Business
Nokia, Microsoft Plan To Rival Apple, Google
Technology titans Nokia and Microsoft are joining forces to make smart phones in a push to challenge rivals like Apple and Google, hoping to revive their own fortunes in a market they have struggled to keep up with.
According to the Associated Press, Nokia Corp., the world’s largest cell phone maker, said Friday it will use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone software as the main platform for its smart phones in an effort to recover lost share from Apple’s iPhone and Android, Google’s software for phones and tablets.
The move marks a major strategy shift for Nokia, which has previously equipped devices with its own open-share software. Analysts said the deal was a bigger win for Microsoft than Nokia, whose CEO Stephen Elop in a leaked memo this week compared his company to a burning oil platform with “more than one explosion … fueling a blazing fire around us.”
Nokia share price plummeted 14 percent to euro7.00 ($9.52) in late trading in Helsinki.
The partnership will “deliver an ecosystem with unrivaled global reach and scale,” Nokia said, but warned that it would also bring “significant uncertainties” and it expects profit margins to be hit by strong competition from rivals.
Elop, a Canadian national, joined Nokia from a senior executive position at Microsoft last year. The first non-Finn to lead Nokia, he is under intense pressure to reverse the company’s market share losses to North American and Asian competitors.
“Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable,” Elop said. He added the company was aiming at “regaining our smart phone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realising our investments in the future.”
Elop warned of major restructuring which would result in more global layoffs, saying Nokia must “improve the speed and nimbleness and agility of the organisation,” but gave no details.
Nokia is still the biggest handset maker but its market share has tumbled from 41 percent in 2008 to 31 percent at the end of 2010.
It has also lost its innovative edge in the fiercely competitive top-end sector and is virtually invisible — with a 3 percent share, in the world’s largest smart phone market, North America.
Apples’ iPhone has set the standard for today’s smart phones and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerrys have become the favorite of the corporate set. More recently, Google Inc.’s Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.
Speaking to analysts in London, Elop declined to say when Nokia would introduce a new device running on Windows Phone. But he said Nokia won’t bury its own Symbian operating system or the new MeeGo platform that it is currently developing.
More than 200 million phones, with 150 million more expected on the market, use Symbian technology, seen by some developers as clumsy and outdated. At the end of last year it was surpassed by Android as the world’s No. 1 smart phone software, according to the Canalys research firm.
Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer said the new partnership with Nokia would give them “more innovation (and) greater global reach.” The two companies will “collaborate closely on development … so we can really align and drive the future revolution of the mobile phone,” he said.
A key challenge will be to produce quality devices with a hip factor that helps position Windows Phone as an attractive alternative to iPhone or Android. in a market where image plays a central role.
Windows Phone 7, launched last year, has a lot of catching up to do both in the number of users and “apps” available for the phones.
Nokia said its input in the partnership will include areas “such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader” and map services, while the new device will use Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics in London said Microsoft would benefit more from the partnership.
“In terms of expanding their distribution reach, this is a huge win for Microsoft,” he said.
The National Economic Council has expanded the mandate of its Ad-hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft Prevention and Control to cover illegal mining.
This is just as the council raised the alarm that the nation’s solid minerals, including gold, are being mined and stolen.
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, who chairs the committee, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the 153rd NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.
Uzodimma said the expanded mandate is part of the government’s efforts to curb resource theft and increase revenue from Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.
“The National Economic Council Ad-hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft Prevention and Control, which I chair, presented an interim report today to the Council.
“NEC received our report with satisfaction and expanded our Terms of Reference to now also take interest in solid minerals, because our solid minerals are being mined and stolen and not adding to national revenue,” said Uzodma.
He noted that the expanded role would enable the committee to coordinate with the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and other federal and subnational institutions to combat widespread illegal gold mining and other forms of mineral smuggling that have deprived the country of much-needed foreign exchange.
“Going forward, our committee, working with other government agencies, will look at how to ensure that the revenue of the country arising from solid minerals like gold and other forms of solid minerals are not allowed to be stolen,” the governor added.
NEC’s Ad-hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft Prevention and Control was first established under former President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2022.
It was reconstituted under President Bola Tinubu in December 2023 with Uzodinma as chairman.
The committee was initially mandated to address the challenge of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
Its creation followed rising oil theft that had crippled national production and forced international oil companies to shut down key pipelines.
At the time, oil production had crashed to around 700,000–800,000 barrels per day, far below Nigeria’s OPEC quota, costing the government billions of dollars in lost export revenue.
Uzodimma explained that through what he called a “collaborative approach” involving regulators, operators, and the security forces, the committee had helped raise daily crude oil production to over 1.7 million barrels per day in the past 22 months.
The governor stated, “Before May 29, 2023, when President Bola Tinubu was sworn in, our crude oil production was around 700,000 to 800,000 barrels a day.
“Working with stakeholders, the regulators, operators in the industry, and the Navy, we were able to involve all the governors of crude oil-producing states and raise different security organisations.
“You would agree with me that as I speak, daily production is now in excess of 1.7 million barrels a day, and cases of pipeline vandalism and vandalisation of oil assets have also been on the decline.”
The council, he said, was satisfied with the progress and decided to deploy the same model of intergovernmental coordination, private-sector partnership, and multi-agency surveillance to the mining sector, plagued by resource theft.
“We are determined to ensure that crude oil production and gas are properly preserved for the benefit of our citizens.
“Now, with this new directive, we will also protect our gold and solid mineral assets,” Uzodinma added.
Nigeria’s illegal mining economy, particularly in gold, lithium, and other high-value minerals, has grown into a multibillion-naira shadow industry.
According to data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the country loses an estimated $9bn annually to illegal mineral extraction and smuggling.
The Federal Government has linked several unlicensed mining operations to armed groups in the North-West and North-Central regions, where gold has become a source of illicit financing for bandits.
A 2023 NEITI audit also showed that over 80 per cent of mining activities in Nigeria were conducted informally, without licenses or environmental oversight.
In September 2024, the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development revoked over 900 dormant licences and announced plans for a national gold reserve policy. But enforcement remains difficult, with weak surveillance, limited manpower, and overlapping regulatory mandates.
According to Uzodimma, the expanded mandate aims to integrate the fight against illegal mining into the broader national resource protection framework previously used in the oil sector.
“We have done well,” he claimed, adding, “Among other things, we recommended that NNPC, working with security agencies and their consultants, should strengthen security in all the creeks and extend coverage to offshore regions. That will help in curtailing and supervising illegal entries and exits of vessels into our export terminals. This same spirit will now guide our solid minerals sector.”
The committee is expected to submit its first progress report on the expanded mandate at the next NEC meeting in November.
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