Analysis of Smartphone Wars part 2 of news: Meltemi. What? Nokia is BACK in the OS wars? Already?

Nokia's Meltemi the Linux based smartphone OS for low-cost phones was the right strategy ... for Nokia prior to February 11. That Nokia would develop a Linux based new OS optimized for low-cost phones was the right thing to do, for Nokia who had taken ownership of Symbian - then turned Symbian into an open source project and a foundation - and updated it radically until Symbian S^3 and its current Anna versions were very competitive in terms of user-friendliness. But even with all the hard work updating the old workhorse, the writing was on the wall, Symbian would not live forever. It was to be shifted to mid-price and low-price phones, as Nokia's new Linux based smartphone OS - MeeGo - would power Nokia's top phones like the N9 of today - and as Nokia was to ramp up MeeGo to mid-range smartphones next year, Symbian would be soon have been only powering low-cost smartphones for Nokia. And even there, with Android, bada and perhaps even future Windows Phone based low-cost smartphones would put pressure to Nokia - that is where this new Meltemi low-cost smartphone OS would be most welcome.

Nokia had all the right moves for this strategy. It had its developer tools, Qt, which allow develop-once, publish many times - convenience across all of Nokia's then-current OS platforms, Symbian and MeeGo plus even mid-priced 'featurephones' (or 'dumbphones as we like to call the non-smartphones) which currently use a Nokia proprietary OS called S40. So as the current Symbian developer community (over 400,000 strong) had the tools to develop apps for phones from top-end flagship phones like the N9 on MeeGo through to phones costing 50 dollars without subsidy, running S40 - the developers would have loved how this new Meltemi would slot into their existing Qt based development environment.

And the Nokia Ovi store was also perfectly poised to deliver more synergies to Meltemi - Ovi was separately branded to not be the 'Symbian' app store, but rather the app store across all of Nokia's platforms already supporting Symbian, MeeGo (and its predecessor Maemo) and S40.

Most of all, Nokia would have taken an old OS, Symbian, made it open source while it lived out its life. Then joined with Intel to develop a Linux based open source OS out of MeeGo, and added to it what we know now as Meltemi, another Linux based open source OS. And the smart CEO would not have given this new OS a new name of no branding benefits, the smart CEO would of course have built upon MeeGo's enormous popularity and called this new 'Meltemi' rather something like 'MeeGo Lite'. Not unlike CEO Stephen Elop's former employer Microsoft did, when it launched its first OS for smartphones. It did not call it something like Meltemi haha. Microsoft HAD a successful OS platform but for bigger computing devices (PCs) that was called Windows. Of course its mobile OS was using that brand, and Microsoft's first smartphone OS was Windows Mobile and the new one now is Windows Phone. But Microsoft was wise to hold onto the Windows branding. And any smart CEO of Nokia on February 10 would have - of course - used the MeeGo branding for this new Meltemi project.

BURNING ALL PLATFORMS

So enter Stephen Elop. On February 11 he rushed to announce Microsoft Windows Phone and to kill Symbian, even though he had no Microsoft based phones to sell or even to show at the time. Even though he as CEO knew there were more than a dozen NEW phones coming out of the pipeline that would still run on Symbian. This was compared to the 'Osborne Effect' (that destroyed the Osborne computer company) except that Elop's crazily-timed announcement - I am now critical only of the timing of the announcement, not the fact that he selected Microsoft - the timing caused a crash of Nokia sales - that announcement was actually 'worse than Osborne Effect' because with Osborne, he only had his NEXT computer that was annouced (which killed current computer sales).With Elop he actually caused a chain-reaction of subsequent consecutive and cumulative Osborne Effects because there would be more than a dozen new smartphones announced, manufactured and shipped by Nokia - that nobody would want to buy or sell, as they were seen as already obsolete. Osborne Effect but 'squared'. (he even made it worse by simultaneously causing also a Ratner Effect, I explained why this makes Elop the most incompetent CEO ever, and we now have coined the Elop Effect for the ultimate self-inflicted damage to a major corporation).

Lets not litigate the Elop disasters in this blog again. Lets only look at what the Microsoft announcement did for this Meltemi strategy.

