Published in Mobiles

Apple might buy Nokia

by on10 October 2012



Daft ideas of our time


Bloomberg has gotten all excited by the suggestion, by technologist Tristan Louis that Apple should buy Nokia. His argument is that Nokia has had it and Apple needs more patents to cover its wireless roadmap for the next decade to see off Samsung.

Nokia has shedloads of LTE and other 4G wireless technologies and forced Apple to settle out-of-court in 2011. Nokia now makes $5 to $7 per iPhone sold. Nokia also has access to some pretty good Map technology, which Apple is rubbish at. If Apple bought Nokia then it would knock Microsoft for six as the company is one of Microsoft’s bigger, if not the biggest, partners for Windows Phone.

Of course there are huge flaws in the argument.  The biggest is that Microsoft would actually let Apple do that.  So far Microsoft has invested a billion dollars in Nokia, if Apple bought the company there would be a massive court case, and an automatic anti-trust allegation. Microsoft has also been tipped to buy Nokia so it is more likely that it would just step in and do that.

The other point is that it is an Apple fanboy myth that Microsoft and Apple hate each other.  In fact they seem to work together to take on the less proprietary Google and Android. If Apple really did pick a fight with Microsoft and forced it out of the mobile market then it would be on its own against Android and would be kicked to dust.

More here.


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