# Microsoft buys Nokia- Will this save their smartphone venture? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 3, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865 "2013-09-03T05:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/1 "2013-09-03T05:00:51Z")
I thinking it’s just rearranging deck chairs, but we’ll see - [Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s device and services division](http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57601025-75/microsoft-to-acquire-nokias-device-and-services-division/) > [@](#): > > As part of $7.2 billion deal, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will step down to become an executive vice president of the division. > [@](#): > > Microsoft will acquire Nokia’s devices and services unit and license the company’s mapping services in a deal worth $7.2 billion. > > The software giant will pay $5 billion for “substantially all” of Nokia’s phone unit and another $2.2 billion to license its patents, the companies announced late Sunday. As part of the deal, Stephen Elop will step down as Nokia chief executive to become the executive vice president of the devices and services division. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, is one of a handful of candidates suggested to replace Microsoft Steve Ballmer, who is expected to retire by next summer. > > “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,” Ballmer and Elop said in a joint statement. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/2 "2013-09-03T05:19:06Z")
That’s interesting; we kind of thought they’d go after Blackberry. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/3 "2013-09-03T14:28:49Z")
Rumor has it that MS bought Nokia as they (Nokia) was planning to drop Windows Mobile from their lineup. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/4 "2013-09-03T14:47:22Z")
My take: Nokia is on a major downward spiral. If it went under, it would be a huge hit for MS and Windows Phones. MS had to rescue it. They probably paid top much and the rest of Nokia is glad to get out that business. Plus there’s the patents. Even if MS isn’t successful in the phone market, they can impede the success of others a bit. (Or so they think.) Same logic Google used in getting the remnants of Motorola’s phone business. MS will no doubt end up contracting with an HTC type company for making phones in the future. It’s a question of how much money MS is willing to lose before they go with Plan B (or C or D …) ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/5 "2013-09-03T14:59:20Z")
Has MS figured out what they want to do with phones and mobile yet, other than “we want to make money from them”? ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/6 "2013-09-03T15:11:16Z")
I think that this is the beginning of the end for Nokia. I don’t see Windows Mobile becoming competitive any time soon. They are too far behind Android and Apple in apps and market share. At this point, in order to become competitive, they would need to release a phone that is quite a bit better than anything else out there. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/7 "2013-09-03T15:34:12Z")
Are there any examples of this kind of technology purchase actually working well in high tech? Generally, between the culture clashes and the inevitable lay-offs, morale in the purchased company suffers. (The jury is still out on the Google purchase of Motorola Mobility, but they’re [not getting their money’s worth](http://bgr.com/2013/04/29/google-motorola-merger-analysis-472711/) in terms of the patents. ) And I’m assuming that this means that an Android Nokia smartphone is off the table which means that there’s a whole ecosystem out there that they’re not getting a taste of. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/8 "2013-09-03T15:38:52Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Has MS figured out what they want to do with phones and mobile yet, other than “we want to make money from them”? Microsoft is the most amazingly successful company that has triumphed despite their long history of making some of the most defective and poorly-conceived products since American Motors Corporation, e.g. Windows Vista, first generation Xbox 360, Zune, OLE 1.0, the list goes on. They are basically the real life instantiation of Douglas Adams Sirius Cybernetics Corporation insofar as _It is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of [their products] by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all. In other words - and this is the rock solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation’s Galaxy-wide success is founded - their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws._ I’m sure the thinking is 1. By Nokia, 2. {magic happens}, 3. Profit! And the curious thing is that somehow they probably will make a profit, and then turn around and sue everyone else for having some pre-existing feature that Microsoft implemented poorly and then claimed priority on. Sorry, just a little angry today about repeated forced updates to my Windows 7 laptop? Do I want Bing! Desktop? Thanks, I don’t need you overriding my browser settings, replacing the backdrop of the picture I took climbing Glacier Point with some random picture of a cable car with “Bing!” labeled all over it, and installing a bunch of other bullshit in the background which grinds my Core i7 workstation with 64 GB of DDRAM to a grinding halt, but thank you for asking. This, and the lack of a good native command shell are the reasons I don’t actually select a Windows machine for my home and pleasure use. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/9 "2013-09-03T17:31:25Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Microsoft is the most amazingly successful company that has triumphed despite their long history of making some of the most defective and poorly-conceived products since American Motors Corporation, e.g. Windows Vista, first generation Xbox 360, Zune, OLE 1.0, the list goes on. Putting Zune on this list is a little suspect, since Zune was a really solid product system that failed not because it was defective, but because it was launched way too late into a contracting market at too high a price point. Which, honestly, is more indicative of MS’s more recent failings: they’re painfully slow to market. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/10 "2013-09-03T17:37:56Z")