So lets be clear - on February 10, this Meltemi strategy (but ideally with MeeGo-related branding of course, MeeGo Lite or something like that) would have been THE RIGHT strategy to do. As Nokia had already started to migate the top-end smartphones from Symbian to a new, Nokia-owned (co-owned) Linux based OS for which first phones were shipping this year 2011, then the right thing next, was to also start the development of the low-cost variant, Meltemi that for maybe next year or more likely, 2013, the 'big brother MeeGo' would have a 'little brother MeeGo Junior' variant.

However, all that changed on February 11. In a 'post 2/11 world' haha for Nokia, haha so to speak, everything Nokia and its erratic CEO Stephen Elop has done, has been to torpedo or undermine this Meltemi option! Everything!

If Nokia intended to develop its Meltemi, then Nokia would have been mad to commit its future to be Microsoft Windows Phone based smartphones as Elop has repeatedly been promising the world. Nokia looks silly, unpredicatble and erratic. Elop is utterly untrustworthy now. If Meltemi was in the strategy in February, then Nokia would have - should have - obviously - committed to Windows Phone ONLY FOR TOP END PHONES..  Nokia was already committed - committed to new Symbian phones to come. So Elop the idiot had to go say the future of Nokia smatphones was with Microsoft. Obviously its not going to be, if Meltemi powers the low-end smartphones - where the mass market is, where Nokia's main customer base is and where the Emerging World market is where by far most of mobile phone users are, and where Nokia's market share is by far the greatest. Duh. And Microsoft itself - and Elop himself - have said that Windows Phone is not suited for lowest cost Nokia phones. It is like so much Microsoft bloatware tends to be - a huge resource hog. Windows Phone needs more powerful processors and memory not to run better than rivals, just to run without crashing haha.

If Nokia intended to develop its Meltemi, however named as a Linux based open source smartphone OS - and Nokia already owned (co-owned) a Linux based open source smartphone OS, MeeGo - then only a pure madman would have killed stiffled MeeGo sales, handset model availability, global sales footprint and full Nokia marketing and PR support. Far worse - prioritizing someone else's OS (Microsoft) at the cost to MeeGo? If Elop was acting in the best interest of Microsoft, then it makes sense he torpedoes MeeGo at every chance he gets and even refuses to be photographed showing the phone. If Elop was acting in Nokia's best interest - today with Nokia generating a loss but the world craving the N9 that could easily turn Nokia profitable again - and as he has NO Microsoft phones even to sell today - Elop would embrace the N9 and MeeGo widely, openly on every tech news show on the planet. And if Nokia's Meltemi strategy had been thought-out, of course Elop would be singing the stories about how brilliant this synergy is between MeeGo and Meltemi (Windows Phone is not Linux based, no synergy there).

If Nokia had intended to develop Meltemi, as it had already invested heavily in a migration path from Symbian to MeeGo via Qt, and as Windows Phone has no such synergy at all, any smart CEO would have made Windows at best a stop-gap measure for some markets, perhaps the North American market - because now, Windows Phone 7 is TOTALLY the fish out of water in Nokia's camp.

Nokia's Qt supported Symbian and S40 and MeeGo. It did not support Windows Phone. And obviously Qt will support Meltemi. Duh? Nokia owns (or co-owns) Symbian, S40, MeeGo and Meltemi - and has to pay no royalties to use any of those. Microsoft owns Windows Phone and Microsoft charges Nokia for every copy of its OS that ships.

Nokia's self-developed OS systems follow 'Nokia conventions' in usability and functionality. The original Microsoft Windows Phone was so out of line, it did not even support multitasking (the latest update does now). No matter what people say about how great Apple's iPhone is - and it is the benchmark that others try to attain - and Nokia is nowhere near it - but Nokia DID have a strong loyalty. People bought Nokia phones for many generations of phones, were on their fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth consecutive Nokia
branded phone. They work in a certain way, there is a 'Nokia logic' to Nokia phones and Nokia loyal customers expect that. The Windows Phone OS was developed by Microsoft utterly without Nokia inputs last year, and its philosophies - some which may be great - are different from that of traditional Nokia. Some existing Nokia owners may like them - but certainly most existing Nokia owners will witness a dramatic change and the new Microsoft based Nokia phones will not work in the way 'as Nokia is used to working'. There will be lots of disappointed customers, who will be returning those phones. But on Nokia's own, self-developed OS platforms, at least the Nokia conventions and logic has been built in from the start. There still are changes, but a far greater level of familiarity. Just watch when we get the first reviews of the first Nokia Microsoft phone around Christmas, compared to say the N9 on MeeGo and the latest Symbian based Nokia premium phone like say the X7. We will hear again and again, that the Windows Phone based Nokia 'doesn't seem to feel like a Nokia' haha.. Thats because it isn't..

