Nokia pressure to ditch MeeGo and pair with Microsoft

Finnish mobile giant Nokia are feeling a little share growth thanks to an open letter from an industry analyst which is pressing for an exclusive deal linking Nokia devices to Windows Phone 7.

This letter was sourced from London based Berenberg bank analyst Adnaan Ahmad, who is urging Nokia to abandon their own MeeGo linux based operating system.

Nokia are struggling to respond to the rise of the iPhone and Android market place. Their market share is continuing to slide, even though they have spent a staggering $4 billion on research and development in 2010. Three times the recorded industry average across the same period of time.

While Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 has received fairly mixed reviews since October it appears to be a more accessible platform than Nokia's MeeGo OS.

Mr Ahmads sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, suggesting that they could mount a much stronger attack if they worked together.

This letter has caused a ripple in the industry, as it follows a conference call with Elop who said “In addition to great device experiences we must build, capitalise and/or join a competitive ecosystem.” It certainly won't hurt that Elop is also a former Microsoft executive.

This speculation is now rife with rumours that Microsoft and Nokia could very well join forces to assault the mobile marketplace in 2011. It could very well be that they are planning an announcement at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in a few weeks time. Nokia also have an investor meeting in London which is scheduled for February 11th.

If Nokia didn't pair up with Microsoft and Windows Phone 7, the other option would be to use Android as the OS platform, although Ahmad urged caution saying “This may have been a good idea one to two years ago, but it is not today, ou will never be able to catch up with Samsung, which should rule the Android show midterm given its economies of scale, product breadth (TVs, PCs, phones and tablets), as well as its captive component base.”

KitGuru says: Regardless of the course of action that Nokia take, they need to do something as their shares of teh high margin smartphone margin dropped by a staggering 10 percent on the same period in 2009.

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