Microsoft to Buy Nokia's Device Business for Over $7 Billion

[NightLight]

i think this is a good move for ms. do not underestimate the years of engineering experience they have over at nokia, not to mention all the patents they have. i use android myself, but those lumia phones are really nice, and work well and they are very snappy.

 

[CaedenV]

I love my Lumia 920 and am not quite sure what to think of this news. If Elop retains control over the phone line, or snags the CEO position at MS then this is all good news. Elop has made some great things possible in a nearly impossible situation over at Nokia. Also, when Elop is put in a corner like he was last month when asked how he fealt about working with a terrible partner like ATT, he did the right thing and stuck his ground even though we all know that the ATT relationship has been horrible.

The man is a true class act, which would be a nice change from Balmer and his stubborn bullheadedness that we have had to watch the last several years.

But if the leadership changes then it is likely that the product will go down hill, and then I'll just move on to Android for my next phone. It would be a real shame because WP has a ton of potential so long as it has the room to continue developing. With the release of GDR3 they will have caught up with Android on the bulk of the hardware support to make a wide variety of phones, and the hope is that with WP9 we will finally start to see some long awaited features come to the platform.

 

[Belardo]

"x86 windows NT phone is pretty deadly combo, this is especially true when all ur old apps from 10-20yrs ago work right out of the box. Now it is to wait if Intel actually can pull this off. WP8 is not a bad OS, but it certainly need x86 to push further." - er, not really. You sir, are under the impression that the WORLD NEEDS microsoft. We don't. If we were all pissing our pants for WP8 phones and tablets - they would have been flying off the shelf.

In the USA, WP8 is still 3.5%. In Europe - its about 8.5%, a gain of 4% - but note that blackberry has lost about 4%. The gains are the bottom end Nokias which are about 1/3 the price of upper end phones (iPhone / SGS4 / HTC One) - ie: they are being sold to feature phone users.

More importantly is the BS on "old apps from 10~20 years ago" crap. There is software 10+ years old that doesn't RUN on Windows7, or run well which flat out fails on Win8. I have games that DON'T run on Windows7. So what the hell are you talking about?

Microsoft is in trouble, they bought Nokia out of desperation. HTC, Samsung and Huawei have no reason to continue making WP devices. Just as nobody is making WInRT tablets... eventually MS will need to buy DELL for some dumb reason.

 

[kartu]

Step 1: make former Micro$oft manager Noka CEO
Step 2: kill all multi-platform projects and become Micro$oft's exclusive delivery boy. Not because they really need you, or mobile market, but because they are, you know, scared. Get laughable 1 billion "compensation" from M$ and market share shrinking at record speed.
Step 3: Say big FU to all people who value Nokia's hardware expertise but don't want microsoft's crap, nope, only Windoze for ya
Step 4: buy former juggernaut of the mobile markets, whose patent portfolio alone would cost many billions, that you've just ruined

Very good business for M$.
No idea what on earth were Nokia's shareholders thinking, drinking or smoking.

Very sad for the customers.

 

[olaf]

Wanna bet M$ will f it up and close Nokia within the next 10 years ?

 

[digiex]

Will I miss the cheap but usable mobile phones, with ridiculously long standby time and talk time?

 

[rwinches]

M$ will not hold the patents.
Here is a much better description of the proposed deal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/02/verizon-vodafone-deal_n_3856677.html

 

[jhansonxi]

M$ will not hold the patents.
Here is a much better description of the proposed deal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/02/verizon-vodafone-deal_n_3856677.html

A better article: http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2013/09/03/120503.html

 

[gumbedamit]

I don't understand why you guys trash RT. IOS does not run OSX apps, Android only runs android. I have 3 android tablets., don't really like iPads, they are good tablets, just don't like them. I was playing with a Surface over the weekend, that thing is BAD_AZZ. Fast. fluid, mutitasks. Sure, it doesn't have a kazillion apps; I'm a super tech guy, it's my line of work and the the only two apps that I can't get at this time on RT is Square and Torgue. I was able to do everything any of my 3 tablets were able to do except for the Sony Z, it has an IR blaster that enable me to use some cool apps to control devices, but not many tablets have that either. I was able to run 2 apps on the same same screen on the RT tablet natively; you can get an android app to do that on a few phones but not natively. My point is this: Have any of you guys bashing RT actually tried it, it's an awesome device...

 

[gumbedamit]

I don't understand why you guys trash RT. IOS does not run OSX apps, Android only runs android. I have 3 android tablets., don't really like iPads, they are good tablets, just don't like them. I was playing with a Surface over the weekend, that thing is BAD_AZZ. Fast. fluid, mutitasks. Sure, it doesn't have a kazillion apps; I'm a super tech guy, it's my line of work and the the only two apps that I can't get at this time on RT is Square and Torgue. I was able to do everything any of my 3 tablets were able to do except for the Sony Z, it has an IR blaster that enable me to use some cool apps to control devices, but not many tablets have that either. I was able to run 2 apps on the same same screen on the RT tablet natively; you can get an android app to do that on a few phones but not natively. My point is this: Have any of you guys bashing RT actually tried it, it's an awesome device...

 

[ionut19]

This can not turn good.

