In an interview with the Nokia Conversations blog, China Edition, Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, said that "software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016", and that there is " a long history still to be paved for Symbian in the future". While Nokia has previously made it clear that Symbian investment would continue, the 2016 date is a definitive statement and may be further in the future than some have anticipated.
Yesterday Microsoft offered the media a preview of Mango, the next release of the Windows Phone platform. The release will deliver more than 500 new features, with an emphasis on communication, apps and the Internet. Mango will also see wider language support, the addition of 1500 APIs for developers and significant performance improvements. Mango is scheduled to arrive in the autumn and will be the version that Nokia uses on its first Windows Phone devices, scheduled to appear in 2012 in quantity.
Following on from the first, second and third episodes, here is the fourth episode of the 361 Degrees podcast. This is a podcast all about mobile technology, created by Ben Smith of Wireless Worker and co-hosted by Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review and Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian. The fourth episode features discussion on NFC - what is it, what does it do and what are some of the issues surrounding its deployment.
Kevin Fury, over on his blog, has some interesting thoughts on what Microsoft are up to in the mobile space. Building blocks such as the Windows Phone OS, Nokia's hardware and manufacturing expertise, the voice and IM handling of Skype, what does it add up to? The supposition (also echoed in part by Dave Winer) is that the major technology firms are gearing up for a confrontation with the mobile carrier networks.
Following on from the IDC figures earlier this month, we now have Gartner's analysis and considered opinions, focussing on mobile operating systems and ecosystems, summarised and quoted below. Symbian-powered shipments were indeed now behind Android, but still retained 27% of the entire new smartphone market.
Nokia announcedtoday that it will change its service branding from Ovi to Nokia. This will see the services change from Ovi Service to Nokia Service. For example, Ovi Maps to Nokia Maps. The transition will begin in July and is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 and Nokia says that the rebrand will have no impact on planned updates and improvements to the services.
Microsoft today announced plans to acquire Skype, the Internet communications company, for US $8.5 billion. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of both companies and, pending regulatory approval, is expected to be completed later this year. The acquisition sets the scene for closer integration between Skype and Microsoft products, including Windows Phone. Given Microsoft and Nokia's recent tie up, it seems likely that future Nokia products may ship with Skype integration out of the box.
Nokia's Chairman, Jorma Ollila, is to step down next year, reports Reuters. At Nokia's Annual General Meeting, held yesterday, Ollila, confirming what he said last September, announced that he would stand down in 2012 and that the search for his sucessor has already started. Ollia was CEO of Nokia from 1992-2006 and became the Chairman in 1999. He recently oversaw the appointment of Stephen Elop as the new CEO of Nokia, replacing Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.
Nokia and Accenture today announced plans for a strategic collaboration, which will see Nokia transfer its Symbian software activities to Accenture. As a result, around 3,000 Nokia employees will transition to Accenture. Accenture will then provide Symbian-related development and support services to Nokia. In the future, Accenture will also provide future smartphone ecosystem services around the Windows Phone platform to Nokia.
Nokia today announced that it plans to cut its workforce by 4,000 employees by the end of 2012, as part of the restructuring resulting from its recent strategy changes. The majority of the cuts will take place in Finland, Denmark and the UK. They are part of the previously announced measures to cut Nokia's operational expenditure by €1 billion. In addition, a further 3,000 employees will move to Accenture as part of the transfer of Nokia's Symbian software activities, which was also announced today.
The agreement for Nokia and Microsoft to work together to create a "new global mobile ecosystem", announced in February, has now been signed. Nokia and Microsoft will now continue to work together, each bringing their own strengths to the table, seeking to combine their complimentary assets. The two companies say that significant process has been made on the engineering of new products and that outreach to developers has already begun.
Nokia has released its Q1 2011 results, reporting an operating profit of €439 million (down 10% Year-on-Year), with net sales of €10.399 billion (up 9% YoY). Nokia's device and service division's profits were €439 million, down 10% from last year. Margins in devices and services were 9.8% (down 2.3% YoY and down 1.5% QoQ).
Total converged devices sales (mainly Symbian-powered smartphones) were 24.2 million, compared with 21.5 million units in Q1 2010 (up 13% YoY) and compared with 28.3 million units in Q4 2010 (down 14%, QoQ). Worldwide smartphone market share was 26%, down 5% sequentially and 15% year on year. Read on for more analysis and more details.
Nokia announced yesterday that the Ovi Store now reaches up to five million downloads per day. Ovi Store now contains more than 40,000 content items, representing an eight fold increase in the catalogue since last year, with approximately 1,000 additional items being added every week. Symbian^3 devices (N8, C6-01, C7 and E7) are responsible for 15% of daily downloads (750,000 per day). Read on for charts and analysis.
Snaptu, the startup company which produces the well-known J2ME mobile app, have agreed to be acquired by social networking giant, Facebook. Snaptu is the first Israeli start-up company to be acquired. According to Israeli news site, Calcalist, this buy-out has brought investors approximately a six-fold return on their investment. The Snaptu application has a massive reach by targetting Java compatible mobile phones, most of which lack any sort of app store. Furthermore, the wide range of social networks and content offered by Snaptu bring services to feature phones which are otherwise restricted to more advanced smartphones. Read on for more.
