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Nokia, Microsoft announcing partnership next week, possibly involving Windows Phone 7?
As Nokia comes up on Capital Markets Day next Friday -- an event where the company has historically unveiled interesting things and launched important initiatives -- rumors are once again swirling that they're going to be announcing a major platform shift by way of a competitor. Both Android and Windows Mobile have come up in the past on multiple occasions, owing in no small part to the fact that Nokia's had an outward appearance of spinning its platform wheels on the backs of Symbian and Maemo for far, far too long, but so far, nothing's materialized. This time around, it's said that Microsoft will be the partner announced on the 11th -- and though Nokia's uptake of Windows Phone 7 would be the obvious strategic shift, it's important to note that these companies have actually partnered before with pretty trivial consequences for the market; it's entirely possible they could be ramping up to do that again, sharing apps and services between Windows Phone 7 and Symbian / MeeGo. We doubt it, but it's within the realm of reason. But turning our attention back to the major platform shift, there are a couple factors that add a little more credibility to the rumor this time. First off, the elephant in the room: recently-appointed CEO Stephen Elop comes from Microsoft on good terms and has clearly been given marching orders to take Nokia in a new, more profitable direction; the Symbian Foundation's gutting happened on Elop's watch, for example, and he just hinted a few days ago that joining an existing ecosystem could make sense. More importantly, though, we've got a trusted source of our own who's now saying that the tide has turned and this appears to be happening at Capital Markets Day -- and that one of Nokia's existing platforms will be dropped as a direct result. It's hard to pick which one that'd be: Symbian, though terribly out-of-date, is still wildly popular in Europe and emerging markets, while MeeGo is technically promising but has yet to make any impact in the market whatsoever. On the flipside, noted Microsoft pundit Mary Jo Foley doesn't put a lot of stock in this latest round of rumors. So, here's the question: can Nokia become another Samsung, LG, or HTC, betting its hopes and dreams on its chops as a hardware manufacturer alone? Historically, Nokia has been defined as much (if not more) by its platforms than by its hardware, which lacks Samsung's capability for end-to-end in-house sourcing. Regardless of what happens next Friday, this should all make for a very interesting MWC indeed.
NPD: Wii leads video game industry to 'biggest sales month ever'
Well, what a difference a couple of months and a holiday season can make. Just after finding that the video game console market shrunk by a fifth in October, NPD is now back with a new report that finds that December was the video game industry's "biggest sales month ever." Specifically, the group found that console sales jumped 4% compared to last December, with the Nintendo Wii unsurprisingly leading the way with 3.81 million units moved (up from 2.15 million the previous year). That's followed by the collective DS offerings at 3.31 million and, somewhat surprisingly, the PlayStation 3, which racked up sales of 1.36 million (its first time cracking the one million mark) compared to the Xbox 360's 1.31 million. Of course, no one's expecting sales to stay at quite that lofty level, but NPD says that the spike in December sales might well indicate that 2010 could be a recovery year.
Windows Vista delayed - again
I almost decided not to post this on the grounds that a lot of us probably won't be surprised, but then I figured it might still be good for a laugh.A friend passed me an article at CNET which reports that Vista has been delayed yet again to January 2007. Windows chief Jim Allchin explained that a few complications would force some PC vendors to wait until '07 to get their hands on the über-delayed upgrade to Microsoft's OS, while others could have it as soon as November 2006. As a result of this quirk, Microsoft ultimately decided to push the hold button again, kicking Vista's debut into January of 2007.Here's hoping Apple will capitalize on this latest roadblock in Vista's development. With Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) still slated to land this year, along with the recent announcements of a new chip from Intel and WWDC's move to August (perhaps for a Leopard release?), I wouldn't be surprised if 2006 turns into a fantastic year for Apple.[thanks to Damien for the pic]
