According to Bloomberg, Microsoft’s payout to Nokia to get them into the Windows Phone 7 partnership was a rather substantial $1 billion, and then Nokia will pay MS for each copy of Windows Phone 7 they install on a phone. While $1 billion may sound like an immense sum, Nokia has essentially just given up half its business, killing a huge chunk of their software development and they want some degree of compensation for that. And lets not forget that Microsoft gains a certain degree of access to Nokia’s immense library of patents and research by getting into bed with the company:
The agreement also has Microsoft paying Nokia for the right to use its patent portfolio, one of the people said.
I’m just crossing my fingers that this deal is enough to keep both companies going and relevant.
Microsoft will drag Nokia down into armpits of Mephisto himself. I’m waiting to see how long before MS attempts to fill their 3rd iteration of a pocketPC with Word, Outlook and all the other bloated crap that sustains their company.
Nokia might’ve have done better pursuing relationships with Google (Android), HP (WebOS), RIM (QNX-based OS) – possibly all three – than getting into bed with my grandfather’s company. Seriously… they put all their eggs into one (untested and moth-ridden) basket when they had so many options. I just don’t understand this except for the only reason that stands out… $1 billion dollars. It basically means that Microsoft bought Nokia in a very underhanded way.
tl;dr: Nokia = Microsoft; Nokia no longer exists and it’s no longer relevant.
You must not be very smart, John. Word and Outlook are already on WP7. If you had used a WP7 device, you would know that. Of course, since you are obviously one of those sad, sad symbian die-hards, I shouldn’t expect too much, should I?