Analysts have welcomed the
news that Microsoft will port its Office applications to
Nokia's Symbian operating system as a good deal for both firms, but
say it leaves unclear the future for Windows Mobile.
Canalys analyst Pete
Cunningham said the deal would give Nokia's business-oriented
E-series phones greater traction in enterprise clients, posing
problems for Research in Motion, the current market leader.
Nick Jones, research vice president at
Gartner,
agreed, saying the deal lent Nokia more credibility among CIOs
looking to develop a unified communications environment.
"It's also a good deal for Microsoft's server side businesses
such as Exchange and SharePoint because they will be selling more
mobile licences," he said.
Cunningham said the deal "insulated" Microsoft somewhat against
Google's predations on its market share in almost all its markets.
Jones said it strengthened Microsoft's position against firms that
are developing unified communications offerings, such as Cisco and
Google.
Both analysts agreed that it was bad news for Microsoft's
Windows Mobile team. "Being only fourth in the mobile operating
system stakes, WiMo has been a disappointment," Jones said.
Cunningham said the overall mobile phone market was slowing and
Microsoft's market share was suffering. "This deal weakens WiMo's
differentiation against other operating systems," he said. "I doubt
version 6.5 has the innovative qualities needed to bring the
customer back."
Both analysts said the deal was unlikely to affect Nokia's
interest in Maemo, its
Linux-based open source operating system venture with Intel.
"I can't see Nokia making radical changes to its plans for
Symbian in the near future because of it," said Cunningham.
Both thought Nokia might use Maemo for a future netbook with
telephone capability. "That would be a logical step," said
Cunningham, "but they should launch it sooner rather than later to
catch the market."
Jones said no-one had yet hit the "sweet spot" between the
notebook and the
Nokia N97-type phone with qwerty keyboard. "The problem is that
anything bigger that an N97 doesn't fit in your pocket, and you
need a decent screen to run some of those big spreadsheets or
prepare PowerPoint slides," he said.
Canalys is running a conference on Netbooks vs Smartphones at
Heathrow on 17 November.
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