Microsoft CEO promises better Windows Phone
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Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer gestures during a conference at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 14, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Albert Gea
BARCELONA, Spain |
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer promised a Windows Phone update soon with more powerful Web graphics, and said new partner Nokia would supply "absolutely phenomenal" handsets.
The new strategic partnership has been received with skepticism in the market, but Ballmer said the scale that Nokia would bring to an already improved Microsoft mobile platform would be good news for operators, developers and consumers.
"We're off to a strong start. We know we have a lot of work to do," he said in a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress fair in Barcelona. "We have a lot of energy, optimism and a sense of tremendous opportunity."
"We're sure ... Nokia's going to deliver absolutely phenomenal Windows phones," he said, without elaborating when the first results of the collaboration would hit the market.
Ballmer invited Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to join him on stage. "Microsoft and Nokia together represents a natural partnership. People are getting it," he said.
The company said it is targeting for a "significant volume of Nokia Windows phones" to hit the market in 2012 but did not give more specific details.
Nokia shares closed down 5.3 percent, while Microsoft traded down 0.5 percent at $27.10 on Nasdaq at mid-afternoon.
Microsoft has struggled to gain significant market share in the wireless market, against rivals such as Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android mobile software. Its Windows Phone 7 software has been well received, but it does not have as high a profile as either of its big rivals.
Ballmer said a free update coming soon would include more powerful Web graphics that draw on the phone's hardware as well as software, integration with Twitter and a better ability to run several tasks at the same time.
He called it a significant release and said it would be coming "later this year," without saying exactly when.
Microsoft also told analysts at the mobile trade show that the company expects a lot more Windows Phone 7 devices to go on sale this year, including lower priced ones, as it expands to new markets.
"We'll have lower priced phones on the market this year," Microsoft Mobile President Andy Lees said during a webcast of an analyst event at the show. "We'll be in a lot more languages and a lot more countries," he said.
The company said it expects the Nokia agreement to accelerate its growth.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan in Barcelona and Sinead Carew
in New York; Editing by David Hulmes)
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NokiaSoft’s upcoming “phenomenal Windows phones” will work most probably on Steve Ballmer’s new “Windows 7 promise-ware” : Microsoft’s latest game-changing operating platform.
Finnish Radio discloses now in its popular talk show this morning 15th February 2011 that Finland’s Insider Trading Laws forbid not only the buying or selling of any stock of both negotiating partners as long as the partnership is not publicly disclosed but this restriction also applies to stock options received during the negotiation process.
When asked by reporters about stock owned by him on Sunday 13th February at a reception held by Nokia in Barcelona, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop forgot to mention that he had received 500 000 Nokia stock options on December 3, 2010 from Nokia. When Finland’s leading daily Helsingin Sanomat disclosed on Monday 14th February 2011 this issue of Elop having received half a million Nokia stock options in December last year , Nokia quickly responded by saying that this stock options information was duly sent by Nokia to NASDAQ according to the rules, but for reasons not known ( technical glitch hinted by Nokia?) this did not show up on the NASDAQ insider information website. In this way, Nokia tried to pin the blame for this lapse on NASDAQ.
When the news about Stephen Elop still owning a large chunk of Microsoft stock became public on Friday 11th February, Nokia at first declined to comment on the issue. After pressure grew, Nokia finally came up with an explanation late Saturday evening 12th February, that Insider Trading Law prohibited Stephen Elop from either buying or selling any stock of either company.
Questions:
1. Why did Nokia not disclose then on Saturday 12th February that Stephen Elop had indeed received 500 000 Nokia stock options in December 2010: at the time when partnership negotiations were still going on between Nokia and Microsoft?
2. When the news of these stock options became public on Monday 14th February, why did Nokia try to shift the blame to NASDAQ’s “technical glitch”?
Now it has emerged that the same Insider Trading Law restrictions also apply to stock options received during the negotiation process.
Finally: Does this mean that this “natural partnership between Nokia and Microsoft” as described by Steve Ballmer could eventually fall through into the dustbin as a result of the many breaches of Insider Trading Laws by both parties?
Is this the reason, why we continue to receive inconsistent and contradictory “explanations” being given by Nokia on these obviously unpleasant and potentially catastrophic revelations of stock dealings by both Stephen Elop of Nokia and by Steve Ballmer of Microsoft during the partnership negotiation process?
Are experienced top executives Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer not aware of the Insider Trading Law regulations?
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