Meltemi will be pure Nokia. MeeGo was pure Nokia, as was Symbian as was S40. Microsoft has just signed up Samsung for Windows Phone as a strategic partner too - so in the future Nokia's 'desires' will be tempered by Samsung's perhaps differing desires, from Microsoft. Just like Symbian was a mess serving many maker needs a few years ago, so too will be Microsoft Phone - where as owner/co-owner, Nokia would have controlled MeeGo and will control Meltemi.

So then the developers! Last year Nokia announced its migration path using Qt. This was welcomed by Nokia's strong Symbian developer community (biggest in mobile). Qt was not yet finished and fully operational by the time Elop made his Feb 11 announcement. At that point, killing Symbian and abandoning MeeGo, but going to Microsoft, Elop effectively kicked the long-time-loyal, and long-time-suffering Nokia developer community in the nuts, by abandoning the migration path (you couldn't use Qt to develop for Microsoft's OS) Elop made matters far worse for what developers decided to rough it out with Qt and Nokia's dying platforms - by his repeated mistakes relating to Elop Effect (burning platforms etc badmouthing the ecosystem).

If Meltemi was in the strategy, then of course, Nokia would have sung praises and promises of how its developers have a migration path for all Nokia phones of the future - MeeGo and Meltemi (however branded). And not spit in their faces by announcing the moronic shift to Microsoft.

And then Ovi store? If the CEO decides to end Nokia's own app store branded Ovi, that suits Microsoft's Windows Phone app store aspirations - this is in Microsoft's best interest. But if Nokia had a strategy about Meltemi - then of course - of course - having to support several platforms and having already launched the Ovi store - which at the time had become the second most used app store on the planet, behind only Apple's iPhone App Store - come on, Ovi was a runaway success - of course - of course - the CEO who looks after Nokia's best interest, would not kill Ovi branding. Ovi is the glue to the consumer that ties S40, Symbian, MeeGo and now Meltemi. What idiot would kill Ovi branding? Especially if the same company is already undergoing a transition of the operating systems? No wonder Nokia CTO Chief Technology Officer, Rich Green resigned in protest. He had designed this migration path and it was - as I have written many times - the best strategy of any legacy handset maker (excluding pure smartphone makers who don't have this problem) - by far the best strategy of any legacy handset maker. But yes, Elop killed Ovi branding.

And MeeGo? Come on? If Meltemi was the strategy, then any half-wit CEO would understand, that today as the retail channel refuses not to sell Nokia branded smartphones - they refuse to sell Symbian based Nokia smarpthones - and as there are no Microsoft phones to sell - then as there is the N9 on MeeGo, that has to be sold everywhere, in every store, with massive marketing push. And as there is another MeeGo device already being manufactured - no development costs to burden Nokia - that has to be released now. And as Nokia factories run idle! Idling! With far more than half capacity currently wasted - what lunatic CEO refuses to sell the two MeeGo based devices - the only two handsets Nokia has in its inventory now, in October and November - that are not being boycotted by the retail channel. If Meltemi was the strategy, then Nokia would be pushing MeeGo right now, everywhere. They'd make a big deal about it being the new 'Linux based' OS to differentiate from Apple, RIM, Microsoft etc - and to catch a bit of the excitement of Android too (Android being Linux based). And to set the stage to launch Meltemi (obviously with MeeGo themed branding).

SO MELTEMI IS A DESPERATION MOVE

If Meltemi was part of the strategy in February, Elop would never have announced Microsoft in February. Every major action he has done this spring, EVERY major action, has been against the interests of Meltemi. Elop was singing in his burning platforms memo and at that time, when firing Nokia software programmers left and right, that Nokia is incapable of competing in that world. Now he jumps back in with both feet? That Microsoft was the smartphone platform? But now it will be Meltemi? That there 'will be no more MeeGo phones even if the N9 is a big success' ??? The Qt migration path, the Ovi store, refusing to sell MeeGo widely.. Meltemi was not on Elop's mind when he made his Microsoft selection in early February, and not on his mind when he announced Microsoft on February 11. But today it is clearly part of Nokia's future.