 

[eklipz330]

here microsoft is given a golden opportunity to steal that mobile market share... imagine amazing nokia phones sold at cost. they could easy take a fifth of it within a year

 

[stevejnb]

I don't understand why you guys trash RT. IOS does not run OSX apps, Android only runs android. I have 3 android tablets., don't really like iPads, they are good tablets, just don't like them. I was playing with a Surface over the weekend, that thing is BAD_AZZ. Fast. fluid, mutitasks. Sure, it doesn't have a kazillion apps; I'm a super tech guy, it's my line of work and the the only two apps that I can't get at this time on RT is Square and Torgue. I was able to do everything any of my 3 tablets were able to do except for the Sony Z, it has an IR blaster that enable me to use some cool apps to control devices, but not many tablets have that either. I was able to run 2 apps on the same same screen on the RT tablet natively; you can get an android app to do that on a few phones but not natively. My point is this: Have any of you guys bashing RT actually tried it, it's an awesome device...

Double thumbs up for this. I'm a previously Android guy who recently got both Windows Pro and Windows RT tablets and the RT tablet has become my go-to device for work. Simply put, compared to its actual competitors in Android and iOS - NOT full Windows, any more than iOS competes with OSX - it acquits itself very favourably. By far the best multitasking, full Office, and an app store is becoming solid, if it is still the clear third place for quantity of apps.

Windows RT hatred has pretty much degraded into uninformed "DURRR BUT IT CAN'T RUN FULL x86 APPLICATIONS" followed by praising of Android and iOS which also can't run x86 apps. A lot of people come at it from a marketshare angle, but... When you intend to actually use a device, do you really care whether it is outselling competitors? Do you sit there on your Android tablet trying to multitask using some clunky Office knock-off app saying "It's OK that I can't do these things because Android has more marketshare than RT HO HO HO!"

Lots of compelling reasons to use Android and even iOS devices ahead of RT, but the days of pretending like RT doesn't compare well to them have gone on too long. Personally, my Le Pan II (Android tablet) is still my go to device for PDF reading/editing, ebook reading through text to speech, and some games (Kingdom Rush in particular) - but for actual work, web browsing/e-mail, video watching (micro-HDMI port into my 55' TV, then stream from Skydrive or Netflix), or being a kitchen assistant (recipes/etc), my Surface RT is a better device. Not for everyone, but, you're only screwing yourself if $350 is in your price range and you don't at least give the device a chance.

 

[jhansonxi]

A prediction that this merger will scare off other Windows Phone/RT licensees: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-03/microsofts-nokia-deal-will-crush-licensing-for-windows-phone

 

[gm0n3y]

Well you can't say that M$ doesn't take risks. I don't think this one is going to pan out for them, but you never know. Now who will buy Blackberry?

 

[gumbedamit]

I don't understand why you guys trash RT. IOS does not run OSX apps, Android only runs android. I have 3 android tablets., don't really like iPads, they are good tablets, just don't like them. I was playing with a Surface over the weekend, that thing is BAD_AZZ. Fast. fluid, mutitasks. Sure, it doesn't have a kazillion apps; I'm a super tech guy, it's my line of work and the the only two apps that I can't get at this time on RT is Square and Torgue. I was able to do everything any of my 3 tablets were able to do except for the Sony Z, it has an IR blaster that enable me to use some cool apps to control devices, but not many tablets have that either. I was able to run 2 apps on the same same screen on the RT tablet natively; you can get an android app to do that on a few phones but not natively. My point is this: Have any of you guys bashing RT actually tried it, it's an awesome device...

 

[universal remonster]

I don't understand why you guys trash RT. IOS does not run OSX apps, Android only runs android. I have 3 android tablets., don't really like iPads, they are good tablets, just don't like them. I was playing with a Surface over the weekend, that thing is BAD_AZZ. Fast. fluid, mutitasks. Sure, it doesn't have a kazillion apps; I'm a super tech guy, it's my line of work and the the only two apps that I can't get at this time on RT is Square and Torgue. I was able to do everything any of my 3 tablets were able to do except for the Sony Z, it has an IR blaster that enable me to use some cool apps to control devices, but not many tablets have that either. I was able to run 2 apps on the same same screen on the RT tablet natively; you can get an android app to do that on a few phones but not natively. My point is this: Have any of you guys bashing RT actually tried it, it's an awesome device...

That's because in order to be one of the cool sheep on the internet, you have to bash anything and everything Win 8 related sight unseen.

 

[azz156]

Step 1: make former Micro$oft manager Noka CEO
Step 2: kill all multi-platform projects and become Micro$oft's exclusive delivery boy. Not because they really need you, or mobile market, but because they are, you know, scared. Get laughable 1 billion "compensation" from M$ and market share shrinking at record speed.
Step 3: Say big FU to all people who value Nokia's hardware expertise but don't want microsoft's crap, nope, only Windoze for ya
Step 4: buy former juggernaut of the mobile markets, whose patent portfolio alone would cost many billions, that you've just ruined

Very good business for M$.
No idea what on earth were Nokia's shareholders thinking, drinking or smoking.

Very sad for the customers.

I've been keeping a eye on this for awhile and a lot of people were saying it was more of a defensive purchase since nokia is the main driver for windows phone. so just say a Chinese phone maker bought nokia it would spell the end of wp since they would just stick android on it. I think it was heiwai that was also interested in buying nokia.