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(03-09-2013, 12:59 PM)freedom Wrote: Honestly I can't think a worse way to stall Windows Phone's future. Microsoft is alienating its vendors by competing directly with them. Microsoft just kill the future of Windows Phone.
What's next? Microsoft will buy another PC makers to compete with the rest of PC makers?
Other than Nokia, I don't suppose the other smartphone makers were putting in a lot of effort on their Windows model. Can't really blame them as Android models were easily more saleable... I guess Microsoft must be thinking they'd better better off with Nokia as they must be seeing only half hearted attempts by the rest...
Let's see if Nokia smartphones will do better with a big cash machine behind them...
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03-09-2013, 02:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-09-2013, 02:25 PM by wee.)
The thing I see about Windows phone now, even with the acquisition, is that Microsoft don't have any compelling technologies which will make an average phone user switch ecosystem. Being late to the game, its offer has to be compelling. Map, email, social network, search, video, messaging, and what have you... its all available on Android and Apple, and its all ... free. And these are not 2nd rated products. Microsoft probably is going to better integrate Windows, Office and Skype with the acquisition (maybe XBox along the line maybe?), but I am not sure if that will be enough to persuade people to switch by then.
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Official news report.
Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s handset business for S$9 billion
HELSINKI — Microsoft said today (Sept 3) that it will buy Nokia’s mobile phone business for 5.44 billion euros (S$9.16 billion).
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014 and it is subject to approval by Nokia’s shareholders and regulatory approvals. Nokia partnered in 2011 with Microsoft and uses Microsoft’s Windows software to run its mobile phones. REUTERS
http://www.todayonline.com/business/micr...16-billion
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With $7.17 Billion Nokia Buy, Microsoft Brings Its Trojan Horse Home
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/09/microsoft-nokia/
BY CADE METZ09.03.13
Microsoft is paying about $5 billion to buy a majority of Nokia’s cellphone business, while shelling out another $2.17 billion to license the struggling Finnish company’s patent portfolio. And none of this should surprise you.
With this $7.17 billion play, Microsoft has redoubled its efforts to compete with Apple and Google in the smartphone game, nabbing a handset maker that can more closely combine its Windows Phone operating system with the hardware that runs it, and expanding an already massive smartphone-related patent portfolio that can jockey with rivals in other ways. But it has also bought itself the new CEO it so dearly needs: Stephen Elop, the former head of Microsoft’s business division who left Redmond in September 2010 for the top post at Nokia.
Less than two weeks ago, Microsoft chief exec Steve Ballmer announced that he would be stepping down sometime over the next twelve months, and Elop — who becomes a Microsoft executive vice president with the Nokia deal — is now the obvious choice to succeed him.
In the end, Microsoft may lose the smartphone wars, and if Elop graduates to the CEO job, he may fare no better than Ballmer with a company that’s struggling to reinvent itself in the face of so many new challenges to its software kingdom. But this, at least, is the company’s best shot in a world that’s quickly moving from desktops and laptops — Microsoft’s traditional domain — onto smartphones and tablets.
In one sense, Redmond is going against type with its Nokia buy. Traditionally, Microsoft has made software not hardware, wary of competing with the hardware partners that were such a big part of its success in the ’80s and ’90s. But after the rise of Google’s Android mobile operating system and the Apple iPhone, Microsoft must play catch-up, and that means changing its ways.
Just as Google bought a handset maker, Motorola, in an effort to better compete with Apple — a company that makes both the software and the hardware for the iPhone — Microsoft has bought Nokia. In recent years, Redmond has made a habit of following in the footsteps of Google and Apple, and it’s not about to stop now.
“Bringing these great teams together will accelerate Microsoft’s share and profits in phones, and strengthen the overall opportunities for both Microsoft and our partners across our entire family of devices and services,” Ballmer said in a statement announcing the buy, which will see about 32,000 employees move from Nokia to Microsoft.
Nor will Microsoft back down from its efforts to amass a patent portfolio that can pressure Google — and perhaps Apple — from another direction. In buying Motorola, Google also bought an enormous collection of smartphone-related patents, and now, Microsoft is upping the ante — again. After accumulating one of the world’s largest portfolios, the company isn’t shy about saying that the patent system works pretty much as it should and that it intends to use the system to its advantage.
And, yes, it’s only natural that Microsoft would make these moves through Nokia. In February 2011, just six months after Elop joined Nokia as CEO, the Finnish company shifted its handset business onto Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, as some in the press asked if he was some sort of Trojan Horse. He waved away this talk. But now you have to wonder.
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Record share for Windows phones, says Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
Press release, September 3 [Tuesday 3 September 2013]
The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, for the three months to July 2013, showed Windows Phone posted its highest ever level of 8.2% across the five major markets in Europe – the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain – emerging as a key player in the smartphone race.
Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, commented: "Android and Apple take the lion's share of the headlines and continue to dominate smartphone sales, so it's easy to forget that there is a third operating system emerging as a real adversary. Windows Phone, driven largely by lower priced Nokia smartphones such as the Lumia 520, now represents around one in 10 smartphone sales in Britain, France, Germany and Mexico. For the first time the platform has claimed the number two spot in a major world market, taking 11.6% of sales in Mexico.
"Windows Phone's growth isn't coming from stealing Apple or Android consumers. Only 27% of Apple and Android users change their OS when they replace their handsets, and those that do switch tend to move between the two big operating systems.
