Nokia calls for help from Microsoft
TEXT OF STORY
JEREMY HOBSON: The world’s biggest maker of mobile phones — no, not Apple — I’m talking about Nokia. The Finland-based company has had a hard time keeping up in the world of smartphones. So today, it’s announcing that it’s teaming up with Microsoft.
Under the deal, Nokia smartphones will run Windows mobile software, as Christopher Werth reports on from London.
CHRISTOPHER WETH: Nokia was the darling of the mobile phone industry when it was just making phone calls. But the company has struggled to compete in the era of smart phones. At one point more than half of all smart phones were Nokia’s. But since Apple launched its iPhone in 2007 that’s been cut in half. Nokia’s phones are neither cool, nor do they offer the same apps and services as Apple’s iPhone. Geoff Blaber is with CCS Insight in London. He says today’s deal with Microsoft is essential if the company is to stage a come back.
GEOFF BLABER: Nokia are nowhere in the American market, and that market is absolutely essentially for Nokia to get a foothold in.
And he says this is a major coup for Microsoft as well. Even though Nokia is struggling, because the company is still so big, the deal helps Microsoft capture a big share of the mobile software market that today is dominated by Apple and Google. Microsoft currently only has a 2 percent share of the mobile market.
In London, I’m Christopher Werth for Marketplace.
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