The next big announcement from mobile giant Nokia won’t necessarily be based on homegrown technology. Numerous reports say Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s financial and strategy briefing in London Friday is likely to include the announcement of an alliance with his old company, Microsoft (NASDAQ MSFT). Such an alliance would include the Finnish company’s smartphones running Windows Phone 7, according to press reports.
According to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, Elop has talked with both Microsoft and with Google.
Any shift in strategy to align with Microsoft will be a big change Nokia. The company’s Symbian mobile software remains at the top of the smartphone operating system market, with some 111.6 million devices sold to consumers in 2010. But Symbian’s 37.6 percent share of the smartphone OS market in 2010 is down 9.3 percent from 46.9 percent a year earlier.
Elop recently sent an email to Nokia employees that characterized the company as being on a burning oil platform from which it needs to save itself by jumping into frigid waters.
In his email, Elop also both criticized Nokia executives for clinging to its aging Symbian smartphone operating system and also took aim at iOS and Android.
Check out Enterprise Mobile Today’s report for more details on the rumored Microsoft/Nokia alliance.
