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Why Nokia chose WP7 over Android?

While some people are excited about the adoption of Windows Phone 7 into the Nokia family, others are also disappointed why Android wasn’t picked by the Finnish company.

Android is obviously the more mature mobile platform compared to Windows Phone and the number of apps available in the Android Market are also miles away compared to the Microsoft Zune Store.

So the questions remains, why WP7 and not Android? Here are some of my thoughts.

Elop’s career background played a huge role with the decision to go WP7 as he used to be a top Microsoft executive and may still have a lot of allies and friends inside the Redmond complex (including Steve Ballmer himself). His bias towards Windows Phone 7 is expected and being the new gung-ho CEO of Nokia hasn’t diminished that.

Second, the shift in direction isn’t solely leveraged on WP7 alone. Nokia will still make Symbian phones in their entry-level to mid-range handsets while Windows Phone will be installed on flagship and high-end phones (partly due to the hardware requirements).

With Microsoft, Nokia has very little to no significant conflicts of interest and products unlike Google. Had Nokia chosen Android, Ovi Maps will be replaced by Google Maps and the Ovi Store will be totally scrapped in favor of the Android Market. These are huge investments that Nokia made recently and won’t still be willing to let go just to embrace Android.

The Nokia and Microsoft partnership looks like an equitable (dare I say win-win) arrangement — neither one of the two parties is too dominant over the other. Microsoft has a little bit of edge in terms of how far its WP7 platform will move forward while Nokia will benefit a lot from all the marketing budget that Microsoft will infuse into the pool as well as support for enterprise clients (MS Exchange, Outlook and Bing).

Let’s not also discount the fact that Android has a lot of patent problems plaguing it (primarily from Apple) and that might be something Nokia does not want to inherit. With WP, Nokia can be a dominant player in that platform without much competition.

Nokia will not be getting any premium or special treatment from Google unlike what it’s getting from Microsoft. Nokia already got the nod of Microsoft to customize the UI of WP7, a feature Microsoft did not extend to other previous handset manufacturers. Speaks “volumes” of favoritism.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

99 Responses

  1. Avatar for popo martin popo martin says:

    im from the future and nokia will use android in the future

  2. Avatar for Ronaldo Gonzales Ronaldo Gonzales says:

    Short on saying MS just obliterated Nokia from the market…

  3. Avatar for Devs Devs says:

    WP7 Up, kailan kaya ma-rerelease dito sa pinas?

  4. Avatar for Anup Anup says:

    Check out following if you are considering buying a smart-phone:

    I am sure Nokia must have given a thought to these points before choosing WP7.

    http://anupdaware.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-choose-windows-phone-7-over.html

  5. Avatar for rooks rooks says:

    I have htc sense (android), iphone 3g and htc hd7 (wp7).

    It’s a pure fact that MS WP7 is really a nice OS. most of the post here doesn’t make any sense.

    Stereotyping yourself just to make WP7 looks bad is pure fail.

  6. Avatar for Pier Pier says:

    Ang pangit lang kasi sa Windows Phone 7 OS would be the “closed yet loose” build.

    Sa Android, I can easily pinpoint the actual jar and apk files that does what, kaya easy ang customization. Sa Windows phone, mapapasabi ka ng “where the hell did this .dll come from?!” sa sobrang kalat.

  7. Avatar for NOrbel NOrbel says:

    sa lahat ng ginagawa nila tyong mga buyer ang makikinabang…more competition more price cut ang makukuha natin sa mga smartphone :))

  8. Avatar for Xcu Xcu says:

    What if nokia tied up with google whats u gonna call the ovi store?
    Ovi market?

  9. Avatar for mr. bogus mr. bogus says:

    AS OF NOW THE APPS DEVELOPERS CHOOSES ANDROID OVER WP7.. THATS WHY PARANG DI SYA PINAPANSIN..

    BUT IF NOKIA DEVELOP CHEAP WP7 PHONES(BELOW 15K), WELL THATS A DIFFERENT STORY….

    (THE SUCCESS OF O.S. IS IN THE APPS AND SOFTWARE)

    FOR NOW ITS EPIC FAIL……

  10. Avatar for rotero rotero says:

    i already had experience in using the ff

    symbian (old and new)
    win 5 – 6.5
    sony erickson OS

    ANDROID na lang !!!!!!

  11. Avatar for rotero rotero says:

    maybe!!!!—>>>Microsoft should concentrate on computers.

    but its a FACT that mobile users are nore than PC users! dito na lang sa atin no wag ka nang tumingin sa iba!

  12. Avatar for rotero rotero says:

    @zigbien
    hahaha true
    at saka kahit high end pa phone nila kung PREPAID naman DUKHA ka pa rin!!!
    heheheheheh

  13. Avatar for lolipown lolipown says:

    @boo
    >some of us appreciate competition which hopefully brings better phones at more affordable prices

    This is what -tards and morons simply don’t get. Competition breeds innovation. With a healthy, competitive market, no one loses.

  14. Avatar for Jologs Jologs says:

    @ako replied on Feb 15th, 2011 at 9:45 pm (83)

    to many adroid fanatics without even a single android phone…hahaha nakikisabay lang..3230 rules!!!

    —-Exactly my thoughts! Natawa ako dito sobra! Hahahaha!

  15. Avatar for Reynante Reynante says:

    Let’s just see the result. I think ugh… Hands down. I hated Nokia for its laggy and somewhat outdated Symbian Os. But when I saw this article I’m thinking again to look back to my ex-lover Nokia. Nagsawa ako sa Symbian and I left Nokia. Then I fell in love with SE. Now, WP7+Nokia= Big change. :P

  16. Avatar for zigbien zigbien says:

    kahit mamahalin pa cellphone nnyo basta pinoy mag mamay-ari dukha pa ring tingnan…

  17. Avatar for ako ako says:

    to many adroid fanatics without even a single android phone…hahaha nakikisabay lang..3230 rules!!!

  18. Avatar for Phoenix Phoenix says:

    Never tried a WP7 phone so I can’t comment on the performance, but the OS looks promising.

    To all Android fans, please refresh my memory. Why do you love Android uli? Having tried an Android handset, I honestly don’t get what the fuss is all about.

  19. Avatar for Kyle Kyle says:

    you really have a thick skull… nuff said hahahaha

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