For & Against My views [on behalf of my employer] regarding the Microsoft acquisition of Nokia Devices & Services. Published in Global Telecoms Business by the rather great @alanburkittgray Spoiler alert…the other guy is wrong Click to access 130930-global-telecoms-business.pdf Continue reading Knock, knock, knocking on Nokia’s door
Windows Phone has long been key to Microsoft’s continued sustainability and relevance. Nothing reinforces that sentiment more than the acquisition of its largest smartphone hardware partner. For many in the industry the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services business by Microsoft comes as little surprise. As early as 2011, people were speculating that the newly appointed Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, was a Trojan Horse for Microsoft. His role, the conspiracy theorists suggested, was to tie the ecosystems of the two companies together so closely that Nokia could later be acquired for a bargain price by the Redmond giant. Of course, … Continue reading Microsoft and Nokia: The dust has settled…
When I first read this headline, I had to check that it wasn’t 1st April. Could Sky, a television and communications business, really have forced Microsoft to rename its cloud storage solution, Skydrive? My first reaction was one of incredulity (I thought Apple had the market for petty legal attacks in the bag). In its case, BskyB made reference to customers who, having had problems with Skydrive, contacted the broadcaster’s helpline for support rather than go to Microsoft. Read through the court transcripts and there are only seventeen such cases of this occurring. Across all of its operating markets the … Continue reading Skydrive: A case of mistaken identity
I first got a little suspicious a couple of weeks ago when I searched on the GSMA website. Looking through the list of Mobile World Congress exhibitors I noticed a couple of absences; Microsoft and BlackBerry. Neither was listed, and neither seemed very forthcoming in responding to my tweets asking about their plans for the event. Seems we now have an answer courtesy of Telecoms.com. @telecomssahota at telecoms.com has had a little more success and has spoken to Microsoft and BlackBerry directly. If it’s true and my suspicions were right, it’ll be a real shame. I don’t see how either … Continue reading Microsoft and BlackBerry absent from MWC?
News of Microsoft’s $1.2bn acquisition of Yammer hit my desktop at the same time I was reading a news piece about the ‘death of email‘. It’s enterprise networking tools like Yammer that incentivize the media to proclaim the demise of … Continue reading Yammer and enterprise networking
Cross-posted to my company blog (wds.co) The industry is awash with Windows Phone 7 right now. But of all the commentary that’s flying about, very little has really touched on Microsoft’s key motivations for the OS. Had this ‘just‘ been about smartphone operating systems, I don’t think anyone would have been surprised by Microsoft’s retirement from the race. Redmond’s marketshare for smartphone OSs has been on an annual slide for many years and now sits around 5%. Given the dramatic shift in the market since it’s last major releas, from the open source trend to an app-centric experience, why is … Continue reading Windows Phone 7 needs to keep the Office lights on
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