Microsoft's Nokia plan: WHACK APPLE AND GOOGLE

Microsoft has posted the presentation it's used to explain its decision to acquire Nokia's mobile phone business and it reveals the key reason for the acquisition: hitting back at Apple and Google.

The presentation is available as a PDF or a slow HTML slideshow here and gets interesting at slide 15, depicted below.

Microsoft has long feared both Google and Apple, which have together reduced its operating system market share from a titanic 95 per cent or more to an anemic 30 per cent, at least when one counts connected devices including PCs, smartphones and tablets. A major theme of the presentation is that owning Nokia makes Microsoft more relevant on more platforms, that phones make it easier to sell tablets and that selling any device is better for Redmond's services.

But fear of Google and Apple also pervades the document. Slide 14 expresses similar sentiments, saying Microsoft feels it needs to be able to take on Google maps. Slide 27 again names Google and Apple, saying “integration of hardware and software will help Microsoft offer competitive alternatives” to the pair.

Slide 20 explains that buying Nokia means Microsoft stands to make $US40 per smart device it sells, compared to the $US10 it gathers from Nokia now. That could send shivers up OEMs' spines, despite assurances other mobe-makers won't be hurt by the deal.

Slide 24 says “Microsoft will have the most cost-effective patent arrangements for smart devices”. Cheaper and less-contested access to intellectual property is another major theme of the presentation, possibly signalling an escalation in the ugly intellectual property disputes that have attracted government attention in the USA and beyond. ®