Not sure if this will affect Microsoft but surely it is a smack in the face for them, we are talking about Nokia’s choice in taking control of Symbian; this is a very good move in the way of not side-lining the high end mobile phone market.
The competition in the mobile phone market is fierce especially when it comes to the software side of things and competition including Microsoft is strong, but of course Google’s new Android platform and the new Apple iPhone is just as strong, well this is where Nokia come into play because they have hit back with the acquisition of Symbian, this will provide the software for the most advanced mobile phones for the market. Nokia has announced that they will be paying £209 million to acquire the 52.1 per cent of Symbian it did not already own, which means they will be buying out Sony Ericsson and Samsung, with which it competes in the handset market – Panasonic, Ericsson, and Siemens.
This will indeed boost investment in the Symbian platform which of course is used by many major handset manufactures to power smartphones, Microsoft is a threat and this new acquisition should warn them off surely, Microsoft has Windows Mobile software which competes with Symbian and of course the new entrants such as Android. Nokia at the moment make two in 5 handset that are sold globally which means they have a very good market, but we must all think about Apple’s iPhone and RIM (makers of Blackberry) who both have a strong hold on the market as well when it comes to smartphones, Nokia is not very strong in the US which says to me with this new deal we could see some interesting things about to happen.
The iPhone has approx 28 percent of share of the US smartphone market whereas RIM has 41 per cent, so you see this is a big market to take control off. Microsoft has pumped so much money into its Windows platform and many manufacturers are already using it over Symbian, for example HTC has adapted Windows Mobile for its new HTC Touch Diamond, Sony has also partnered with Microsoft for its newest coming soon Xperia X1 phone, so you can see competition is at a high and we can see some major things about to happen. Personally cannot wait to see Google Android at the end of the year.
Read the full article over at Times Online
