What does a multi-partner ecosystem appear like when not all participants are deemed equal?Giving Windows Telephone a substantial shot in the arm, the number 1 worldwide mobile telephone vendor Nokia introduced a sweeping partnership with Microsoft on February eleven. (Yes, I used to be wrong. I believed Nokia would go Android, a move Nokia CEO Stephen Elop acknowledged these days that he regarded as. Gobble, gobble.)Nokia didn;t turn out to be just another Microsoft handset partner via nowadays;s agreement, like HTC,
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Office 2007 Enterprise Key, Samsung and Dell. According to the announcement, Nokia would will have direct input about the long term of Windows Telephone, influencing key places like maps, imaging as well as the market. From currently;s Microsoft/Nokia announcement:“Nokia will help drive and define the long term of Windows Telephone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points,
Windows 7 32bit, market segments and geographies.”Microsoft reportedly is paying Nokia hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the deal. In exchange, Nokia has agreed to make Windows Telephone its principal smartphone operating system. Nokia,
Office 2010 Discount, in turn, becomes a crucial backer of Bing, adCenter, Office Cellular, Visual Studio, Silverlight and XNA.So if you;re HTC or Samsung, do you keep your eggs within the Windows Telephone basket or put a lot more inside the Android one? (The smartphone market is now, for the most part, a three-horse race, with partner-free Apple being the third horse.) And what will this mean for Windows Phone customers, in terms of device choice?The issue is already on people;s minds. Here;s a tweet from CNET;s Stephen Shankland, covering the Nokia-Microsoft press conference this morning:Microsoft has made much of its decision with Windows Phone 7 to “lock down” the base platform, providing OEMs with less opportunity to customize. That has been seen by most company watchers,
Office 2007 Pro, developers and customers as a plus and a way for Microsoft to avoid the problems that plagued Windows Cellular (and Android) — specifically too many designs with too little in common. But Microsoft is changing the rules for Nokia and allowing Nokia to customize the WP7 platform. Does that mean Microsoft will grant other OEMs the same concessions? (And if not, will that lead them to walk?)Next week;s Cellular World Congress should be an interesting one. Wish I could be a fly on the wall in Microsoft;s meetings with its partners….