tequila bomb

Microsoft Corp. will pay Nokia Oyj more than $1 billion to promote and develop Windows-based handsets as part of their smartphone software agreement, according to two people with knowledge of the terms.

Nokia will pay Microsoft a fee for each copy of Windows used in its phones, costs that will be offset as Nokia curtails its own budget for software research and development, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the final contract hasn’t yet been signed. The agreement runs for more than five years, the people said.

At a $15 per phone royalty that Nokia will be paying Microsoft, Microsoft is betting on Nokia selling 60 Million handsets running Windows Phone 7 for the deal to break even.

For some perspective: Apple passed the 100 Million iOS devices sold mark in the summer of last year. That’s iOS devices, which includes the iPod Touch and iPad, not just smart-phones.

Nokia’s executive vice president of mobile solutions, Anssi Vanjoki, let an interesting analogy go when speaking with the Financial Times today. When asked about the possibility of his company switching mobile operating systems from Symbian to Android, Mr. Vanjoki compared the prospective move to Finnish boys who “pee in their pants” during the winter months for warmth; the temporary relief acquired is soon followed by a larger issue.

From tequilabomb.

So I ask again, “What would switching to Windows Phone 7 be akin to?”. Which is exactly what Nokia announced today.

Nokia said on Friday it was teaming up with Microsoft to take on Google and Apple in the fast-growing smartphone market and set financial targets for the group.

From reuters.

To me this seems like an act of desperation. Desperation from a company that no longer has the vision to innovate.

And with Microsoft’s penchant for the colour brown, I think the new analogy is obvious.

Microsoft’s Brandon Watson reached out to the ChevronWP7 team, which recently released a Windows Phone 7 unlocking tool, and opened a line of discussion about homebrew app development. As a sign of good faith during the conversations, which could ultimately lead to some kind of homebrew support from Microsoft, ChevronWP7 has agreed to pull its unlocker tool.

Rest assured that the gloves will come off if the talks don’t pan out.

It seems odd that Microsoft would consider helping developers build apps with capabilities not allowed under Microsoft’s developer terms.

Not really odd. I touched on this some time ago.

Microsoft is a software company. They need their App Store to succeed. And they are well aware that right now they don’t have any where near the consumer numbers or the lock in juju that Apple has with the App Store.

Nor do they have the raw handset profits that Apple does; which in many ways mean that Apple could forgo having an App Store and still make money.

If Microsoft are smart they will try to embrace the Windows Phone 7 homebrew community on any terms. Unfortunately “Smart” and “Microsoft” are not often words that occupy the same sentence.

Let’s not forget that in other news Microsoft is apparently quite happy to put a 360 hacker in jail for a few years if necessary, over similar hacking activities. If the ruling on iPhone jailbreaking (and it’s legality in the US) had gone another way ChevronWP7 might have found themselves in court, rather than sitting across a table from Microsoft – albeit probably very briefly.

[H]ackers have already gained root access Windows Phone 7′s registry and file system — their methods simply aren’t yet bundled up in a nice little user-friendly package.

This is hardly news. It was inevitable.

What interests me though, is the effect this will have on Microsoft’s online store. Locking people into a curated store experience, like Apple’s App Store in iTunes, is something that I believe your Microsoft traditionalists (who are going to be the core people buying and evangelising these devices – at least initially) are not going to be so easy to convince to agree to.

Plus, with Windows Phone 7 being wide open so early into the market, it seems to me that Windows Phone 7 Cydia clones may well gain traction more quickly than Microsoft’s App Store is able to.

I think we may see Microsoft have to become a lot more draconian than Apple has ever been about App Store lock-ins. Perhaps they plan to leverage a similar system to their XBox Live subscription gaming network for their mobile phone eco-system? And perhaps they hope that will lock people in. But we already know that the gamers tastes on mobile devices are very very different to those on console networks. So I am not sure how much leverage a tie in to XBox Live is really going to gain Microsoft.

Will Microsoft dare drop the “ban-hammer” on jail-broken Windows Phones? I doubt it. But it’s fun to think about!

So let’s say you get a device and it has 8 GB of storage internally plus an empty micro-SD slot. You could add a memory card (with 8 to 32 GB of storage) to dramatically expand the storage (to up to 40 GB).

What you can’t do is swap it out without hard resetting the device. That’s because the storage on the card and the internal storage is comingled, and the system makes no differentiation. There’s no way to know where something (an app, song, whatever) is stored, and if you do pop out the card, the phone will complain. And it won’t be readable on your PC, so you can’t use it to transfer content in either direction.

Sounds really user friendly.

Later in 2010 Microsoft will make a public beta available of a tool that allows Windows Phone 7 to sync select content with Mac computers.

I can’t wait. Beta syncing software from Microsoft, to sync all your important contact data with their barely out of Beta mobile OS.

Fun times!

Nice advert. Obviously aimed at people who have never used a smart phone, because their user interface does nothing to resolve the issues they allude to throughout.

Did Microsoft steal it from this? (Which is actually a far better advert, because it evokes some emotion and has an uplifting ending).

Whilst the Angry Birds story in interesting.

The incentives that Microsoft are offering developers is a far more entertaining yarn…

Microsoft is offering an exclusive and limited time opportunity for

you to join, publish and distribute your applications on Windows Phone

7 Marketplace while receiving several benefits. The benefits for

registering on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace by December 31st, 2010

during this offer include:

·         Rebate of US$99 dollars on the application registration*

(after having at least one compatible application included on the

marketplace by December 31, 2010)

·         Application name reservation on the Marketplace

·         Technical & application submission support

·         Local events to assist with your development efforts

·         One free copy of Windows 7

To apply for this offer please email me back with your contact

information or call me at the number below to help you complete the

marketplace registration and reserve your application names.  See

additional helpful resources below.

Cheap.

And people think that Apple treats App Store Developers like cattle.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to Pocket-lint that Microsoft will launch its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, on 11 October 2010.

Interesting how little excitement there is about this… when compared to say, a new milestone in Android OS or associated handsets, or an iPhone / iOS revision. And this is the first version of Microsoft’s “revolutionary” foray into the modern handset market…

Arty, yes. But utterly useless at selling their phone.

I am not sure whether to laugh (maniacally) or cry.

The very worrying thing, of course, is that Microsoft have unlimited funds dedicated to making more of this stuff in the coming promotional onslaught that will be Windows Phone 7′s slow public death.