Make it official, "jests" executive
Nokia is licensing so much Microsoft technology to put into its phones, it might as well sign up to a full Windows Mobile license and save itself some money, according to Microsoft’s mobile communications business international marketing director John Starkweather.
Speaking ahead of Sony Ericsson’s launch tonight of the first of several Windows Mobile devices (previously Ericsson smartphones have been built around Symbian OS and UIQ software) Starkweather said that the remaining company holding out against Microsoft might as well take the who step and license Microsoft.
“Nokia has so much Microsoft technology in there it would be cheaper for them to license Windows Mobile – and I’m looking forward to the day we can make that official,” he said.
It’s not the only hint Microsoft has dropped that it might be close to getting its software platform onto Nokia phones, although it’s not impossible Starkweather was being slightly mischievous. Just in case we didn’t get the dig, though, Starkweather repeated it later in a wide-ranging interview with Mobile Europe.
So is Microsoft going to license to Windows Mobile?” “We speak to them about it all the time,” JS said. Which isn’t quite the same thing. I used speak all the time about becoming the new right winger for Hibernian FC, but it didn’t ever quite happen.
And it’s not as if Nokia is really ideologically opposed to Microsoft. As Starkweather pointed out, they’ve had a fair few Microsoft licenses for a while now.
Still, it was an interesting dig from Starkweather, ahead of what looks like being a headline grabbing launch with Sony Ericsson.
Is there going to be something surprising from Nokia at its press conference tomorrow? Stay tuned.