Stephen Elop, the Finnish phone manufacturer’s CEO, boldly said at the Open Mobile Summit in the UK that “Apple created Android”. Other than this, the Nokia CEO confirmed that other smartphone manufacturers carrying the Windows Phone platform would gain access to a wide variety of Nokia services designed for the said platform. This includes Ovi Maps.
On the Q&A section of the event, the CEO took the stage. Since Nokia and Microsoft announced their billion dollar partnership back in February, Elop was asked if Nokia was open to giving their competitors access to a number of services designed for the Windows platform. Specifically, he was asked if Samsung smartphones would be allowed to make use of Nokia’s mapping service.
The CEO answered, “Absolutely, I sure hope so, that’s very much the intent. It’s about the Windows Phone eco-system, heavily contributed to by Microsoft, by Nokia and others.”
Navteq, mastermind behind digital maps and map content, is a turn-by-turn navigation provider for Symbian smartphones via Ovi Maps. Navteq, in turn, is owned by the Finnish smartphone giant Nokia. There are a number who think that the digital map provider is cooking something up specifically for the Windows platform.
Nokia’s relationship with Samsung is a strange relationship altogether. The Korean manufacturer is one of the Finnish manufacturer’s biggest rivals, due to its focus on the Android OS. At the same time, it is its ally due to its focus on the Windows Phone 7 platform as well. Lastly, Nokia is also one of Samsung’s customers, for the Korean-based manufacturer supplies the Finland-based manufacturer with components for its smartphones.
Elop addressed this strange relationship by saying, “It is the case that we’re building an ecosystem in and around Windows Phone as the operating system…(but) it is the case that we want multiple OEMs to compete to participate in this ecosystem.”
“We are going to fight like rivals with Samsung…at the same time Samsung is a provider of windows phone devices…we encourage and want to see them in the Windows Phone environment.”
It seems like a strange relationship indeed, but a relationship that works nonetheless.
Source: Electricpig
