Nokia Predicts Carrier Interest in Windows Phone 8

The CEO of struggling Nokia believes carriers will register a considerable interest in Windows Phone 8 in the near future.

Stephen Elop believes carriers will soon start to tire of selling just iPhones and Android smartphones, with a third ecosystem due to make its mark on the market in the form of Windows Phone 8 devices.

"There’s a dynamic that we’re seeing and hearing about … and that is increasing concern amongst operators about the concentration of power that is landing with two particular ecosystems that are obviously quite strong out there today," Elop said. "I think you’re going to see a trend where operators starting in the west begin to say, 'We need a third ecosystem to really begin to happen. We really need to double down on it. We need to cause it to happen.'"

He continued on to stress that carriers will begin registering their interest towards Windows Phone 8 in Q4, which will mark "an opportunity that we look at as quite positive for 2013 as a whole."

Elop spoke about the aforementioned plan during Nokia’s recent earnings call, which marked the announcement of a $1.3 billion loss, representing the company's sixth consecutive quarter where it reported a loss.

The Nokia Lumia 920, a Windows 8-powered phone, will release sometime during November. Microsoft itself will announce its own Windows Phone 8 on October 29.

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  • Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer
    You know what would predict my interest in this phone? If you could develop for it in Windows 7 instead of Windows 8. I get why Microsoft won't let you, but it's still dumb. :sarcastic:
    Reply
  • ojas
    Old_Fogie_Late_BloomerYou know what would predict my interest in this phone? If you could develop for it in Windows 7 instead of Windows 8. I get why Microsoft won't let you, but it's still dumb.Agreed, though it's still better than having to buy an entire mac(book) to develop iOS apps.

    though i guess you could develop for WP 7.8, since it'll be supported by WP8.
    Reply
  • vaughn2k
    Well, I just hope Nokia is right. My first phone was a Nokia 909 (http://nokiamuseum.com/view.php?model=909), and since then, it was all the line of Nokia. It was only some time on 2003, I pulled a Motorola Razr, then an LG and Samsung, I was back into a Nokia 810 and loved the Mango....
    Reply
  • mariusmotea
    At this time Nokia can not make a prediction. They are in this bad situation because so far they did not predict well at all
    Reply
  • Zingam_Duo
    I predict customer disinterest!
    Reply
  • gamoniac
    The CEO of struggling Nokia believes carriers will register a considerable interest in Windows Phone 8 in the near future.
    Yet Nokia makes their flagship 920 exclusive only to AT&T. It does not make sense.
    Reply
  • southernshark
    Nokia+ Win 8 + Atom processor would be win. I'd be all over that.
    Reply
  • Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer
    ojasAgreed, though it's still better than having to buy an entire mac(book) to develop iOS apps. though i guess you could develop for WP 7.8, since it'll be supported by WP8.To speak to your second point, I've heard discouraging things about WP8's backward compatibility, and I doubt there's much point, as a developer, to focus attention on WP7.x (sorry, current WP users; blame Microsoft, not me).

    As for your first point, the situation is not that different...I mean, to run the WP8 emulator, you need to have 8GB of RAM and can't run the emulator in a VM Windows 8 install. That means you have to have a computer with Windows 8 running on it. Ideally, it would be a touchscreen computer, too, to make using the emulator easier (and give you the option of doing some Windows 8 development, as well).

    So, while I could put an mSATA SSD in my ThinkPad T430 and put my $15 upgrade to Windows 8 on there (leaving Windows 7 on my main drive, thankyouverymuch), it would be far from ideal due to the lack of touch on the device. A more ideal solution (for certain values of the word ideal) would be dropping around a grand on a ThinkPad Twist as a dedicated development machine, which is kind of a gamble, and really isn't that much different than buying a MacBook.
    Reply
  • bllue
    Fragmented android ftl. My phone 2011 phone is stuck in Gingerbread, a 2008 OS. That's an issue for me and the OS doesn't even work right sometimes, it just locks up and my phone isn't low end by any means either. My next upgrade I plan on going with WP8, I'm definitely not going for iOS.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    gamoniacYet Nokia makes their flagship 920 exclusive only to AT&T. It does not make sense.It makes perfect sense! Nokia has had to make major cuts, and simply cannot produce enough units to make an offering to the general market, so by signing an exclusivity deal with ATT they will be able to create scarcity which will inflate the price of the phone, plus ATT had to pay an arm and leg in order to keep that exclusivity away from it's competition.

    My fear is that WP8 will not live up to the hype that has been put forward so far. I mean, we know just about everything there is to know about win8/RT/office365/13/outlook.com which are all getting released at the same time as the WP8 OS... but other than a few canned demos we have seen NOTHING about WP8 as an OS or platform. It may be nothing... but in my mind, if they had something cool other than the new home screen and banking stuff, then we would have seen it by now.

    I really hope they get it right. I am not exactly apple compatible, and I find android capable but messy. From the first time I picked up a WP7 (.2?) device I was able to navegate it with no problem, and I came really close to jumping on a 7.5 device except that we all knew WP8 was coming right around the corner so I decided to wait... but if they get this wrong then the SGS3 is looking mighty tempting.

    If I get a WP8 device, then I will have greater motivation to upgrade to win8 on 4 computers as well to keep with the same general interface/theme across my devices, but if they mess up my phone then I will be more likely to go back to win7. I like win8... but as I add up the cost to move all my devices up to it then I need a little more motivation in the form of the ecosystem rather than just the additions to the OS (which are nice... but not necessary).

    By MS releasing all of their products at once it is forcing an all-or-nothing mentality, and if there is a weak link in the launch it will hurt the sales of the other devices in the ecosystem
    Reply