Click to read this letter at Engadget

thePaepae.com isn’t primarily a tech blog, despite our occasional forays into my nerd past and geeky/cyber present, so I don’t intend to examine too deeply the changes that are going on in the mobile phone and app ‘space’. Others are doing that with more dedication. But these changes at Nokia, formerly the world’s most successful mobile phone company for all the right reasons, are noteworthy.

Like some readers, a few days ago I read and was impressed by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s ‘jumping from a burning platform’ memo to staff. I admired his straight-talking. It was an evocative and clear statement of diagnosis that ANY business person, including me, could take lessons from. How the Apple iPhone ‘stole’ the march in smartphones and the slow-footedness of market-leading Nokia to respond has indeed resembled a melodrama. They now face huge challenges. (As John Gruber said, “No word on what his solution is, but at least he’s diagnosed the problem.”)

Elop set the scene for a breakthrough new strategy or direction.

To read this morning that the strategy is to cosy up with Microsoft – via Windows Mobile, well, it’s a disappointment. Among other things, MS have a well-deserved reputation for being innovatively-bankrupt.

Read the joint announcement/media release (‘open letter’ what’s with that?) from Microsoft’s Steve Balmer and Nokia’s Stephen Elop.

Let’s see how that pans out. Microsoft has a history of devouring its ‘alliance partners’. I wonder where this will go.