The Microsoft and Nokia deal, which began in early 2011, always seemed one sided in the favor of Microsoft, now it appears both companies are trying to balance things a bit. Soon, Bing Maps will be covered with the Nokia Logo, a move that could give Nokia more power in this deal, and possibly piss off other Windows Phone manufacturers.
The Nokia Lumia 710 which was announced last month, December 2011, and went on sale in January 2012 for $50 with a two year contract on T-Mobile USA, is now being offered for free on contract via WalMart.
Something interesting is happening, Samsung is merging its Bada OS effort with Tizen, the open source platform that gobbled up MeeGo after Nokia ditched it for Windows Phone. We’re guessing Samsung figured it couldn’t go it alone so help was needed, and rightfully so because Bada was going nowhere but down hill.
We’ve been missing for a few days but CES is here and thus we have no choice but to tag along and get this show on the road. Anyway, the Nokia Lumia 900 is now official, just a few moments ago Nokia announced the thing and it is a beauty to behold.
Like many other Windows Phone manufacturer, Nokia is making its presence felt in the Windows Phone Marketplace with its own Nokia only dedicated section. The Nokia category in the Windows Phone Marketplace is unsurprisingly only viewable on Nokia Lumia devices, that means, if you want to test drive what Nokia has to offer in the app department, get a Nokia Windows Phone.
The Windows Phone Marketplace is gaining steam, the last time we checked it was little over 30,000 apps strong, now we are hearing that it has reached the 50,000 apps milestone. We can’t say we are that excited since from what we have been seeing from new apps added daily, there ate more RSS Feeds than anything else.
Nokia, Microsoft, and Apple are all in for a difficult time in China. Chinese vendors who fear the ever increasing patent attacks by these companies and others, jointly formed an alliance that they hope is powerful enough to keep the big boys at bay for a little longer or indefinitely.
We haven’t been hearing much about the Nokia Lumia 800 in the past few days, still, the little we are seeing speaks a lot about the success the device is having in Europe. Both in the Netherlands and Germany, the Nokia Lumia 800 seems to be bitch slapping everything that comes its way with no slowing down in sight.
The year 2011 turned out to be a bad year for Nokia, the company lost its spot at the top of the smartphone food chain to Apple and Samsung while struggling to catch up with its first set of Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. However, 2012 could be the year the old dog rises from its slumber starting with a huge CES presence.
We reported earlier that Amazon was in failed talks with RIM for a takeover, but who would have guessed that Microsoft and Nokia were both playing around with the idea of a joint venture to eat up the Canadian giant. Of course, just like what RIM did with Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia’s joint venture was turned down or probably put on hold just in case licensing talks with Samsung and HTC hits the gutter.
