In February this year, Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft. The partnership will allow Nokia adopt Windows as its primary platform for all of its smartphones. This decision became necessary after Nokia realized the competitive edge its rivals ,Google and Apple had over the Finnish company.After this partnership, many people have speculated an acquisition or merger between the two giants. To clear the air, the CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop speaking recently in Dubai during an interactice session with the media drawn across the Midddle East and Africa, came out to explain that no discussions of a merger have been initiated by either company.
According to Elop, the adoption of windows as the platform for Nokia’s smartphone strategy was a mutually beneficial relationship between Nokia and Microsoft. He maintained that the issue of merger or acquisition was never tabled for consideration by either of the parties. Stephen Elop also disclosed that Nokia was working round the clock to ensure that the first Nokia smartphone hits the market in the very near future.
Although Nokia intends to adopt the Windows platform for its smart phones, the company has not lost sight of the over 200 million Symbian market. Nokia’s huge market share in mobile phones is a good business case for mobile application developers to continue building innovative apps on symbian platform. Nokia's Chief Executive promised that Nokia would reward such disproportionate achievements with disproportionate investments.