What happened? We know what happened. The press keeps reporting that the Microsoft misadventure is not going well for Nokia. I told you about the Microsoft sales boycott here, driven in great part by the universal hatered of Skype by the carriers/operators - Nokia's main sales channel. But the news around Microsoff and Nokia keeps getting worse. We just heard from some analysts like Stephen Patel at Gleacher who said that "Our checks suggest mixed carrier support for Nokia's transition to Windows Phone." - yes, I told you so, haha. Nokia needs near universal support from the carriers to its Windows strategy to even HOPE to recover lost ground that Elop destroyed this Spring and Summer. And if the carrier support now is 'mixed' - before the announcement date even - expect more to defect from the camp as some carriers are waiting to announce their defections - carriers always do that late, remember Nexus One, remember Microsoft Kin etc. And trust me, the carriers understand their own economics, and will not want to bankroll the success of the existential threat to their business that would be Microsoft+Skype+ desktop PC platform reach + Nokia. They will bail. Not all, but many will. If its 'mixed support' now at the start of October, it will be misery by December.

And THAT is why Meltemi suddenly appeared in the news. It is a desperation move. The 'hail mary pass' to use the US football metaphor. Elop has seen the writing on the wall that Microsoft's Windows Phone can't save Nokia. He won't have handsets in enough numbers, they don't come fast enough, and now his resellers are giving 'mixed support' (while they all would love to have the N9 by the way, what is wrong with Elop? Just too big Ego, is it, or is he truly deranged?). And yes, closing those factories like the one in Romania? This is SERIOUSLY BAD. Nokia had a competive advantage as the biggest maker. When Elop starts to shut down those factories that were profitable for Nokia as recently as January - it means Elop knows Nokia is not going to recover. It is not that this year is obviously bad for Nokia - it is that next year will clearly be worse for Nokia!

Do I think Meltemi is good for Nokia - yes. Do I think Nokia will be stronger with Meltemi. Yes. Do I think Elop will be around to see that, no. I am seriously expecting Nokia to report a loss in Q3, all the data suggest that will happen and am puzzled there is no profit warning yet (is Elop gambling on some internal hail-mary too, or is Elop deliberately going against Stock Market guidelines and against the interests of investors by withholding critical information from investors and owners?). And when (if) the losses are announced/profit warning given, Nokia market share will return to its deep dive - and that will be the end of Elop. Usually when CEO's preside over a year when the share price falls by half, they get fired. Elop accomplished that in half a year... He must be fired.

But yes, the right move is to turn every factory to full production of MeeGo devices now, and rush the development of Meltemi to replace what is left of Symbian. To keep Ovi and Qt the migration path. To kill the pointless diversion and fantasy that is Microsoft Phone - what a huge waste. We saw it just two years ago, when LG tried to go Microsoft and went from making profits to making losses, until it abandoned the Microsoft option and went full speed Android.

So my gut says, this is a desperation move, but it can be good for Nokia. What Nokia now needs is leadership by a CEO who looks after Nokia's best interests, not the best interests of some other company like Microsoft. Cut the losses with Windows Phone now, go full speed MeeGo because it is ready to sell and will support Meltemi (whereas every Windows Phone sold by Nokia will be 'lost' to the Windows alliance, and cannot easily be brought back to Meltemi). I think its a clear sign Nokia now knows Microsoft is not a sustainable long-term strategy.

Which then brings the question, how seriously can any carrier or retailer take Nokia and Elop now with Windows Phone? This cock-a-mamy Meltemi strategy (any other CEO sees the utter stupidity of Nokia launching N9 on MeeGo now, and then 'not' calling this Meltemi their 'MeeGo Lite' as folly) is not thought out. Nokia CEO has been gambling with his company, has been trying to bully the carriers (we heard they refused to let O2 of the UK even sell Windows Phone smartphones even thought they wanted to - that is how silly it is getting) and all of it is now exploding in Elop's face. He thought his Spring was bad news, his Autumn waiting for Godot will be far worse. Those are not happy bunnies, the Nokia retail channel. And this Meltemi now just speaks of more confusion at Nokia - and utter lack of trust in Elop. Why bother with Windows Phone based smartphones then at all, from Nokia? With Meltemi, Elop seems to want to do..

