The anticipated release of the Microsoft Windows Phone is delayed until at least October due to Nokia failing to adopt Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform, which means they can’t run Microsoft software.
Instead, Nokia is waiting on the release of the “Mango” operating system, which is expected to be a major new release for the Windows Phone platform. The new phone is expected to have a different name than the current Windows Phone 7 name.
Stephen Elop, former Microsoft executive and now Nokia’s chief executive, said last week that the company would abandon their market-leading in-house Symbian smartphone platform. He was also careful to call the anticipated new phone a Windows phone and not Windows Phone 7.
Elop has repeatedly refused to give a time scale on when they will introduce handsets that work with the Window Phone platform. This appears to confirm that the new phone won’t come out until the introduction of the Mango update.
Other than saying Nokia spokesperson has a commitment to using the Windows Phone platform, but would not elaborate further.
Even though it seems there isn’t much difference in calling it Windows Phone 7 or Windows Phone, Elop, who used to be in charge of the very profitable Office division of Microsoft, would have been very aware of how important that difference was in the names and why it was necessary so as not to misled any investors, analysts or users.
It has been speculated that the Mango will be renamed Windows Phone 7.5, with a Windows Phone 8 showing up by the end of 2012. However, Mango, which will adds several new features such as HTML5 support, is not expected to come out until at least this fall.
Even so, it wouldn’t have been possible for Elop to report earlier that Nokia is adopting Windows Phone 7.5 because that would have given too many details related to Microsoft’s then-yet to be announced plans, and the delays unstated in Nokia’s plans.
As such, his refusal to admit that Nokia is adopting a Windows Phone 7, something he has never said in any interview ever, is now noticeable. Elop was briefed on the soon to come Microsoft branding efforts. One example is that he didn’t’ talk about the Microsoft Zune music platform last week as a benefit of the tie-up. He merely announced that Microsoft has a “great software platform” in the Windows Phone, and in the brands that users desire, “such as Bing, Xbox Live, and Office.”
But neither Elop nor Ballmer said anything about Zune, which is Microsoft’s music service, and the one that is expected to replace Nokia in music offerings.
This is due to the fact that Zune may be rebranded with a different name. A Microsoft spokesperson did say none of Zune’s services or features would be taken away and that they remained committed to giving customers a great music and video experience from Zune on platforms like Xbox Live, Windows-based PCs, Zune devices and Windows Phone 7, as well as integration with Bing and MSN.
Analysts lowered Nokia’s stock because they think the company will face major costs in restructuring costs and that it will have problems selling Symbian phones due to competition from rivals while it attempts get the production of Windows Phone models higher.
It’s thought that users will see the last of the sales of the Symbian phones sometime in 2012, though no information has actually confirmed that speculation. Elop was challenged to explain how Nokia could stay profitable if Symbian was a dying platform. In response, he said that competitors would do anything they thought right for their own business and that Nokia would fight to keep its customers.
Elop wouldn’t say if he believed Nokia would stay profitable the rest of the year, only saying he had already given enough financial guidance to analysts already. In that meeting last Friday, he had not given any guarantee that Nokia would stay profitable every quarter the rest of the year.
Plus, when Microsoft was asked if Nokia was standing by until the next version of the Windows Phone came out, they said they wouldn’t give out any guidance on the product details, timings, markets, or operators now, but that they were targeting the delivery of a significant volume of Nokia Windows Phones in 2012.
Windows Phone 7 was a flop on release.
Since then, sales have declined even further. Such failure has plagued other Microsoft mobile platforms in the past, including Windows Mobile and the failed Kin phones.
By the time Nokia gets to make a Windows Phone, the platform will have failed and been axed.