There was a lot of hype regarding Nokia’s new leadership under Stephen Elop and the new strategies that the company was going to adopt to regain a considerable market share which it had previously forfeited due to a variety of reasons. In February 2011, Mr. Elop had announced that Nokia plans to partner with Microsoft and use the Windows Phone OS for its next generation of smartphones. However, since then the company has not seen much of an improvement and analysts around the world are still dubious about the future of the company that was once the world leader of the mobile phone market.
With the quick growth of the Android OS and Apple’s iOS, it was evident that Nokia had to do something to ensure that it could maintain its position of dominance in the market. The first decision that the company made of issuing an order to suspend all existing businesses in the hope that a new one is going to have great potential was not a very wise one according to experts in the industry. The situation looks pretty grave now as Nokia’s future is entwined with Windows Phone as a lot depends on how successful Windows Phone 8 is going to be once it is released.
When one compares the Windows Phone to the Android OS, the shortcomings of the former are pretty evident. Sure the Windows Phone OS is smooth to use, has a great look to it and is quite fast but it is the advanced features of the Android that the Windows Phone OS lacks. Moreover, with Google releasing new and more advanced builds of Android on a regular basis, the Windows Phone is going to have a tough time competing with the likes of Jellybean. In fact, to a trained mobile phone critic, the fact that there are missing features in the new OS that were considered default in Nokia’s previous OS, the Symbian OS, becomes quite evident.
One of the biggest mistakes Mr. Elop has already made, according to several experts is the discontinuing of MeeGo. While it is possible that Windows Phone will overwhelm the devices running MeeGo’s OS, it would have been a good alternate considering the success of the Nokia N9. However, with a new startup, Jolla coming up with MeeGo devices, it will be interesting to watch if Nokia regrets its prior decisions.