...Yet another Osborne Effect !

Yes, Elop is now jeopardizing his Microsoft Windows Phone strategy. Like the Twitter fictional character @fakeselop says of Elop, he likes to burn platform, that is how he rolls. He just torched his own Windows platform too. So yes, if you had the feeling Nokia was in confusion, yeah it is.

Lets keep watching how this develops in the smartphone bloodbath. That was part 2 (part 1 was Intel's Tizen with Samsung). Next up Part 3: Apple's new iPhone 4S.

Comments

[gzost]

The shift to Windows Phone was a desparate decision for what was, at the time, seen as the lesser of two evils in the face of an ongoing collapse of Symbian. Market share was dropping quickly, development was way behind schedule, and it was increasingly becoming obvious that maintaining and upgrading Symbian was a Herculean effort. Qt was similarly behind schedule, and MeeGo was not ready - the UI that you rave about (and which the press judged to be interesting, but nowhere near as magical as you claim) was developed in the 7 months prior to the launch of the N9. In a market moving as quickly as this, an ecosystem full of 6/12/18-month delays is not tenable. They needed to change something major.
The choice was therefore between Android and Windows Phone.
With choosing Windows Phone, it was clear that there was no short- or mid-term migration path for the lower end of feature phones to smartphones. With a choice of Android, Nokia might have been the only company in the mobile space to remain unencumbered by license payments to MSFT & others and actually produce those low-end Android phones for the US & Europe that are now becoming impossible for others.
The migration of all but the lowest-end featurephones is a fact, and Nokia is the brand that is best positioned to be in this game (worldwide reach) and needs to be in there (with its market share in the upper-mid to high-end unlikely to return to anyhting like its former glory in the foreseeable future). They needed a plan here. Qt on S40 seemed to be it for a while, but maybe here too the cruft of old architecture decisions led to bigger problems than orignally anticipated. Developing the underlying parts of an OS from scratch is a bigger effort with each generation, and nobody has done it in a while (iOS = mach kernel, some BSD, Android, webOS = Linux kernel, Windows Phone = CE kernel). So what do you take? Linux. It's something they need to do, now, if they don't want low-cost Android phones to kill them in the emerging markets where the US/European patent wars don't matter one bit.
All these could have/would have/should have musings about the big evil Elop don't mean anything here. Symbian is dead, MeeGo is dead, the N9 will be a sought-after collector's item for open-source and Nokia fans, there will be Nokia Windows Phone devices, and that's the reality Nokia has to base their paths forward on.
Meltemi would have made more sense in the greater context of a Qt ecosystem from the top to the low end. It faces significantly bigger hurdles now. Still, with the next billion phones as targets, and a development environment that is at last shaping up into something competitive, it is the right move for Nokia now.

[Sander van der Wal]

I wouldn't know about Qt/S40/Meltemi/whatever being a desperation move. When Nokia bought Qt three years ago the idea that Qt would be the API layer for all Nokia OS'es was already floating around. Nokia said as much when they said that using Qt as the company-wide API layer had significant cost benefits for them.

My take on this is different, it has taken Nokia this long to figure out they could not put Qt on top of the S40 OS, so now they are going to use Linux instead.

Not that it is a bad idea to put Qt on top of S40, or whatever OS they are using, quite the contrary. But for developers it is icing on the cake, money is being made by selling apps to people with the disposable income to pay for high-end phones, not the people who can only spare the cash for a cheap phone.

