Microsoft Buys Nokia

[jyl]

. . . Nokia's cellphone business, that is.

For just $7BN. How Nokia has fallen.

Thoughts?

[KaptKaos]

It's all about the patents.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

It's all about the patents.

And the loyal customer base.

[MysticLlama]

Only half the market cap, but hopefully my couple hundred (worth very little) shares do something now.

[on2wheels52]

Originally Posted by MysticLlama

Only half the market cap, but hopefully my couple hundred (worth very little) shares do something now.

My thoughts exactly.
Jim

[Rich76_911s]

What's the over under on how long until MSFT has a 7 billion dollar write down for it's mobile investments?

Surprisingly MSFT is only licensing the patents. I'm assuming that doesn't mean they 'own" the patents which surprises me. I always thought a lot of Nokia's value was in it's patent portfolio as Kaptkaos mentioned. I guess the license agreements could be for 100 years. I have not seen the details on that. EDIT 10 year non exclusive deal on the patents.

I bought a nokia phone running windows this spring and unfortunately for MSFT the weakness in their phone isn't the device it is the operating system. The operating system just doesn't compete with android or iphone.

[Halm]

Ballmer is leaving 3 years too late, IMO. Elop is leading candidate at the moment and has been rumored to be so long before buyout was announced. This would be an excellent move as MS strategically transitions to a device and services business.

Yes, the hardware is the best part of a Win8 phone, but slowly the eco system is catching up. I have bounced for about a year between a Galaxy Nexus and my Nokia 620. Lately the Nexus has just sat on the shelf. Win8 clearly lacks a few things I want, but the overall experience is vastly better for my use.

[red-beard]

I think the long term strategy is an integrated phone/tablet/desktop experience. Everything available on every device. The idea is good, but the implementation so far is lacking.

BTW, Microsoft pissed me off when they upgraded the Phone OS (back at 6.5) and left many users and applications behind. I've switched everything to Android and am quote happy with the results.

[KaptKaos]

Originally Posted by Rich76_911s

What's the over under on how long until MSFT has a 7 billion dollar write down for it's mobile investments?

Surprisingly MSFT is only licensing the patents. I'm assuming that doesn't mean they 'own" the patents which surprises me. I always thought a lot of Nokia's value was in it's patent portfolio as Kaptkaos mentioned. I guess the license agreements could be for 100 years. I have not seen the details on that.

I bought a nokia phone running windows this spring and unfortunately for MSFT the weakness in their phone isn't the device it is the operating system. The operating system just doesn't compete with android or iphone.

if they are only licensing, and don't own the patents, this is a really bad deal IMO.

[stealthn]

I'm not sure it's a good deal, I have a Samsung Windows phone and it's much better than Nokia, so another instance MS telling their partners, we don't want to play anymore. As well the numbers don't add up unless the triple or quadruple there sales per quarter.

It will be interesting to see if they go the way of Palm (other than their patents)

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by red-beard

I think the long term strategy is an integrated phone/tablet/desktop experience. Everything available on every device. The idea is good, but the implementation so far is lacking.

BTW, Microsoft pissed me off when they upgraded the Phone OS (back at 6.5) and left many users and applications behind. I've switched everything to Android and am quote happy with the results.

Hmm - where have I heard that long-term strategy before? Oh yeah, Apple...

I'm not about to bash Microsoft - I've been using the MS OS since the days of DOS. But they are late to the game of integration, and when they finally brought a product to market with Surface, there was nothing revolutionary about it.

They have a lot of catching up to do right now, and lots of folks are abandoning MS for greener pastures. The Nokia deal is a step in the right direction, IMHO. Will be interesting to see how they are working on improving the OS and bringing a better integrated experience to the consumer. On the other hand, they could be the beginning of the end for the technology giant that pioneered the consumer computer market.

-Z-man.

[red-beard]

Apple does not have a very good desktop/phone/table integration/synchronizing, except for music.

[Rich76_911s]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

if they are only licensing, and don't own the patents, this is a really bad deal IMO.

