Nokia is adopting the Windows Phone platform to better compete in the smartphone market with Apple and Google. At its strategy meeting in London, the company confirmed Windows Phone will be its main smartphone platform going forward. The addition of Nokia hardware will give a major boost in scale to the Windows platform, and Microsoft will provide the developer tools needed to build a services ecosystem around Nokia devices. According to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, the details of the partnership are "still being worked out", but the two plan to "closely collaborate" on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap. Nokia's existing services will be integrated into the partnership, including Bing adopted as Nokia's main search engine and Microsoft's adCenter as the Nokia ad platform, Nokia Maps added to Bing and adCenter, and Nokia's Ovi application and content store integrated into the Microsoft Marketplace.
Symbian will become a "franchise platform", that will work on retaining and transitioning the existing 200 million Symbian users worldwide. Nokia said it still expects to sell some 150 million Symbian phones in the coming years. MeeGo, Nokia's high-end platform with Intel, will become an open source platform, focused on longer-term device and software development. Nokia said it still expects to launch its first MeeGo device later this year. Alberto Torres, the head of MeeGo, is leaving the company, to pursue other interests, Nokia said.
The new strategy comes with a new management structure, that is expected to speed up decision-making, improve time-to-market and place a "heavy focus on results, speed and accountability", Nokia said. The new Nokia Leadership Team, previously the Group Executive Board, will include Elop, Esko Aho, Juha Akras, Jerri DeVard, Colin Giles, Rich Green, Jo Harlow, Timo Ihamuotila, Mary McDowell, Kai Oistamo, Tero Ojanpera, Louise Pentland and Niklas Savander. Harlow, currently senior VP for marketing, will head the new Smart Devices division, which includes Symbian, MeeGo and the new Windows phones, and McDowell will continue to head the Mobile Phones division, for traditional feature phones. The Markets division will be responsible for selling products, marketing and communications, sourcing, customer care, manufacturing, IT and logistics across all Nokia products; it will be headed by Savander. Ojanpera will lead Services and Developer Experience, which will manage Nokia's global services portfolio, developer offering, developer relations and integration of partner service offerings. Green will head the CTO office and research activities, and the Design unit, responsible for Nokia product and user experience design, will be led by Marko Ahtisaari. The new structure takes effect from 1 April.
Nokia warned that 2011 and 2012 will be "transition years" for the company as it implements the new strategy, making it difficult to predict financial results. After the transition, it expects revenues from Devices & Services to grow faster than the market and an adjusted operating margin of 10 percent or more. For Nokia Siemens Networks, the company expects overall industry revenue to grow slightly in 2011, led by mobile broadband and services. NSN aims to outperform the market in terms of revenue growth this year and reach an adjusted operating margin above breakeven.