[vvaz]

Meltemi isn't desperation move. In fact it looks like current Nokia strategy HAS sense at all. But it definitely is: Worst. Execution. Ever. If you create scale of CEO's you have on one end Steve Jobs and on second Stephen Elop.
Look, at the end of 2010 Nokia has Symbian losing space - but losing it SLOWLY (at least comparing to current rate of attrition) and not so successful partnership with Intel. Nokia needs something to replace Symbian but MeeGo isn't ready and WP7 is handy, it will not be ready on Nokia handsets immediately but Nokia have time, one year of INCRESING sales of Symbian and profit. This is not sustainable path because due to smartphones explosion it is losing marketshare - but 1 year delay isn't problem because Nokia still has this Symbian cushion. At the same time Nokia maintains small old Maemo/MeeGo team to develop its Linux version - Elop mentioned it as "for future disruptions" (there were some mentions about Meltemi really ready for market in 2015). All elements are there and it this context it makes sense (personally still think that all strategy was better but new one isn't total braindead as it looks now).

Plan is ready now for execution. But instead of introducing (even falsely) of [email protected] as only North American venture (and later silently kill Symbian), present Anna or even Belle as 2011-2012 exciting releases close to deliver and Meltemi as highly visible lab product Elop creates Elop Effect...

[karlim]

Where did you hear that Qt runs on S40? This is simply not true. Qt was never able to run on S40, can not run on S40 now and will not run on S40 ever.

And you talk about Meltemi like it is some new thing, that Nokia started working on it just this fall (when WSJ reported about it), that it is some kind of a new, rush job, a desperation move initiated when Elop lost faith in Windows Phone. It is anything but that.

Nokia has been working on Meltemi for months if not years now. Meltemi was first mentioned by Register's Andrew Orlowski as some sort of software project inside Nokia, where Meego staff can transfer to when Meego work is finished.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/27/nokia_cuts_memo/print.html

"There will also be opportunities within the Meltemi organization, for personnel working within the MeeGo teams." As you can see, in April 2011 there already is Meltemi organization inside Nokia, and it has been there for months most likely.

Then, in the leaked "Sea Ray" video in June, Elop again mentions Meltemi, and this time, clearly as a part of their "Next billion" part of the strategy. Which means as a replacement for S40. At about the same time they said that QT will be core of "Next billion strategy too".

The only new thing that WSJ reported is that Meltemi is Linux based. And Register's Orlowski also confirmed that now and added that Qt will run on Meltemi. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/05/nokia_meltemi_for_s40/

There is no confusion here. Meltemi is a next generation replacement for mass market Nokia S40 platform. It was part of Nokia strategy even before Feb. 11th. It was probably the basis of that second pillar of the strategy - "The next billion" from the very begining.

Now we know Meltemi is Linux based, but just because it is LInux, does not meant that it has any relation to Meego. E.g. Motorola Linux based phones (in 2003-2004) weren't even smartphones.

Meltemi will go to low end mass market Nokia phones (former S40), leaving the higher end smartphones for Windows Phone OS. Of course - with Qt support, Meltemi budget phones are very likely to technically become smartphones (just like Samsung's Bada phones are considered to be). But they will most likely occupy below 250EUR price ranges, while WIndows Phone will bet at above that price for years.

[vvaz]

Meltemi is clearly (in)direct continuation of Maemo. Maemo releases were usually codenamed after winds (Bora, Chinook, Mistral, even Harmattan) - Meltemi continues this tradition.

It is as if MeeGo never existed either on Intel or Nokia side of things ;)

[karlim]

@Baron95 Good one :) Almost fully agreed

Well, except that - Tomi is dead wrong on S40 capability to run Qt, and that S40 was one separate branch of development.

It wasn't.

Meltemi is S40.generation2 and will replace S40 - so it's only 3 OSes, not 4.

And, IMHO, Elop's view is that Meltemi will also replace Symbian (at low end) by becoming Nokia's own cheap smartphone OS, that does not need thousands of developers to keep up, but gets as smart with help of Qt.

And gettin back to your Tomi's previous post (Tizen/Meego) comments. You might be wrong on IP stuff. Except for Oracle/Java tax - even if then.

Nokia did not have to care about Android IP issues when choosing. Their IP portfolio is too strong for that. And, if Oracle has any mobile ambitions - they might get an exclusive deal for Nokia Android phones too. So I don't think that was ever an issue, at least defensively.

Offensively, getting others to pay Nokia for IP - that is a different thing.

[sve]

It may be too little, too late. Telephony is fast becoming a common feature of all too many new devices. Technology is racing past this function much as it raced past special purpose devices that report what time it is (watches). You can't have just a phone device anymore - it has to do more.

