learning curve for Nokia, Me personally i am not happy with the announcement. yes i believe symbian was not the best OS out there, but i certainly feel that it is still much more funtional then the WP7 operating system i feel WP7 is a dumbphone OS , Yes IOS or android were more stable has better UI then symbian but at least Nokia was trying and was good at it, but now Everything changes nokia is just a hardware manufacturer, not a good move in my eyes, Now nokia is no different it is even cutting Its R&D on symbian and meego, I feel disappointed by Nokia and i know many other who also feel disappointed by Nokia. But time will tell