Building on this successful partnership, we announced some important news today: an agreement for Microsoft to purchase Nokia’s Devices & Services business, to deliver more choices, faster innovation, and even more exciting devices and services to our customers.
Today’s agreement will accelerate the momentum of Nokia’s devices and services, bringing the world’s most innovative smartphones to more people, while continuing to connect the next billion people with Nokia’s mobile phone portfolio.
With the commitment and resources of Microsoft to take Nokia’s devices and services forward, we can now realize the full potential of the Windows ecosystem, providing the most compelling experiences for people at home, at work and everywhere in between.
It’s no secret that Nokia has hung its hat on Windows Phone, and today’s announcement will bring the company’s hardware and services divisions under Microsoft’s command. Nokia president — and former Microsoft executive — Stephen Elop will run the new group for Redmond.
Today’s announcement doesn’t change that – acquiring Nokia’s Devices group will help make the market for all Windows Phones, from Microsoft or our OEM partners.
Myerson goes on to write:
Our OS group mission is to enable the innovations of our hardware partners to shine through on the Windows platform. We collaborate with our Microsoft hardware teams in the same way we partner with our external hardware partners: we discreetly discuss technical and business opportunities, make shared bets, empower each other to do great work, and then operate closely together to delight our shared customers. We look forward to building new products together that will provide valuable business opportunity for the ecosystem and enable OEMs to deliver huge value to their customers, from consumers to the largest enterprise.
In short, Myerson views Windows Phone and Windows as very similar in this regard. The company makes the core product, while encouraging OEMs to innovate in key areas.
Google’s purchase of Motorola comes immediately to mind when thinking about this news. Google bought Motorola a while back, and with the Moto X, has partnered with them to build a product, but the most popular Android phones are built by Samsung.
That’s not the case with Windows Phone, however. Nokia has outpaced its rivals in the Windows Phone marketshare race. When people think about Windows phones, the Lumia line comes to mind. That wasn’t the case when Google bought Motorola. They weren’t on top.
I have no doubt that Microsoft will still allow OEMs to ship Windows Phone phones (sigh), but my guess it that HTC and others will begin to slowly back away from Windows Phone, leaving Microsoft as the only hardware vendor by default.
While I generally think that Apple’s complete control of hardware and software is a good thing, I’m not sure Microsoft is the type of company that can handle both ends of things. The Xbox is a huge success, but other such projects (Zune, Kin, etc.) have not been.
There’s an Alan Kay quote that has been floating around today:
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
That, of course, is the philosophy subscribed to by Apple, but I don’t think it yet fully applies to Microsoft.
Is having Nokia employees wearing Microsoft badges enough to change that? Perhaps. Time will tell, but I’m hopeful.