Since Nokia decided to relegate Symbian and MeeGo to the second tier
and throw its lot in with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7) OS, plenty
has been said about when we’d see blowers made in Espoo rocking the Big
M’s operating system.
Official renderings, released just days after the tie-up was
confirmed, suggested the wait wouldn’t be too long. Hints were then
dropped that Nokia was desperate to get a WP7 device on shelves by the
end of 2011. And why not?
Any hold-ups would mean that it wouldn’t release a flagship
smartphone in 2011, when every other OEM is storming ahead with
next-gen goodies. But now Espoo says its first WP7 handset won’t come
until 2012, eleven months after the deal was inked.
The news comes from Nokia India’s D Shivakumar in a US regulatory
filing. And what’s more, he says the full strategy won’t be implemented
until 2013. It appears that Nokia is not keen on the current version of
WP7 and is holding out for the so-called “Mango” update, which will
bring HTML5, copy and paste and more advanced social skills to the OS.
This is as much Microsoft’s fault as it is Nokia’s, The Mango
software boost had been promised for this year, but problems with a
less important upgrade, which has bricked certain WP7 phones, means it
will have to wait. And now Nokia wants to play the waiting game too.
How this is even an option for them is a surprise. While they get to
work on a WP7 cell, rivals across the spectrum will continue to forge
ahead. It’s hard to see a Nokia WP7 phone being anything other than
stillborn on arrival. By that point, the iPhone 5 will have been on
shelves for six months, Google will have moved past Android Ice Cream
and even webOS will be resurgent.
It all shows that in its attempts not to lose face, Nokia has made
the wrong decision about which OS to back. It at least could have taken
HTC, Samsung and LG’s route and opted for Android as well as Windows
Phone. As it is, it’s thrown itself behind a platform that is
critically lauded but seemingly struggling to do the numbers. Nokia has
failed to learn the lessons of the past few years: namely, holding on
for something to work is a bum move. It could have worked much faster
with Android and released a device that would have soared in terms of
volume.
So, the wait continues. The question is, will Nokia still be
relevant in the smartphone world when its WP7 is finally put up for
sale? Don’t bank on it.
05:17
Ali TariQ
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