Dominic continued: "Windows Phone's success has been in convincing first time smartphone buyers to choose one of its devices with 42% of sales over the past year coming from existing feature phone owners. This is a much higher proportion than Android and iOS. The Lumia 520 is hitting a sweet spot, offering the price and quality that new smartphone buyers are looking for.
"Feature phone owners present a huge opportunity, representing more than half of all mobile users globally and this will be the new battleground over the next year. With the iPhone 4 and lower end or older Samsung Galaxy models selling well among first time smartphone owners, there is plenty of competition for these customers. The brands that win in this segment will be those that understand and address the needs of consumers in terms of price, content, and quality."
Globally, Apple and Android continued to dominate sales, but interesting regional patterns are emerging. Android is far stronger across the major markets in Europe and China where it accounted for around 70% of smartphone sales during the second quarter.
Apple continued to perform very well in the US where it grew its share to 43.4% of sales. It also continued to show strong on year growth in Britain, France and Mexico.
Sunnebo explained: "Apple and Android must focus on a balance between retaining existing customers and attracting feature phone owners to trade up if they want to continue their success over the next year."
Following a difficult year, BlackBerry accounted for just 2.4% of sales across the big five markets in Europe and 1.2% in the US.
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130903PR207.html
Research, research and research - Please do your own due diligence (DYODD) before you invest - Any reliance on my analysis is SOLELY at your own risk.
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purely from an oversea cash utilization point of view, the transaction is not that bad, after all, Microsoft has almost US$70 billion oversea not being able to repatriate to US. So spending such oversea money on accretive acquisition is much better utilization than buying US treasuries and earning little.
from an operation point of view, Microsoft has never been good on consumer hardware products except for XBOX. But XBOX did not make Microsoft tons of money and sometimes, even loss. Not mention Zune or Kin. Maybe, Microsoft realize that the world enters a state that software alone can't march much further without hardware support. Will Nokia help Microsoft realize many visions it has?
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Oh no! Looks set to lose the gains from the previous Ballmer's plan to exit within 1-year... Interesting to see major changes being set in motion during CEO last one year... 
....Microsoft lost 4.2 percent in pre-market U.S. trading....
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-02...drops.html
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On the contrary, Nokia share went up 38%... Nokia shareholders like the idea... 
Nokia stock surges on Microsoft takeover
HELSINKI — Microsoft is buying Nokia’s line-up of smartphones and a portfolio of patents and services in an attempt to mount a more formidable challenge to Apple and Google as more technological tasks get done on mobile devices instead of personal computers.
The €5.44 billion (S$9.15 billion) deal announced late yesterday (Sept 2) marks a major step in Microsoft’s push to transform itself from a software maker focused on making operating systems and applications for desktop and laptop computers into a more versatile and nimble company that delivers services on any kind of Internet-connected gadget.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, is being forced to evolve because people are increasingly pursuing their digital lives on smartphones and tablet computers, causing the demand for PCs to shrivel. The shift is weakening Microsoft, which has dominated the PC software market for the past 30 years, and empowering Apple, the maker of the trend-setting iPhone and iPad, and Google, which gives away the world’s most popular mobile operating system, Android.
Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, and Microsoft have been trying to make inroads in the smartphone market as part of a partnership forged in 2011. Under the alliance, Nokia’s Lumia smartphones has run on Microsoft’s Windows software, but those devices have not emerged as a popular alternative to the iPhone or an array of Android-powered devices spearheaded by Samsung Electronics’ smartphones and tablets.
Microsoft is betting it will have a better chance of narrowing the gap if it seizes complete control over how the mobile devices work with its Windows software.
“It’s a bold step into the future — a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers of both companies,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement.
Investors in Nokia welcomed the deal and its price, sending shares in the company over 38 per cent higher to €4.10 in early trading today in Helsinki.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/business/micr...16-billion
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The candidates reflected the shareholders' expectation...
Search for new Microsoft CEO: Ford’s Mulally and Computer Sciences’ Lawrie shortlisted
EW YORK — At least three of the top 20 investors in Microsoft want a turnaround expert to succeed Mr Steve Ballmer as chief executive and have urged the technology giant’s board to consider Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally and Computer Sciences CEO Mike Lawrie for the job, several sources familiar with the matter said.
The special committee of the board, which is conducting the CEO search, and its advisers have been meeting with shareholders after Mr Ballmer’s surprise decision late last month to retire within a year, the sources said. It could name a CEO as soon as the end of this year, the sources said.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/business/sear...hortlisted
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(03-09-2013, 01:58 PM)KopiKat Wrote: (03-09-2013, 12:59 PM)freedom Wrote: Honestly I can't think a worse way to stall Windows Phone's future. Microsoft is alienating its vendors by competing directly with them. Microsoft just kill the future of Windows Phone.
What's next? Microsoft will buy another PC makers to compete with the rest of PC makers?
Other than Nokia, I don't suppose the other smartphone makers were putting in a lot of effort on their Windows model. Can't really blame them as Android models were easily more saleable... I guess Microsoft must be thinking they'd better better off with Nokia as they must be seeing only half hearted attempts by the rest...
Let's see if Nokia smartphones will do better with a big cash machine behind them...
A rough estimate from an article in DigitalTrends dated 21-Aug-13,
Nokia controls 85 percent of the global Windows Phone market. Its closest competitor is HTC, with 9.8 percent, leaving about 5.2 percent that Huawei, Samsung, and ZTE can divvy up among themselves. These figures come from AdDuplex, which analyzed data from just over 1,000 Windows Phone apps which use the ad promotion network.
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