I predict this will be an epic meltdown. A failure of magnificent proportions. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/11 "2013-09-03T17:40:17Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > Putting Zune on this list is a little suspect, since Zune was a really solid product system that failed not because it was defective, but because it was launched way too late into a contracting market at too high a price point. Hence, “…defective and poorly-concieved…” (I suppose I should have made that a logical OR but whatever.) “Hey, look at me! I can share my music while in the vicinity of anyone else who also owns a Zune!” Big whoop. Who are these self-aggrandized geniuses at Redmond who think they’ve going to revolutionize the market with these inspiriations? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/12 "2013-09-03T17:54:14Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Has MS figured out what they want to do with phones and mobile yet, other than “we want to make money from them”? I am quite sure that whatever it may be, it will be tied in to Microsoft’s _ **Magnificent Dream** _. Which was, that for every single action, transaction, storing, viewing, or transmission of any kind, no matter how small, on computers, an ongoing fee would instantaneously accrue to Microsoft. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/13 "2013-09-03T18:28:44Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > …then turn around and sue everyone else for having some pre-existing feature that Microsoft implemented poorly and then claimed priority on. I think Apple is beating them in this market as well. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/14 "2013-09-03T18:52:33Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > That’s interesting; we kind of thought they’d go after Blackberry. That was never plausible technically. RIM just spent years converting from their own internal operating system to QNX. Converting a second time to Windows would take at least as long and they can’t afford to stop new product development for that length of time. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/15 "2013-09-03T19:15:09Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Are there any examples of this kind of technology purchase actually working well in high tech? Generally, between the culture clashes and the inevitable lay-offs, morale in the purchased company suffers. Lenovo’s purchase of IBM’s PC division seemed to go very well for both parties. However, Microsoft does not have a reputation as a company that acquires other organizations well. While I doubt the phones division will ever be a major player again, I suspect the remaining components of Nokia will be stronger without that massive boat anchor. [I’m not alone, either](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-03/nokias-future-is-smaller-but-probably-brighter). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/16 "2013-09-03T20:27:25Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Has MS figured out what they want to do with phones and mobile yet, other than “we want to make money from them”? Windows Mobile 8 is actually a decent OS, but Microsoft’s efforts at pushing into a market with other established players always seems a bit limp. Doesn’t matter whether or not they have a good product, it’s almost like they just don’t really try. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/17 "2013-09-03T21:08:37Z")
I’m finding Windows Phone 8 thoroughly fine on my Lumia 820. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/18 "2013-09-03T22:39:36Z")
I think Microsoft could still turn things around, but it’s a long shot. The problem isn’t that their phones or OS are bad (they’re actually pretty good). The problem is that they have little to differentiate themselves. Apple has first mover advantage, brand power and the biggest App store. Google has excellent integration with Gmail, maps, voice search. Microsoft has… some kind of lame Office subscription service? They’re a few years late to that party. Everyone who wants to do business work on their phones found workarounds like Dropbox and Google Docs that work well enough, or even better, than Office. Their phone is comparable to Apple and Google phones. But for them to get a toehold, it needs to be _way better_ in a way that makes people really want it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/19 "2013-09-03T22:50:59Z")
The design ethic of the Windows phone OS could have been part of that USP (it is actually quite elegant), but they just don’t seem to be promoting it. That, and MS shot itself in the foot with the RT tablet - specifically, not making it suitable for business. IT professionals in large organisations generally love Microsoft (or at least, act like they do) - RT could have been perfect for the mobile workforce, WP8 could even have been the sensible businessman’s phone - and all of this could have worked seamlessly with Microsoft’s desktop and server solutions, which are everywhere. I have a WP8 phone, and I like it more than I liked my previous Android phones, but I get the distinct feeling that I’m backing a longshot. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865/20 "2013-09-03T23:03:56Z")
Nokia has been losing money for years-it is like Blackberry. I predict that Microsoft will pull the plug on it, within 2 years. Big tax writeoff for Microsoft! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-buys-nokia-will-this-save-their-smartphone-venture/667865.md?page=2)