Should Nokia Switch to Android ?

In light of Nokia’s woeful Q2 results, where profits slumped by 44 per cent quarter-on-quarter, we take a look at the pros and cons of the company adopting Android

Nokia used to be the world’s number one manufacturer. Now it’s third in Europe, behind Apple and Samsung. Profits are down (44 per cent in Q2 of 2011). Smartphone sales are down (33 per cent Q2 2011). And so is market share (now below 30 per cent). All in all, things aren’t looking good.

But is there light at the end of the tunnel? Does Nokia have a plan? And, most importantly, should Nokia adopt Android? Would this cure all its problems? We investigate.

As Bloomberg rightly points out, Nokia was one of the most successful European companies of the 1990s. So much so, many often touted it as a shining example of how ‘Europe could still compete in technology and create new industrial giants’ despite the rise of the US and the Far East.

‘A decade ago, Nokia was the most successful business Europe had produced in a generation. It captured the emerging market for mobile phones and built the industry’s most powerful brand,’ says Matthew Lynn.

Fast-forward to 2011 and it’s a very different story. Nokia has now been overtaken, outclassed and beaten at its own game by Google, Apple, HTC and Samsung. And the worst thing about all this is that everybody saw it coming. Everybody except Nokia, it seems.

Today’s market forecasts from Nokia have confirmed beyond all doubt that the company is in dire need of something – anything – to inject some life back into its brand. Nokia needs to recoup its sales, increase its profit margins and claw back some market share from Android, Apple and Samsung.

Many think that Nokia should simply roll-over and accept defeat, others suggest adopting Google’s market-dominating Android platform would solve all its problems and some, although they’re not quite as vocal, think that Windows Phone 7 Mango will safe the day. But which is it?

Nokia’s deal with Microsoft was big news. Everybody was talking about it. Some even suggested that Microsoft was buying Nokia and turning it into its European mobile division.

As it turns out, this wasn’t the case. Nokia needed a replacement for Symbian and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 was the choice. But why did Nokia choose Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system – and not, say, Android?

According to Carolina Milanesi, VP of Research at Gartner, ‘There’s a lot of uncertainty in the Android space – no one knows what Google’s end-game is with Android.’

She continued: ‘Nokia has always had different plans for the type of company it wants to be. It wants to be number one. And if you want to become the number one vendor, you cannot get there by putting all your faith in Google.’

Then there’s the long game. IDC predicts that Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system will hold 20.3 per cent of the market by 2015, which would place it second only to Android. If this predication turned out to be true, many would see Nokia’s 2011 adoption of the platform as shrewd move.

Profitable with Windows Phone

Hooray, Nokia is profitable again! After a long and painful transitional period, the ex-largest cell phone manufacturer has finally swung back to profitability during the beloved holiday season (Q4). Understandably, the profit isn't that big - it's $585 million, but at least it's a start.

Nokia managed to achieve this result thanks to a solid line-up of devices running the Windows Phone 8 operating system, including the Lumia 820 and the flagship Lumia 920. The Lumia 920 in particular is an especially fancy device, because it features a number of interesting new technologies that managed to spark the interest of consumers. Probably the most notable innovation inside the Lumia 920 is its 8MP PureView camera, which has made it possible for Nokia engineers to avoid designing a fat, bulky device like the 808 PureView, while at the same time allowing consumers to enjoy wonderful photo-taking capabilities.

And now we reach the interesting part. All Lumia phones run Windows Phone. Microsoft's mobile operating system is having a very tough time getting off the ground, and some are even questioning its ability to achieve its first big goal - to become the third-largest mobile OS in the world, in terms of market share. If you ask us, Windows Phone 8 does a lot of things right, but it just lacks the wow-factor. The Live Tiles, although not really bad, aren't something incredible, and actually look like downgraded widgets. As a matter of fact, they are not only much simpler, but often lack the functionality found with some of Android's widgets, for example. You can't turn on and off various settings with a Live Tile, you cannot read the latest news and you can't get a nice preview of the new content that's just made its way into the application store.

One of the best ways to hide a weakness is to present it as a great strength

Just see what Microsoft is doing: the Windows Phone platform is very weak when it comes to personalization options. You can't even assign a wallpaper! So, what Microsoft attempts to do is to convince us just how greatly personalizable WP is. "It's not a phone for all of us, but a phone for each of us!" says Microsoft's marketing message. "This is Jessica's Windows Phone; and this here is Steve's Windows Phone." If you've watched a WP presentation, you'd know that Microsoft desperately tries to convince us that WP doesn't have the slightest problem in terms of personalization... in fact, it's great for personalization! Of course, that is all bollocks - customizing the arrangement of the Live Tiles might be OK as far as making your important people more visible, but when it comes to reflecting your personal lifestyle, or being flexible, or tweaking the visuals to make them more pleasing for you, the Live Tile paradigm is helpless.

Many have suggested that Nokia should have chosen Android as its main smartphone platform since day one. Many of those people are more or less right to think so, because Windows Phone is still considered a gamble. Well, if Microsoft continues to pour money it may eventually grab a significant share, but at the current time, it's normal to see Android as the more sustainable model. Today's news of Nokia earning actual money, however, may be seen as a sign that Windows Phone is slowly starting to come into its own.

With all that in mind, today we'd like to ask you: Should Nokia switch to Android? Should it switch to Android now that there's finally a glimmer of hope? Now that we finally have a proof that Stephen Elop's strategy may work? Let's see what you think about this, considering the news that Nokia has finally managed to turn a profit.