Nokia And Microsoft See Massive Opportunity In Android Legal Case
There's nothing better for a couple of companies with a fledgeling operating system between them than two of their main competitors battling it out in the courtroom. In this case, Microsoft and Nokia have the opportunity to make a swift grab for a giant amount of average citizens here in the United States who are seeing the Apple vs Samsung legal case as a weakness not only for Samsung, but for Apple as well. Windows Phone is more than ready to take on a position as a "reliable" brand while Android and iOS are appearing newly questionable – to your mother and father watching only the news coverage offered up by their newspapers and nightly television news.
One of the great things that Microsoft has had going for it with Windows Phone since the beginning (all those months ago) was the trust factor. People believe in Windows as an operating system for their desktop computer, so they're prone to trust Microsoft's mobile OS as well – that's the ideal situation. Here Microsoft – and their best buddies at Nokia – have the opportunity to say: "look, our OS doesn't rely on the factors that Apple and Samsung are warring about, we're completely independent of such petty things."
Of course if you follow Microsoft's war on Android via patents, you know that the situation is nothing of the sort. Carolina Milanesi of the research firm Gartner Inc. spoke up about the situation this week:
"I am sure that vendors in the Android ecosystem are wondering how long it will be before they become Apple's target. This might sway some vendors to look at Windows Phone 8 as an alternative, and for the ones like HTC Corp. and even Samsung, who have already announced plans to bring to market a WP8 device, how much stronger their investment should be." – Milanesi
It would appear that a situation like this is already starting to happen – now Microsoft and Nokia have only to hold on for dear growth. Nokia's stock jumped up to 12 percent at its best today while Microsoft jumped a slightly less impressive 1 percent to $30.87. Meanwhile Apple, traditionally a stock that doesn't stay still for long, went up just 2.3 percent today while Samsung went down by 8 percent. Also of note is BlackBerry's price – RIM gained 3.3 percent today as well.
[via Washington Post]