Motorola has recently announced that the split of the Mobility unit will happen in mid January. But what if Nokia buys Motorola before the split? That might be the only way to save Nokia.
Nokia has been for some time now on the dangerous vicious circle of product disappointments, declining market share and falling market cap. The smartphone war has become a battle on three fronts: the device, the SW platform and the developer ecosystem. Nokia has managed to badly execute on all three.
Even the latest smartphone N8 based on the latest Symbian version has failed to impress and is only matching capabilities shown by the iPhone three years ago. Ovi has been a recognized failure and so far has completely missed the objective to become a monetization engine for Symbian developers.
In addition the initial Nokia services strategy which aimed to start building a relationship with the consumer by internally building services competing with famous internet services has failed and Nokia has downsized its services offering.
As result of the situation, a shock treatment was needed to reverse the trend and the old Nokia leadership has been replaced by Steve Elop from MSFT.
I am sure Steve Elop is evaluating all the options available to transform a Finnish company with culture and core competence suited to excel in manufacturing and logistics into a truly software and internet services company.
But what if the solution is actually in focusing on the core competence?
In a world that is quickly becoming an Apple-Google battlefield why not becoming the largest and lowest cost manufacturer of Android devices? Why not acquiring Motorola which could give Nokia the always desired NA market and the skills to integrate Android?
The massive volume of the Newco combined with Nokia’s ability to drive superior cost efficiencies would be enough to compete and win vs. any other Android OEM and will provide leverage with Google.