[Meego]

@Baron95 .. Look at Samsung. Samsung is committed to 4 operating systems.

[cheap canada goose]

In my mind you are the best*_*

[apollo_dev_team]

@Meego: too much OS can kill you ;-) and one, as we know, is dead already...

[n900lover]

Elop's current offering:

WP7 (Nokia 0%), Windows 8 (Nokia 0%), Symbian (Nokia 0%), Maemo/Harmattan/Meego (Nokia only), Maltemi (Nokia only), HTML5 (Nokia 0%)

Seems to me he agrees with Tomi on the number, only don't want nokia to be in control of anything (perhaps avaiting finalisation of acquisition by ms).

[meego]

@Baron95.

Let me tell you some secrete. Tizen is 99% Limo, and Limo is 99% Samsung Linux Platform (look at who has mostly contributed to Limo for the past years). Please don't try to sound authorative when you have no clue.

As for Bada, you are correct. The core is RTOS but anything above is Samsung's.

Samsung also has what they call inside SHP OS which powers their feature phones.

So these are three already. In addition to that, you should know that Samsung heavily skins android with the TouchWiz stuff. Also porting WinPho7 is not as trivial as you seem to think.

So 5 OS in total.

Tomi suggests using 3 (S40, Meego (with Meego Light) and Symbian) .

So my suggestion is, when you don't have any clue, don't try to sound like you are in the knows. It just makes you look silly.

[Meego]

@Baron95. What makes you think LINUX OS projects at Samsung are playthings? Samsung's strategy is to support all OS's out there, and Samsung means it . For example, next year at MWC you will see new devices based on these playthings.

[Ivan]

Baron95 doesn't even understand what a BS he is talking. Baron95 is a pure example of a charlatan (one making usually showy pretenses to knowledge or ability).

[jj cale]

@Tomi

I Read some of your posts and like mixture which touches nicely the theory of managing technology and business togegher and related books..... Communities are missing from this theory. So are economies and networks.

not seen u actually comment the domination of the communities over brands and companies, and executive boards. Or directly about communities lost or gained with different strategies from different companies. I accept the communities are challenging to get figures on, in-directly you have commented about the "distributors on mobile service"

There are some leaders who understand this new era we are entered and which become behaviour of all in next 15 years, and there are some leaders who do not have concept of it.

This is dilemma in all industries and all business, existing and new.

I am really not able to judge mobile phone market leaders in this aspect in ratio to their success, but I suppose you could. Even for the past ones which u did not write about this topic.. :)

cheers

[Once A Happy Coder]

I hate Elop. He has destroyed my life and dreams. And above all, he's horribly WRONG!!!

[Once A Happy Coder]

@Baron95

Bada has a bigger market share than Windows Phone has :)

[Swapnil]

Hey Tomi, you've been talking about no-migration path for Qt devs to WP7. Will this help them? http://nokiasaga.com/porting-qt-applications-to-windows-phone-and-more-now-possible

[Elpo]

Swapnil, that is not a "Qt for Windows Phone 7". That's just a script for developers to follow, in order to build "good" apps from the point of view of Microsoft.

[Swapnil]

@Elpo (maybe you meant Elop) Yes it's not Qt for WP7 but at least Qt devs will not feel stranded when Nokia finally brings WP7 devices.
@Tomi again why are you criticizing Nokia/WP7 and Elop so much? Ok, Elop announced WP7 devices without actual product but ain't you doing same by criticizing them without actually using one. Have you seen how much hype Nokia/WP7 have been generating lately? And if memory serves Elop never said that they won't have their own OS. He said Nokia will disrupt market and he didn't mean it with WP7 as OS. He sent MeeGo to labs and gave devs time (12months), asked them to create a new OS which can disrupt market. That's what I heard I don't have proof right now but everything is going according to plan. They had got Qt running on S40 as web-apps in browser (first gen iOS style) but it was not sufficient. Droids were eating into S40 share too so if they revamp their low end phones with new OS then it shouldn't be called as 'desperate move'
Yes WP7 has less market share but most probably it's also ahead of Android in terms of user satisfaction. May even surpass iOS too. I haven't seen anyone complaining about UI/UX of WP7. Maybe you should try it too.