Yup 10 year non-exclusive licensing agreement.

Microsoft really had to do something. Management has certainly put their eggs in the mobile basket.

At first I thought it was a pretty bad deal for Nokia shareholders. It appeared as though MSFT bought the handset unit with almost no premium paid. IE they got half the sales and paid about half the market cap of the company. Not many mergers get done without a premium being paid. But MSFT has committed 2 Billion+ over the past 9 quarters to Nokia and will be foregoing royalties payments to the tune of 1.7 Billion or so.

The story for Nokia as a stand alone company now are much different than before. I assume they are going to focus almost entirely on their NSN network business. Maybe they can get apple to license some of the HERE mapping features. Lord knows the Iphone could use some mapping help.

To MSFT's credit they have been talking about streamlining the home experience for a LONG LONG time. Well before an Iphone ever hit the market. Honestly the Xbox360 does an OK job of doing that, but still has some work to go. I can stream movies, music, photo's etc to the xbox, but it needs to be simplified. It'll be interesting to see what the Xbox One brings to the table this fall. If they could streamile the xbox experience some and market it as a gaming / home entertainment hotspot it could really work well.

[KaptKaos]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Apple does not have a very good desktop/phone/table integration/synchronizing, except for music.

This +10000000000000000000000

iTunes is the biggest piece of excrement that Apple has. The whole platform is designed around protecting music rights, and that makes it incredibly UN-user friendly.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

This +10000000000000000000000

iTunes is the biggest piece of excrement that Apple has. The whole platform is designed around protecting music rights, and that makes it incredibly UN-user friendly.

I'm not taking about iTunes. I'm talking about how Apple has integrated their App storage into their desktops, and how devices such as AppleTV and Airplay offer seamless integration between devices. Most siginficantly, both OS X and iOS are based on the Darwin OS kernel. While the look and feel of OS X and iOS are different, the processing behind the GUI is essentially the same, making integration are the core significantly easier.

I agree that iTunes is severly lacking - and unfortunately, that is the most user-facing integration interface Apple has.

-Z

[jyl]

iCloud wireless sync and backup is pretty brilliant. Any contact, bookmark, email, music, etc you add or change on one device is automatically changed on all other devices. Effortless way to mirror devices. The key is "effortless". A more thorough or powerful sync - but that has to be manually figured out and set up - that's not Apple's style.

Apple does not have a very good desktop/phone/table integration/synchronizing, except for music.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Z-man

I'm not taking about iTunes. I'm talking about how Apple has integrated their App storage into their desktops, and how devices such as AppleTV and Airplay offer seamless integration between devices. Most siginficantly, both OS X and iOS are based on the Darwin OS kernel. While the look and feel of OS X and iOS are different, the processing behind the GUI is essentially the same, making integration are the core significantly easier.

I agree that iTunes is severly lacking - and unfortunately, that is the most user-facing integration interface Apple has.

-Z

Then we're talking Apples and Oranges here (sorry, had to do that).

What Microsoft is working towards is all your applications and data on or accessible to all devices with a similar GUI. The idea is you own a PC, laptop, tablet & phone and they are all synchronized.

Apple does NOT have anything like that. And even trying to transfer data to Apple devices is extremely difficult. My sister gave up her iPad for a Galaxy Note 8.0 once I showed her the Galaxy would do what she wants (act like a sub-micro Laptop).

Android is trying. But since they don't have a Desktop that anyone is seriously using, they aren't in the running.

My intermediate solution is using the Galaxy S4 & Galaxy Note 8 with a Windows Desktop.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by jyl

iCloud wireless sync and backup is pretty brilliant. Any contact, bookmark, email, music, etc you add or change on one device is automatically changed on all other devices. Effortless way to mirror devices. The key is "effortless". A more thorough or powerful sync - but that has to be manually figured out and set up - that's not Apple's style.

But not data, like your documents.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by red-beard

But not data, like your documents.

Sure it can:

[red-beard]

So, that syncs documents on the phone. What about documents on your desktop? Is that automatic as well?