NOKIA PICKS WINDOWS (NOK, MSFT)

It was rumored for a while, and now they've made it official: Nokia will go with Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone operating system. The two companies published an "open letter" on Nokia's blog which lays out their "broad strategic partnership".

Here's the key points:

• Windows Phone will be Nokia's "primary" (doesn't say exclusive) smartphone OS;
  
  
  
  
• Nokia will use Bing on all its phones from now on;
  
  
  
  
• Nokia Maps will power many Microsoft services -- this one is interesting; they say Nokia Maps could be used as the maps engine on Bing and be used in AdCenter;
  
  
  
  
• Nokia will merge its app store with Microsoft's so that Windows Phone has a better developer ecosystem. 

So there you have it, folks. There will be more details later today probably but here are the main points from the blog post.

What do we think? On the one hand, Google exec Vic Gundotra's point sticks in our minds: "two turkeys don't make an eagle." On the other hand, this is obviously a huge coup for Microsoft, which all of a sudden is gaining huge marketshare for an OS that was up until now well-regarded but had little distribution.

It's also a welcome stroke of realism for Nokia, which had years and years and years to come up with its own modern smartphone platform and failed. Bringing in Stephen Elop as an outside CEO clearly helped, as the clarity of his amazing "burning platform" memo showed. It's ironic that it took a Microsoftie, someone from the world of software, to kill Nokia as a software company.

Does this mean that Nokia is saved? Well, no.

First of all, Microsoft's platform could still fail. That's the problem with going with someone else's platform: you're dependent on it. Now Nokia is basically trying to turn itself into a Dell of mobile: leave the software to others and make money by churning out zillions of pieces of hardware with a ruthlessly efficient manufacturing model and tight margins.

Second of all, Nokia could still fail. Right now Nokia is good at pumping out zillions of "good-enough" hardware at a reasonable price and distributing it to consumers in every corner of the world. They're getting undercut from both sides of the market. On the low end, Chinese OEMs crank out phones that are noticeably cheaper and only-slightly-less-good by the boatload. On the high end, of course, Nokia couldn't match the hardware OR software experience offered by Apple or Android/Samsung or, evidently, even Windows.

That hasn't been fixed either. Nokia will still have to fight hard to defend its "base" of low cost featurephones and global distribution, and will still have to crank out phones whose hardware is at least as good as what HTC or Motorola does.

CEO Elop still has a lot on his plate. But every move he's made so far has been ruthlessly clear-headed and bold. So we'll say we're cautiously optimistic on this one.

Update: The stock is getting crushed on the news, down about 10% already.

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See Also:

• Don't Declare Victory For Android Just Yet
• Telecoms Pray Nokia Doesn't Pick Google Android As Its Operating System
• All Hail Google Android, The Global King Of Smartphones

NOKIA PICKS WINDOWS (NOK, MSFT)

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Comment on Politics Matter: Verizon Picks West Virginia for LTE Launch by John Ramella

I live 5 miles outside of Lewisburg WV... no access to cable TV, lot too wooded for satellite dish, sporadic 3G coverage from AT&T;, neighbor's Verizon coverage even worse. Who says USA isn't a third world country?

Post originale: http://gigaom.com/2010/10/21/politics-matter-verizon-picks-west-virginia-for-lte-launch/#comment-495566

Blog Picks of the Week

Everyday Frogloop scours the web for the best blog posts that we think nonprofit campaigners must read. Who caught our attention this week? Geoff Livingston and Rebecca Leet. Check them out and feel free to share your own picks of the week. 

Punk Social Media

Geoff Livingston wrote a provocative blog post about “how we are in the midst of a new media revolution where norms and “best practices” have been dictated by an echo chamber, mostly by top tier bloggers, that don’t necessarily understand the medium or deserve the ability to dictate best practices. It’s a time for punk social media.” 

This is an excellent post for the nonprofit community to read because many nonprofits are obsessed with numbers particularly when it comes to social media. Nonprofits are facing new pressures ranging from Board Members to consultants to win the social media battle. Who has the most fans? Who is tweeting more? Does more “Shares” mean some organizations are more effective at advocating for policy change? Give me a break!

“You can see punk tones rising throughout the space,” said Livingston. “People are losing faith in the follower counts, popularity contests, influence determinations (often based on bad formulas), and control your message dictates. Don’t forget, more than 10 tweets a day is bad! Consider the birth of unicorn social media, the star spin smackdown, and the anti-influence project.

“Why so much discontent? Because people are having BS stuffed down their throats on “proper” social media use.”

Post originale: http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2010/10/30/blog-picks-of-the-week.html