Nokia – Plan B : The Other Side
May 17, 2011 2 Comments
Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with more than 215,000 employees serving clients in more than 120 countries, will be taking on approximately 3,000 Nokia employees to support the continued delivery of Symbian software development and support services. The collaboration also includes plans for Accenture to provide mobility software, business and operational services around the Windows Phone platform to Nokia and other ecosystem participants. Source
Looks like it is a very good plan B by Steven Elop, the same guy who was castigated by millions of Nokia fans. People called him from Trojan Horse of Microsoft to the biggest disaster that could have happened to Nokia. This is our view of what possibly the Plan B Nokia has and IT IS NOT ENDORSED BY NOKIA.
Some facts and possible scenarios which will make clear by PLAN B
Facts
1) Nokia unable to carry forward Symbian development activities of Symbian due to several factors like organization culture, rising employee costs, etc ,etc
2) Nokia lets Accenture do the software development which is well versed with handling software development and support at low costs
3) Nokia already has agreed to start shipping Microsoft Windows phone coming 2012
4) Nokia current R & D and Symbian development is still working. Unlike a dying product the code base is still being maintained and worked upon actively.
PLAN B – What if Windows 7 and Nokia marriage hits the rocks in 2013 ?
1) Accenture will be already keeping the Symbian software development running. The Nokia Accenture partnership doesn’t say that Symbian development will be stopped.
2) Nokia has kept the developers of Symbian on board by giving them free E7 and Windows 7 phones. Source
3) Nokia already has got and will get further several billion of dollars of Microsoft. All these dollars help it fund the research and development it needs to do to counter the Korean and Taiwanese in addition to the BIG APPLE !
5) Most important, NOKIA HAS SIGNED NO AGREEMENT OR CONTRACT THAT SAYS IT HAS TO STOP PRODUCING SYMBIAN PHONES. They have said it from their own side that last Symbian phones will be shipped in 2012-2013. So legally none can stop them from selling Symbian phones if they really want to 
6) In 2013 Nokia can/may just announce that owing to heightened consumer and developer interest, changed market realities, and new killer products in pipelines – they will still bet their dollar on Symbian. They might provide a conversion tool for converting Windows Phone apps to Symbian apps and vice versa just like Microsoft did do for I-phone Apps. Also there are
So Nokia just might have chosen to play the smart kid on the block.
Author is member of Advisory Council of Symbian Developer Cooperative and all the views mentioned are his personal and are not endorsed in any way by his employer or NOKIA.
UPDATE 28 May – Nokia announced they will keep supporting Symbian till 2016 
, see my prediction coming true CNET Report
References:
Nokia Press Release : Accenture 1
Nokia Press Release : Accenture 2
Forbes View on Nokia Accenture Deal
