[MWC 2010] Nokia has just finished their press conference at Mobile World Congress 2010 and a lot was said, but little was substantial and up to the audience’s expectations (whether reasonable or not). First, no new device was announced, which is kind of weird, but I guess that Nokia World is now the new place for this type of launches, and it is somewhat understandable. Secondly, Nokia has announced that Maemo and Moblin – two Linux OS backed by Nokia and Intel – will merge. Well, ok it’s good, but without other handset makers joining the party, it’s going to be hard to create a “common” platform. In reality, everyone is going their own way (cf. Samsung with Bada, Apple Mac OS for iPhone, Google with Android…). It’s not surprising as we’re talking about nothing less than the control of the gate to mobile riches. Expect more fragmentation than ever in the coming years. The second part of the presentation was Nokia’s way of saying that although it is not a leader, its Ovi services are moving forward. It’s not that great, but Nokia is trying really hard to build an eco-system and I give them some credit for doing the right thing: think of software as the added-value. Ultimately, Nokia is currently successful only in developing countries where its brand still has a “halo” that was lost in western countries. Although any progress is good, I believe that Nokia has to recapture the developed world market or face a deterioration of its brand everywhere. This starts with sexy devices and a great smartphone experience. When you loose the high-end, you can take refuge in the low-end, but only for so long…
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