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Will Nokia phones use Metro?

Apr 29, 2011 11:47 am by Kip Kniskern | 15 comments

A few details are starting to filter out about how Nokia actually plans to utilize the Windows Phone operating system in its phones, beginning as early as this year and expected to ramp up significantly in 2012.

We know that Microsoft and Nokia are already working on tight Office integration, but a number of questions remain unanswered about what other services Nokia will embrace. Both Microsoft and Nokia have already announced that Microsoft will make much greater use of Ovi Maps, not only with Windows Phones but across Microsoft, a statement that calls into question the current state of Bing Maps. Certainly Microsoft is innovating hard on Bing Maps, so it’s a bit unclear how a partnership with Bing Maps will play out. Last year Bing Maps dropped their Bing Maps 3D product, an area where Nokia/Ovi Maps are particularly strong (you can watch a CNN “flyover” of the Royal Wedding procession path using Ovi Maps 3D here, for example). How Bing Maps will change with the addition of Ovi Maps remains to be seen.

Nokia apparently also plans to make significant use of its Ovi Store, and again it will remain to be seen what relationships the Ovi Store and Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace develop.

But the bigger question is what will a Nokia Windows Phone UI look like? In a video interview this week (in Finnish), Nokia Executive Vice President, Devices Kai Oistamo mentions Nokia’s ability to innovate on top of the Windows Phone platform. Arctic Startup has a translation of Oistamo’s comments:

And finally, Nokia is able to modify the Windows Phone environment to their needs. Essentially this means that you might not see the boxed home screen on a Nokia Windows Phone anytime. This was also confirmed in another comment by a Nokia representative (in Finnish) by stating that "Nokia will not adopt Windows Phone environment as it is today".
Öistämö stated that Nokia is free to modify the environment as they wish, but it has to remain as a single environment from the developer point of view. Interesting comments and possibly a signal of things to come in the future.

The comment referred to above comes from a question in the comments on a blog post on Nokia’s passing on of Symbian development to Accenture on the official Nokia blog (translated):

Is Nokia, intended to make the changes to the user interface level, unlike other manufacturers WP7? The same way as Android, Samsung TouchWiz UI and Sense HTC from? It would be nice to see in future Nokia handsets WP7 discipline of the phone interface.

Microsoft maintained a very clear set of design guidelines, based on their Metro “design language”, providing operators and OEMs little chance to change the underlying look and feel of a Windows Phone. This however, does not seem to be fully applicable to Nokia, based on the statements above, so we’ll have to wait and see how much leeway Nokia has been provided with their newly signed partnership.

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Anonymous
With all the bad press Window Phone 7 has been receiving along with delayed updates, Why do I feel that Nokia is going to bury it in the ground. It just feels like this is the end for Microsoft with the smartphone department. Android is releasing phones every month. There is talk about the iPhone 5 being around the corner as far as a release date. I am with AT&T and so far there has been no talks about anymore Windows Phones coming before the end of the year. While you hear about application releases for iPhone and Android, you hear nothing for Windows Phone 7. I hate to go over to an Android, but at this point I really don’t have a choice. If Microsoft would have put all the features that were on my Windows 6.5 phone on the Windows Phone 7 and kept up to date applications on them, then I would roll over. So far none of the Windows Phone 7′s have caught my intrest. The Arrive is pretty much the only one I like, but it is missing a major feature. The front screen does not rotate when tou use the keyboard. On the AT&T Tilt 2 with Windows Mobile 6.5, the screen rotates when you use the keyboard. How can you miss a major feature like that.
- john
  I really wish people would stop with the Chicken Little reaction to everything.
- Anonymous
  Actually HTC is releasing the Maaza and Pro very soon, the Pro on Verizon of course they also plan on releasing 7 other devices this year including a 16MP SuperPhone. Add those to the W7 and W8 which Nokia is hoping to release before the end of the year and you have some potentially massive sales numbers. I can tell you right now switching to Android will be the biggest mistake of your life, if you really cant wait until November i would recommend iPhone 100x more than Android, at least then youd keep the speed and stability WP7 offers. Also keep in mind no phones home screen works in landscape really, its unnecessary
  - Anonymous
    Mine for Windows 6.5 works.
JohnCz
I see Ovi Maps as additive. As you highlight, Ovi Maps 3D would be a significant enhancement. Also keep in mind that Bing maps doesn’t have the streetside coverage that Ovi has built over the years…in many of the markets that Nokia will be launching WP7 devices. But there is definitely some interesting Bing Maps technology in the pipeline as well.
I think it has been mentioned before but the primary interest with OVI Store I believe is its integration with mobile billing.
Metro UI..I love it. Nokia can add all they want…but I think it would be a huge mistake if applications had to be specifically targetted for Nokia A standard Windows Phone app should not look out of place on Nokia devices.
Anonymous
If Nokia were to alter the UI in any way i wouldnt even consider buying one
- http://www.cyber-punk.cz.cc/ ShadowRunner
  Even if they actually improved on it? thats short sighted.
  - Anonymous
    Considering what weve seen of Nokia UI thats highly unlikely, but on the off chance they did make it better i would consider it, only if its not crap bloatware like HTC Sense and all the other UIs that ruin Android
  - Revolutions
    I have absolutely no faith in Nokia to make a software user interface better than Microsoft can. More importantly, I’d like Windows Phone to maintain the same UI throughout all phones, to avoid 1) fragmentation and 2) lack of recognition. That was the whole point behind WP7, and if they allow Nokia to implement a completely different UI, then they’re ruining that point.
  - http://profiles.google.com/jssyjazz jessy pheng
    if nokia truly improved upon the UI and was really devote to developing a thriving winpho7 ecosystem wouldnt their alterations become apart of all winpho7 devices
  - http://profiles.google.com/jssyjazz jessy pheng
    if nokia truly improved upon the UI and was really devote to developing a thriving winpho7 ecosystem wouldnt their alterations become apart of all winpho7 devices
cmwind
was looking forward to MS software with Nokia hardware. if this is true i will not be looking to Nokia for my phone upgrade. makes me wonder about Microsofts chance of success with this partnership if this is the kind of results that are going to come out of it
LG1
Well i am making a Metro theme for Symbian so i guess they could do it. Look at PR2.0 the settings menus are all very Metro like
http://oi51.tinypic.com/2jdrg3l.jpg
Anonymous
I can’t believe Microsoft is even allowing this. I thought the point of WP7 is to have the same great experience on EVERY phone that runs the OS. Not some ‘preferred’ hardware vendor. I wonder how HTC, LG, Samsung, and Dell feel about the fact that Microsoft doesn’t really give as much a hoot to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to either continue to make low-quality WP7 phones, or just stop.
Nokia has some nice attributes that could help WP7, like their Navteq and very good international support, but please do not allow them to drastically change the UI. Based on past experiences with Symbian, I don’t feel confident at all that Nokia is competent enough to deliver on anything better than what Microsoft has done with the UI.
I’d hate to see WP just plain flop due to the terms of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership.
- cmwind
  dell samsung lg and htc should not mind too much since i think most people will prefer their devices that have stock metro. i dont understand why hardware makers can’t stick to doing what they do (hardware) and let the worlds largest software maker stick to what it does (software). beyond me that they think they have something to offer.